Dual Review: Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost

Once Burned

by Jeaniene Frost

Night Prince #1

She's a mortal with dark powers...

After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person's darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude...until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world's most infamous vampire...

He's the Prince of Night...

Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all—but whatever you do, don't call him Dracula. Vlad's ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him—a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.br />


Jennifer's Thoughts:

I've been a fan of Vlad ever since he step on to the pages of the third Night Huntress book, At Grave's End. I was so happy when Frost announced that he would have his own spin-off series (looks like 3 books in all). After the last two Cat & Bones books being a little on the slow side for me I was ready to read about Vlad and he did not disappoint.

Vlad is the boogie man of the vamp world so no wonder he is the cocky bastard that he is but he has the swagger and power to back it up. Don't make the mistake of calling him Dracula, you just might find yourself bursting into flames.

Speaking of flames, I knew once we got a look into Vlad's bedroom game it would be all heat and fireworks. Have a fire extinguisher handy while reading the smexy scene.

But when Vlad is outside the bedroom he can be a bit cold to the heroine, Lelia. He makes no bones about letting her know that he will never love her (the death of his wife really screwed him up in that dept). But Vlad is very loyal and will protect anyone that he sees as his and he sees Lelia as his.

I really like Lelia, she's tough and can take care of herself. But she still has a soft side to her. Despite not wanting to get her heart broke she still fell for Vlad by the end of the book and she is not going to back down from Vlad vow about not ever loving her. And I can see Vlad breaking that vow by the time the three book series is over.

All in all Vlad's first book was great and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel, Twice Tempted. I have a feeling that Lelia is going to break Vlad's hard candy coating soon.

Narration Note: 

I own this book both in paperback and ebook but I decided to check the audio out from the library so I could listen to it a work. The narrator was ok but how she pronounced Vlad's name drove me nuts and I didn't care for her voice for Bones. But over all the narration was good but I would prefer to read the next book unless my library has it on audio and I want to make my work day go by faster with a little Vlad in my ear.

Jonetta's Thoughts:

Leila ended up with telepathic and electrical powers following an accident as a young girl that also left her scarred. The experience changed her life forever, relegating her to a life of loneliness and solitude until the night she was kidnapped and asked to channel the world's most famous...and dangerous...vampire, Vlad Tepesh, known as the Prince of the Night.

Vlad is his typical arrogant, intimidating self in this story and as always, he has the goods to back all that attitude up! He becomes intrigued by the innocent but plucky Leila, enough to keep her around until he has a chance to determine her usefulness and if she's being straight with him. Someone is trying to get to Vlad and Leila's powers provide assistance in identifying and tracking the foe. The interplay between these two sizzle with electricity...literally and figuratively and Vlad seems to have found someone up to the challenge of being with him.

I've looked forward to this book since it was announced and it delivered. Leila is an interesting young woman and she seems to be holding her own with the difficult Vlad. He's not sure of his feelings because it's been a long time since he's had to or wanted to care about anyone so Vlad's not on sure footing. Their romance is erotic and charged and I liked them together. The action is exciting and the characters surrounding them are equally interesting (anyone else pulling for a separate story for Maximus?).

This is a great start to this spinoff series and there's promise that there may be more than one or two books going forward. If so, I'm in.

Next book in the series:

March 26, 2013