Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Deep Desire

SERIES:  The Hours Trilogy #1

AUTHOR:  Z.A. Maxfield

PUBLISHER:  Samhain Publishing

LENGTH:  196 pages

BLURB:  

There’s no leverage like seduction… until love takes a bite of his plans.

As the Indiana Jones of historical erotica, there is no document existing—or just rumored to exist—Adin Tredeger can’t unearth. Why he would risk the biggest coup of his career to join the mile-high club is beyond him. But the disarming, dark-eyed man who somehow enters Adin’s locked airplane washroom has him completely nude and coming apart. All without a whimper of protest.

From that moment, Adin and Donte Fedelta engage in an international battle of wit and cunning. The prize—a priceless, 500-year-old journal with illustrations so erotic it could make the Marquis de Sade blush.

Yet Donte’s desire for the journal goes far beyond simple possession. The undead nobleman wrote it. And he’s not above using every trick in his otherworldly arsenal—including seduction—to get it back.

Chemistry draws them together even as fortune tugs them apart. But when a third party joins the chase, they must unite to fight an enemy with a deadly goal—to erase Donte from history.

Product Warnings: This product contains one cocky college professor, one centuries-old vampire who is out to show him who’s at the top of the food chain, and red wine. Because it goes so well with humble pie.

REVIEW:  

I read Deep Desire–though it had been named Notturno at the time–a couple years ago and remember really enjoying it. Donte was my kind of vampire, and I found Adin’s feistiness a nice compliment to Donte’s ‘you shall obey me’ mentality. And I have to say that the feeling certainly carries over into this new edition.

(However, I also should point out that I could not find any major plot or characters changes in this new edition, so if you already own Notturno, you should be aware that not much has seemed to change in between editions. There is a way better cover…though I don’t know if that is enough to warrant buying the book again.)

This story starts off with Adin on his way back to California to authenticate a purchase he made of a 15th century manuscript on behalf of his university. But while he is still on the plane, Donte (the original writer/illustrator of the manuscript–though Adin does not know this yet) seduces Adin in the loo, and runs off with Adin’s carry-on. A carry-on that presumably has the manuscript inside. Luckily, for Adin at least, he had taken precautions to safeguard the manuscript. Unluckily, Donte is in no way deterred from this slight blip in his plans and goes about trying to retake the manuscript for Adin. And if in doing so Donte is able to seduce Adin again…well, that would hardly be a hardship.

Unfortunately Adin and Donte are not the only ones who wish to gain possession of the manuscript and Adin’s life becomes increasingly dangerous as he realizes that once he had gotten a glimpse into the supernatural world, the supernatural world will not be so quick to let him go.

As I said before, I really did like this story. The vampires are not angsty teenagers, but neither are they so high up in their britches that they become boring. In fact, making fun of Donte fast becomes a wonderful, if dangerous, game for Adin.

“It’s a terrible waste of time, but I must come to you through ordinary time and space. I drive a car.”

“What, like the Batmobile?”

“Like a rented Volvo.”

“A Volvo?” Adin’s head tipped back as he laughed. “Oh my G—”

“Enough.” Donte’s teeth captured the skin of Adin’s throat.

“I am Donte, the apex of the food chain in your world, allow me to lure you into my very safe Swedish automobile with its side curtain airbags. Don’t forget to fasten your—”

The play between these two characters is both intense and fun. The chemistry is very much there, and while there were certain times where I think Adin should have slapped some sense into the vamp’s head, I loved how drawn Donte was to Adin, but also how conflicted he was about it.

Bad guys wise, I had a good idea who the shadowy figure lurking around the back of the story was since I have read it before. But time dims some of my memories, thankfully (at least in context of rereading mystery stories), and it wasn’t till almost the reveal that I remembered who was what and why. Not sure the twist was all that I wanted it to be, but it was enjoyable nonetheless (I think I just wanted a vamp battle, or something, even if those very rarely are as good in actuality as they are in my imagination).

If you are looking for a good vampire story, I would say this one is a good bet. And if I am reading the series name correctly, there should be a further two stories after this one. I’m looking forward to what happens to these guys and how they develop their relationship from here.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Samhain

Amazon  

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