Title Lords of the Night Series --- Editor --- Cover Art --- Publisher Kensington Books - 2001 First Printing Kensington Books - 1997 Category Romance Warnings None Main Characters See below Main Elements Vampires

They aer everything dark and seductive, wickedly handsome and temptingly dangerous. Yet a moonlight kiss from one of these mysterious noblemen may be your last. Cursed, undead, and haunted, they are...Lords of the Night.

The DeVille Inheritance - Monique Ellis
A chance meeting on a moonlit street may have saved Ann Leighton from an unscrupulous nobleman, but when Ann learns that her rescuer, the captivating Henry Frye, is in truth a vampire, she shudders to think what he may want in return...

Dark Shadows - Sara Blayne
Scandal doesn't frighten the headstrong Lady Blythe, but when she accepts an invitation from the inscrutable Earl of Revelstoke, she realizes she may be risking something more valuable than her reputation. For Revelstroke is no mere man - he is one of the undead...

The Full of the Moon - Janice Bennett
Juliana Wittingston left the wild isolation of the moors for one reason only: her foolish cousin's predicament. But when the darkly attractive Baron Ramsdell offers to guide her through London's perilous gaming hells, she senses that his polite companionship masks a blood lust more savage than anything the city has to offer...

Ok, caveat...I don't generally read romances. I usually choke on the silly characters names (and author pennames!!) and all the swooning, and dark glances, and stuff. But I bought this book ages ago when I bought anything that had vampires in it, so figured I should read it.

The DeVille Inheritance - Monique Ellis: Ok, there wasn't all that much swooning or smoky gazes or whatnot...but unfotunately I didn't feel there was much else. I felt nothing for the characters, even when I wanted to feel something for Frye at least. But most of his troubles where his own darn fault so couldn't really feel sorry for him.

Ellis created an interesting vampire concept though, one that was born that way, and appears to only need blood maybe once every few centuries, and from what I gathered, he doesn't even need to kill his donors. So then it became completely inexplicable, except to further the plot, that Frye had not dealt with his need for blood years ago, instead of leaving it to like the day before he turns to dust. I mean, dude, really, you could find some poor orphan on the street, even ask permission for her blood, and in exchange offer her a life of luxury. I'm sure she'd agree and problem solved. Heck, could have sucked the bad guy dry. But no, he chose Ann Leighton, a noblewoman, and once he got to know her of course couldn't take her blood. No, he had to sacrifice himself for her, cause he's such a good guy (i.e. he's such an idiot...her enemy wasn't even vanquished before he died, but no worries, the story got even sillier after that). And in the blurb, it describes how she discovers he's a vampire, but she never does, and never "shuddered to think what he may want in return". DeVille and Ann's parents are just caricatures, only there to create conflict, though Tom and the servants had a bit more personality.

Dark Shadows - Sara Blayne: Weird, know how I said that those regency romances usually make me roll my eyes? Well this one had more of that kind of stuff in it, and I liked it more! I actually found the Earl of Revelstoke more mysterious and intriguing, he came off more like a vampire than Henry Frye. There was a bit of that cliched ex-lover reborn thing going but the characters were much more lively and the plot more engaging, what with the mysterious visitors to Gloaminggate. I didn't love it, but I did enjoy reading it.

The Full of the Moon - Janice Bennett: I found this one to be the most vampiric of the three, you could really feel Ramsdell's desire for Juliana's blood, though tieing that need in to the full moon was a bit of an odd twist to this vampiric lore. Strangely, I wasn't annoyed by the fact that a good three-quarters of the story was spent playing cards rather than anything more exciting, and the ending was a twist I didn't see coming.

So on the whole, the anthology started off slow then ended on a high note, but there are definitely better anthologies out there.