Reviewed by Kimberley

TITLE: The Vampire and the G.I.

SERIES: The Vampire # 2

AUTHOR: J.P. Bowie

PUBLISHER: Wilde City Press

LENGTH: 164 pages

RELEASE DATE: August 10, 2016

BLURB:

The Middle East War is finally over and veteran, Cole Everett, is trying to build a new life in Los Angeles and reconnect with his cousin, Sean Martin, a private investigator. His hopes stall when he learns that Sean’s mate, Arturo, is a vampire. It might be 2034 and vampires are an accepted part of society, but Cole can’t accept that anyone would willingly mate with the undead. That is, until he meets Arturo and is introduced to the incredibly handsome Rafael Barrantes. Attracted to Rafael, Cole has to rethink everything he thought he knew about vampires. Taking a job as a security guard for a high-tech company, Cole becomes suspicious when all is not what it seems with so-called ‘government contracts. He can’t decide if he should play it safe and call the cops, or take a chance on his newfound vampire friends. Safe and secure, or caution to the wind?

REVIEW:

Good gracious, I love this author’s work in general, his vampire books in particular. He, in my opinion, writes the absolute best vampire books in this genre. He’s the Anne Rice of the M/M genre. I place his vampire characters up on the same pedestal as Lestat, Louis, Tarquin, Armand…basically every lead vampire character in Rice’s vampire books.

This is the second book in The Vampire series which is a spin off of or based in the same world and geographical location as the Vampire and I series. This story picks up with Rafael Barrantes, master vampire, rich, powerful and beautiful but a bit lonely. Rafael’s friend and lover was murdered some time back and he’s wasn’t looking for anyone as he was not quite ready for another relationship. He was content with his friends whom he considers his family. That is until he sets eyes on Cole.

Cole is a Middle East war veteran, fresh from the war and suffering from PTSD. Cole’s trying to get his life together, to reintegrate himself into the civilian world, find a job and just live his life as best he can. He’s new in town and reconnects with his cousin who happens to be mated to a vampire. Now, Cole’s not quite keen on vampires at first but it doesn’t take him long to come around.

Cole soon lands a job as security at a local tech company and becomes suspicious when he discovers something sketchy with the company working on secret government contracts.

This story has a great plot and storyline and is filled with these wonderful, vibrant, vivid vampire and human characters. The great quality of Bowie’s work is seen throughout this story; the series of events that unfold within this book is fantastic. The editing is perfect, the plot and storyline is consistent, the dialogue absolutely wonderful. He was able to mention what happened in the previous books with the other characters without losing focus on the MCs and he managed to do it without any ‘info dumps’ to weigh the story down. The author disent give you too much of an unnecessary backstory so it was perfect. What I am particularly impressed with is how he managed to set the book to take place in the future but without a futuristic, science fiction feel which would’ve taken away from it. This book definitely needs its own category. If I was to give it one, I would definitely call it a contemporary paranormal romance. As odd as that sounds, it actually makes sense. His paranormal characters are mature and sophisticated and the books read like contemporary romances mixed with a dash of mystery and suspense with a just a touch of hot and sexy scenes thrown in. This combined makes for a wonderful read.

This book is great and I suggest that you also check out his Vampire and I series. I am definitely looking forward to the next book.

This is a highly recommended must read.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Wilde City Press