One benefit for most vampires is that they usually live pretty darn long. Amanda Greene’s Caressed by Moonlight, Book 1 of the Rulers of Darkness series, was a delightful period novel focusing on vampire Dorian Vlakhos and his human love, Victoria Kingston. Fast-forward a good couple of centuries and though those two are alive and well, Dmitri Arsov and Kerstyn Ingmar are the central characters in this novel.
Dmitri, a pure vampire who faked his death hundreds of years ago, has reemerged to take care of unfinished business. Focused on exacting revenge that’s been brewing for centuries against his attempted murderer, things get a little more complicated when he meets Kerstyn, his destined mate. To keep her safe would mean to stay away from her. But that’s impossible, so they have to fight against impending doom.
I thought the novel started off strong. Being set in modern times didn’t make it feel quite as dry as its predecessor. I don’t read a lot of series where there’s such a huge time gap, so that was a nice change. I enjoyed Dmitri’s character. He was confident without being too cocky, brutish or annoying. And even with his age he exudes a certain vulnerability, and not just when it comes to Kerstyn. Emo? Maybe a smidge, but it certainly isn’t intolerable.
I liked him better than Kerstyn who honestly felt like your typical cookie-cutter heroine in these types of books. She grew up privileged but struggles because her parents didn’t get her any real love. I feel like Greene could have written something a little more dramatic because I didn’t find myself very sympathetic to her situation.
The storyline could have been a bit tighter. I was really drawn in towards the beginning, but then they whine about the same issues over and over and I found myself pretty tired of it by the end. It’s not a very long read, but it felt that way after a while.
To be honest, the title between these books are way too close. If you read the first one, after hearing the title of the second one you’d probably think you already read the novel, even though the stories are like night and day…or past and present I should say.
So all in all it was entertaining, but there wasn’t a whole lot to set it apart from similar novels.