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Nocturnal Book Reviews

Blogging at Nocturnal Book Reviews since May 2011 about steampunk, urban fantasy, historical & paranormal fiction, contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi & erotica.

The Vampire Shrink

The Vampire Shrink  - Lynda Hilburn Before I start on the review, here is my heartfelt plea to Quercus!

Guys, honestly, the cover is atrocious - fake blood and peroxide-burnt hair? What were you thinking?!! It hurt my eyes. This is how you imagined delicious Devereux with his lustrous long hair the colour of moonlight? Like Curt Cobain-wannabe?

Now getting back to my review. This is a revised and extended version of the original story which I read in 2007. Of course, when Lynda HIlburn contacted me, I was very curious to see how the story will differ from what I remember.

The Vampire Shrink was different in 2007 and it stayed refreshingly different in 2011, only got better.

Kismet Knight is a young psychologist with her own practice in Denver. She is pretty, very clever being a daughter of two scientists; she breezed through her school and university at quicker pace than normal and as you can expect I'm leading you to the conclusion that she is a geek at heart, socially inept, have very few friends, she is still recovering from a broken relationship from 2 years ago and have more phobias than I can count on my fingers.

Enter her client, a vampire wannabe girl, who regularly goes to Gothic club The Crypt and worships his owner Devereux who she claims is an ancient vampire. Fascinated, Kismet decides to explore the subculture of people pretending to be vampires and die-hard Twilight fans, and *gasp* maybe write a research book on the subject. So she places an ad in the local paper calling herself The Vampire Psychologist.

All Hell breaks loose.

Enter Devereux, with whom the author had so much fun you won't believe it. He is just as beautiful and dramatic as Jean-Claude (at least his taste in clothes) and he's got every imaginable power you can give him. He even has a wand! *naughty, naughty, it's not what you were thinking about*

Enter vampires with multiple mental disorders, trail of bodies drained of blood, psycho killers, different dimensions, Druids, magic and a gorgeous FBI agent a la Mulder.

Because Kismet is so unsure of herself and doesn't handle relationship very well, some of the things which would have bothered me in a different book are actually amusing. Devereux is not below being a pompous ass and directing Kismet's life, and because it's an untried field for doctor Knight she stumbles and flails a lot.

Kismet also has a peculiar self-deprecating sense of humor and her inner geek comes out at the most unfortunate time. I loved the references to Twilight, Harry Potter and even Jocker from Batman. I loved Doctor Knight even if I wasn't keen on all Devereux yummy goodness. Sorry, I just love my vampires dangerously wicked, down and dirty... *grinning* although this man wasn't without some major talents.

But Kismet? Kismet I definitely want to know more about. *hint-hint*

Favorite quote:

He brought his hands around from behind him. They held a huge bouquet of pink roses and a box of chocolates.
"Gifts for you, my love."
He leaned in and brushed my lips lightly with his. The familiar, delicious scent of him filled my nostrils and my lips instinctively puckered in anticipation of more of the same.
Instead he burst out laughing. "You have pigs on your feet!"
(Kismet is wearing Miss Piggy slippers)