Halloween Bingo 2025
There's slow burn, and then there's slow smouldering. If you are looking for lots of action plus a tidy ending, this book is not for you. I like slow moving romances with lots of anticipation, but this novel tested even my endurance. In some ways, I felt that Hunter described a relationship between a 22 year old woman and a many centuries old vampire in ways that seemed more realistic to me (I mean, if vampires were real, which—spoiler alert—they are not).
Beatrice is beautiful and brainy. She has an agreeably dry sense of humour. Giovanni is the handsome researcher who regularly visits the rare book room where Beatrice works. The women in the library are interested in him and speculation runs wild. But they don't realize exactly what he is, or they would run the other direction. Giovanni knows a good researcher when he studies her and he eventually offers Beatrice a job as a his researcher. (One of the side effects of vampirism is the frying of electronic devices of all kinds, so Gio must hire knowledgeable mortals to use his computers.)
The pair spend most of the book getting to know each other and building trust, kind of important to a young woman who is associating with one of her natural predators. Beatrice is starting to resent Gio's caution and to wonder why he is so unwilling to admit any strong feelings for her. So she continues to make plans to move across the country to go to grad school despite a heavy heart. (Really, not an unusual situation, even among human couples.)
And then, suddenly, the past catches up to Giovanni and Beatrice is swept up in the maelstrom. Will Gio be able to rescue her? Will he want to, or is she a disposable human in his life? The circumstances are chilling and Beatrice's danger is real. Even if he does come for her, will she be able to trust him ever again?
My only big complaint is that my library has none of Hunter's books, so if I want to continue the series (I do) I will have to buy them. I already own far too many books, so this is a predicament. This is something I will need to muse on for a while.
I read this for The Undead square on my Halloween Bingo card. It is also the 20th book in my 2025 Read Your Hoard Challenge.
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