Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Night Vision
AUTHOR: Amelia Bishop
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 131 pages
BLURB:
Theron Antonopolis, a strige, feeds on human emotion. In a tranquil suburban neighborhood, his best meals come from a quiet systems administrator who’s become more than a source of nourishment for Theron—Alex Rowler is an obsession. Theron can no longer remain in the shadows. When they meet, any attraction Alex feels toward the sexy monster is overshadowed by his anxiety and distrust of Theron’s supernatural powers. But sensing the underlying arousal, Theron begins courting his human.
As months pass, Theron falls deeply in love, and the need to complete the strige bonding ceremony with his human lover becomes overwhelming. But a permanent commitment is too much, too soon for Alex, and he delays the joining, despite Theron’s insistence they are running out of time. As an unbonded pair, however, Theron and Alex draw the attention of the Midnight Parliament, and the lovers are brought to trial to determine their fate.
REVIEW:
Alex Rowler has been in a relationship with David, for some time. They share a house and a life, but Alex doesn’t seem to really like David anymore, and wants to end the relationship. Which he eventually does, and David moves out. As Alex is sobbing in his driveway, a very strange person stops to ask if he is alright. It’s his weird neighbor… who takes him on a walk and freaks him out.
Theron Antonopolis is a strige, sort of an emotional vampire, that has moved in to this nice quiet neighborhood and has been spying on and feeding from the inhabitants for some time. He is particularly fond of Alex, and got lots of nourishment from his fights and fucks with David. Theron likes to peep in the windows of his neighbors houses during the night, sitting on roofs or in trees. He is attracted to Alex, happy that David is gone, and decides to make his move on the day David has moved out.
The two begin a very slow and strange courtship, Theron eventually explaining to Alex what he is, which scares Alex at first, but as they date he’s ok with it. After a few months of this, Theron informs Alex that they are meant to be mates forever and need to bond. Alex again freaks out, and asks for time. They are forced to go before the Midnight Parliament, to prove they should bond….
So this is a strange story. In some ways I liked it, Theron is a cool character, different that the standard vampire characters I’ve seen before. He doesn’t kill humans when he feeds, there seems to be quite a history of these beings, and I think he was really a good guy. But I didn’t really like him. He’s creepy, weird, and stalks Alex. Even once they are dating he hangs out in a tree and spies on Alex. Alex asks him to stop, and he doesn’t. He’s very secretive and odd. Only giving Alex bits of information here and there. Then springs this whole bonding thing on Alex. I couldn’t see what Alex got out of the relationship or the bonding. The whole Midnight Parliament scene was just weird, I didn’t get the point of the whole trip. Not enough action or drama happens in the story, I kept waiting for something interesting to occur and it just never did.
I didn’t dislike the book, I really did like it, the writing was fine, the characters were interesting, but not enough happened with them. There was the potential for an exciting story, but it never really got there for me. I wanted more drama, I wanted Theron to do something to show his abilities, I wanted them to fight, to show some passion, but it never happened. It’s a short story, if you like paranormal books and want something different than the usual vampires and shifters, you should try this one. It was a good evenings read!
RATING: 
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