Book Review: Beloved Vampire by Joey W. Hill

• Title:  Beloved Vampire
• Author: Joey W. Hill
• Type: Paranormal Romance
• Genre: Angsty vampire erotic romance
• Sub-genre: BDSM; I-suffer-because-I-failed-in-the-past
• My Grade: B- (3.8*)
• Rating: X for sex and violence, including gang rape
• Where Available: Everywhere books are sold

There are some books that I can honestly say are good, but I would never want to read again.  Beloved Vampire is one of them.  If there is one heroine I dislike more than the vapid  fashionista in so many chick-lit books, it’s the submissive masochist that has become the all to common centerpiece of many erotic romance novels.  The “hero” is one of those vampires who sincerely believes humans are lesser creatures.  In fact, the whole vampire culture is built on the absolute superiority of vampires over any human, even one that’s was not a willing ‘servant’ and badly abused.  Those things alone made me want to go sharpen some stakes.  That said, the story that Ms Hill weaves in Beloved Vampire is intricate, nuanced and, unlike most novels with a strong D/s theme, a worthwhile read for those who don’t mind dark, grim paranormal romance.  Jane at Dear Author did a review of Beloved Vampire last month. I’ll just hit some high spots that matter to my view of this.

Erotic Romance – April Installment Part 2: The So-So

Here we go with the second part of the monthly installment of erotic romance reviews and we’ll open this segment with a three part futuristic romance from Annabel Wolfe, a series published in book form as The Starlight Chronicles (Book 1 contains the first two ebooks) from Siren and sold as 3 separate ebooks on their website. I read the three ebooks, each a short novel/novella running just 30,000 words or so each.  Annabel Wolfe also writes mainstream and erotic Historical romance as Emma Wildes.

Starlight Chronicles by Annabel Wolfe –  Futuristic

Here’s the setup for the three books:  Sometime in the future, an advanced race of space faring genetically altered humans that evolved through genetic engineering in colonies that Earth founded when it got too crowded, called S-Species, or Superhumans, have an agreement with Earth to ‘harvest’ females for sexual slavery of sorts.  Human females are tested throughout their childhood to determine suitability.  The potential candidates are watched to make sure they have the proper psychological and genetic makeup  – not only intelligent, and physically beautifully, but free of negative genetic traits and with a strong sense of survival. The S-species looks down on humans, as they haven’t evolved as far and can be dominated by the technologically advanced and physically aggressive S-Species.  But the S-Species don’t have enough females, and the genetic engineering that made them bigger, stronger and smarter also gave them an increased sex drive that can only be relieved by females.  Plus, they can breed human females, something they badly need to do.  The catch – the children always stay with the fathers.  After a certain number of years, the harvested females are released and allowed to return to Earth should they choose.  An entire generation of half Earth hybrids is growing up and that means the future will change again, but the S-Species is slow to accept that humans are their equals.