THE VAMPIRE QUEEN'S SERVANT

Author: Joey E. Hill ISBN: 0425215903 7/2007 EROTIC PARANORMAL Publisher: HEAT

Lady Elyssa Amaterasu Yamato Wentworth is a thousand-year-old vampire in need of a new servant—now more than ever as she's suffering the signs of a mysterious ailment that threatens to consume her. As a gift she's been given Jacob, an extraordinary physical specimen, but all wrong when it comes to being ...used. A total alpha male, he's not accustomed to submitting to any woman's wishes. Lyssa soon learns that what really binds Jacob to her are not her sensual midnight hungers, but something far more provocative. It stirs her blood, renews her life, and awakens her soul like only true love can. And the passion between Lyssa and Jacob is about to yield something else unexpected—a shared history that reaches back through the centuries and is fated to challenge their destiny like nothing ever will again...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Joey W. Hill takes vampire world building to new heights in THE VAMPIRE QUEEN'S SERVANT. In her first novel for Berkley Heat, she meshes her expertise in BDSM and erotic romance (shown in numerous books for Ellora's Cave) with vampire lore to create something new.

Lyssa is a thousand years old, a vampire queen, dying of a mysterious disease. The vampire world, only thousands strong, is suffering under new dark currents. Lyssa is the center of the traditional ways. Into her life comes a new servant, Jacob, sent to her by her much-loved former servant on his deathbed. Jacob challenges the traditional master/slave hierarchy between vampire and human, just as Lyssa needs to have a settled life so she can focus on politics.

I enjoyed the book, though I found it difficult in parts due to the violence. I have adored the Hill novels that I've read so far, but have to admit that I'm not caught up, so I don't know if her books have been trending this way or she's hit a major new level. Someone who really buys into the superiority of the vampire and doesn't mind violence will relish this book. I'm a bit more squeamish than that and am not quite so willing to accept the inherent fabulousness of Lyssa, deserving of slavish devotion. But Hill is a magician with intense prose and her vampire world is extremely interesting.

This book will be followed by a sequel.

Heather Hiestand