Title: My Familiar Stranger: The Vampire Hunters (Knights of Black Swan, Book 1)
Author: Victoria Danann
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: 7th House Publishing
Release Date: April 25, 2012
From the Back Cover:
Elora Laiken escaped assassination in an experimental device that left her broken, physically and emotionally. She was deposited within the walls of a secret society of vampire hunters. In another dimension. She must adapt and do it quickly, while dealing with the amorous attentions of a bad boy elf, the elite knight who rescued her, and a sizzling hot six-hundred-year-old vampire.
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My Review:
This was a great book! Elora Laiken finds herself thrown into a device that transports her (not very nicely) to another dimension.... While there are many similarities between her dimension and this new one, there are some things that are quite different -- like the existence of vampires and elves.
I absolutely loved the story line and concept behind the book. There was action, adventure, romance, a love triangle, humor... this book had a little bit of everything. There were some laugh-out-loud moments, and even more moments where you got those wonderful little tingles. The characters were memorable, and I absolutely adored some of them.
There were a few hiccups along the way, which was why I couldn't rate this book higher. Overall, I'd probably give it a 3.5 (rounded up to 4) simply because of these issues. The head-hopping was really frustrating and annoying. Every other sentence, we were in someone else's point of view and it was really difficult to know what was going on -- especially in the beginning of the book. The beginning itself was very rough, with too many characters (and every single one was physically described) and had the feel of an info dump. The promising story line was what carried me through this part though.
There was also a scene where Elora is slipped an aphrodisiac -- which was more like a roofie or date-rape drug (with the main heroine not having any recollection of what happened the night before). Not only did I have an issue with how this was presented (Elora even mentioned that the male character wouldn't have done anything -- because he's not a "rapist"), but I felt like it was a cheap author trick for Elora and a certain male character to act on their emotions and physical attraction without any "consequences". Quite frankly, the entire scene could have been taken out without causing any detriment to the story -- except you'd have fewer spicy sex scenes.
Overall, I definitely enjoyed this book. While it's a standalone book, the next books in the series appear to follow some of the other characters from this book. Unfortunately, I won't be following the rest of the series. I don't think I can handle the head-hopping and I wasn't very fond of some of the other main characters. However, if you don't mind the head-hopping and you enjoy hot paranormal romance books with intriguing story lines, you should definitely check this out.
My Rating:
About the Author:
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Victoria Danann, is the author of sixteen romances, paranormal and contemporary.
Her Knights of Black Swan series won BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE SERIES THREE YEARS IN A ROW. 2013,2014,2015 - Reviewers Choice Awards, The Paranormal Romance Guild.
Victoria’s paranormal romances come with uniquely fresh perspectives on “imaginary” creatures, characters, and themes. She adds a dash of scifi, a flourish of fantasy, enough humor to make you laugh out loud, and enough steam to make you squirm in your chair. Her heroines are independent femmes with flaws and minds of their own whether they are aliens, witches, demonologists, psychics, past life therapists, or financial analysts from Dallas. Her heroes are hot and hunky, but they also have brains, character, and good manners – usually – whether they be elves, demons, berserkers, werewolves, or vampires.
The first book of the Knights of Black Swan Paranormal Romance Series, My Familiar Stranger, was nominated for Best Paranormal Romance of 2012 by both Reviewers’ Choice and Readers’ Choice Awards. All of her books have opened on the Amazon Best Sellers list and earned Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK awards. Many have appeared on Listopia BOOK OF THE MONTH as #1 across all genres.
Her Knights of Black Swan series won BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE SERIES THREE YEARS IN A ROW. 2013,2014,2015 - Reviewers Choice Awards, The Paranormal Romance Guild.
Victoria’s paranormal romances come with uniquely fresh perspectives on “imaginary” creatures, characters, and themes. She adds a dash of scifi, a flourish of fantasy, enough humor to make you laugh out loud, and enough steam to make you squirm in your chair. Her heroines are independent femmes with flaws and minds of their own whether they are aliens, witches, demonologists, psychics, past life therapists, or financial analysts from Dallas. Her heroes are hot and hunky, but they also have brains, character, and good manners – usually – whether they be elves, demons, berserkers, werewolves, or vampires.
The first book of the Knights of Black Swan Paranormal Romance Series, My Familiar Stranger, was nominated for Best Paranormal Romance of 2012 by both Reviewers’ Choice and Readers’ Choice Awards. All of her books have opened on the Amazon Best Sellers list and earned Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK awards. Many have appeared on Listopia BOOK OF THE MONTH as #1 across all genres.
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