Early Review of Lord of the Vampires (Royal House of Shadows, #1) by Gena Showalter

• Title: Lord of the Vampires (Harlequin Nocturne) 
• Classification: Adult Fiction
• Genre: Paranormal Romance
• Format: Paperback, 288 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin (August 23, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0373618662
• ISBN-13: 978-0373618668 
• Notes: Contains violence in the form of attempted rape and murder. 

The Royal House of Elden was attacked. In an effort to save their children, the Queen cast a spell to send each of them to a different kingdom. At the same time, the King cast a spell so that each of his children would seek vengeance upon the Blood Sorcerer. Each child possess a silver timepiece which connects each child to the other and to Elden. When the King cast his spell it somehow bonded with the timepieces as well as his children. When the Queen's spell transported Nicolai, however, he ended up in a Sex Market. Oops!

When Jane Parker received a package in the mail she thought someone was messing with her. The mysterious message said, "I need your help", and something about the book enclosed reminded her of the dream lover who'd invaded her dreams. When she magically transported to another place and another identity she wonders if she's losing her mind. That is until she meets the man who has been causing her hormones to go into overdrive at night.    

This is the first book of four in the Royal House of Shadows series. Each book is written by a different author. So in a way, the series is like an anthology, but with full length stories instead of novellas. I think I like this new trend. I will definitely be getting the rest of the books in the series.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was seductive and had me enthralled from the beginning. While the book did contain quite a bit of violence, I think it's only to be expected in this type of story. Truthfully, there wasn't much I didn't love. The way Jane dealt with Princess Laila was fun. I kind of wished we could have seen how the Princess fared.

Nicolai lived up to his reputation of being a "Dark Seducer". Gena Showalter writes such devilishly delicious male heroes that they could make a good girl go bad. The heat that comes off the pages is scorching hot. A year ago, I created a secondary rating scale for romance novels. I felt sometimes an additional rating scale is needed for the hotness level in romances. I call it the Lisarenee's Romance Rating Scale. Here is the break down:

Smile - a lady always tries to be polite so a smile should suffice (ie no heat whatsoever)
Blush - at the beginning stages of romance where something is just starting to be stirred
Fan - the temperature in the room seems to have suddenly gone up a couple of degrees and a fan would be nice
Steam - a little too hot for a fan, but I still got a handle on things
Shower - a cold shower is necessary (need I say more?) 

I felt this book should come with a warning - make sure your significant other is handy or your shower is in working order. lol This one definitely gets a Shower rating. Hmmm.... I may need rethink this scale and add another level. ;)  I gave this book a 4 out of 5 roses. 

 Check out this book trailer for the series:

Order series should be read:






1. Lord of the Vampires
2. Lord of Rage
3. Lord of the Wolfyn
4. Lord of the Abyss