Review

When sisters end up with brothers, I think the collective world rolls its eyes. Yet, even though Charlotte (“Chuck”) and Chloe Lamoreaux (which, ironically, means “of the dead ones”—is it possible to have too much irony?) are twin mortal sisters who end up with immortal vampire brothers, I found myself loving Heidi Betts’ voice so much, I forgot about the relative eye-roll factor and just enjoyed myself.

I mean, come on… how can you not love an author who describes her hero thusly:

“He might not be as broad in the shoulders or spend quite as much time bench-pressing armored vehicles as the members of his entourage did, but he was definitely taller. And handsomer. And more imposing.”

Ooh-la-la, Ms. Betts. Intriguing, funny, and telling all at once. I love it. And by “telling”, I don’t mean the dreaded [::gasp::] telling that authors are so warned against. Oh, no. I mean telling in the absolute best sense. In the way that this description of the hero tells me so much about the heroine, without even meaning to. Yes, that’s Chuck’s voice, there, and she is a hoot. I found myself giggling more than sighing in this book, which was frankly a welcome experience. Far too many vampire books these days take themselves seriously. This book is not one of those.
Of the two brothers, who are remarkably similar, no matter what the sisters would like to think, I much preferred Sebastian to Aidan. Which makes sense, because I also preferred Chuck to Chloe. Still enjoyable, just in different measures.

If the story had been only about Chuck and Sebastian, I would have given this a 4.5. But the Chloe/Aidan section dragged it down enough that I couldn’t give it more than a 3.5. Chloe didn’t have her sister’s spunk, and Aidan didn’t have his brother’s smolder. Still, the couple chose wisely. I think if they were real people, they would have driven the opposite siblings crazy.

Bottom line for me was that the writing was spectacular. It made up for the flagging plot, and an intense lack of interest in Chloe/Adrian’s story. And when I say spectacular, I mean SpeckTackIlaR. Fantastic. I’m off to dig through Amazon and see if I can find more of Ms. Betts’ work. I’m sure with her voice and style, I’ll have no problem finding a story that will wow my socks off. And if not, then I’ll wait. Because it’s coming. Keep your eye on this one.

Reviewed by Camryn