Night's Touch

Author: Amanda Ashley

Cara DeLongpre is the adopted daughter of two vampires. When her teenage bio-mom went in to labor in an alley the vampire couple stopped to help her and she told them to take the baby or she'd just leave it in a dumpster. Thus did Cara come to have vampire parents, her mother always having wanted children, but not being able to have them as vampires do not have babies. So Cara has grown up in the dark, figuratively, not literally because her parents have never told her about them being vampires. They're always had staff to look after her during the days and made up explanations for not being able to be in the sun or eat food. So now she's in her 20's, a librarian and still living with her parents. Her parents are protective to the point that she's had a bodyguard since she was 12. She doesn't really understand why she needs a bodyguard or why her parents don't want her to move out, but it's really starting to chafe. When she decides to check out a club called The Nocturne, she meets Anton, a charming stranger who asks her to meet him again and she agrees, not knowing that he is her family's enemy. Years ago Anton's father nearly killed her mother and tortured her father before her father finally killed him. Anton was born after his father's death, but Anton's mother has raised him with thought of revenge and they're looking to use Cara to get it.

Vince Cordova made the mistake of picking the wrong woman for a one night stand. While the sex was amazing, it wasn't worth being turned in to a vampire for. Mara, an ancient and powerful vampire, drained him to near death and gave him the choice, die or live on as a vampire. A year after that night, Vince isn't so sure he made the right choice. He's had to distance himself from his family, a loving close-knit bunch, he can't trust himself to sleep with a woman and he's struggling to retain as much of his humanity as possible. When he spots Cara siting alone at the bar of The Nocturne, he knows that she's trouble. Can vampires fall in love at first sight? All he knows is that he needs to steer clear, because a girl like Cara needs a man who will marry her and give her a family. A mortal man she can grow old with. When he sees her reaction to finding out her parents are vampires, he's sure that she could never be happy with him. Unfortunately, no matter how many times he tells himself to stay away, he just can't seem to do it for long and she doesn't seem to be able to keep away either. When her father's enemies put their plans in to action, Vince can't help but want to be there for Cara.


I believe this is a sequel, but I've not read the first book. Please to keep that in mind. I'm sorry, but Cara was not just TSTL, she was too damned stupid to exist! She's been raised by vampires, but never suspected what her parents are? She supposedly loves books and yet she can't see the similarities between her parents and vampires? Then, when someone clues her in to the fact that her parents are the undead, does she confront her parents and ask them what the deal is? Noooo, that would be too logical! Instead she packs a bag and runs for a hotel because her parents are bloodsucking monsters and because her parents, who've never been anything but loving to her, might have some nefarious designs on her. Then when daddy tells her that her boyfriend is also a vampire she refuses to believe it, even though she's never seen him eat or out in the sun either. This after she keeps meeting with Anton even though her instincts keep telling her he's not right. Her parents are the brightest bulbs in the box either. Here is Anton, looking soooo much like their dead enemy, Anthony,with the last name of the woman who was obsessed with Anthony. Anton and his mother now run the coven that worked with Anthony to hurt their family and it never occurs to them to find out what these people are up to? Or what Anton might want with their daughter? Vince was a little more understandable. At first he didn't want her to know he was a vamp because of her reaction to finding out her parents were vamps, then it got harder and harder to tell her because she would feel betrayed by him. He didn't feel he could offer her what she deserved and he thought the best thing was to leave her so that she'd find someone who could. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at being unselfish because he kept coming back. I applaud the nobility of wanting someone you love to have everything they've dreamed of, even if it means you'll be miserable without them, but it only counts if you have the guts to stick to it. If you keep coming back and hurting that person again you are basically jerking them around emotionally. It makes you an spineless jerk who needs to be punched in the junk IMHO. And, of course, she forgives him for all this way too easily. It was all a bit much for me, as far as my ability to suspend disbelief goes.