His scruples about taking Delilah to bed vanish when his shrink suggests it's the only way to cure his problem. Thinking all he needs is one night with her, Samson indulges in a night of pleasure and passion.
However, another attack on Delilah and a dead body later, and Samson has his hands full: not only with trying to hide the fact he's a vampire, but also with finding out what secrets Delilah harbors for somebody to want her harm.
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I've had this book both in Kindle and Audible formats for some time now, but never got around to reading it until now. I started it mainly as something easy to listen to while at work that wouldn't require me to pay complete attention to it for fear of missing something. I was expecting it to be mainly sex wrapped up in some sort of thin plot, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more than that. It may not seem so at first, for it has a very memorable first line, but if you stay with it a bit you soon see that this book has some meat to it besides the manly kind. Staying with it isn't a problem, for the humor in the writing that's apparent from page one keeps it quite entertaining from the start.
Delilah is a wonderfully spunky character who is something of a study in contrasts, at least on the surface. She's clearly quite brilliant and has made a name for herself as a top notch auditor, yet she is so directionally challenged that she gets lost trying to walk the few blocks from a Chinese takeout restaurant to the corporate apartment she's staying in and often seems rather oblivious to the potential dangers of being a woman walking alone at night (this part is rather hard to believe in my opinion since she supposedly lives in New York City and not rural Kansas or somesuch place where urban dangers would be a foreign thing to her). She thinks of herself as being boring and uninteresting because of her profession, yet she clearly has more of a sense of adventure than she gives herself credit for in the way she so readily accepts Samson's invitation to the theatre after an inauspicious first encounter with him and gives as good as she gets in the flirtation game they engage in during the ride there. Seeing her finally gain complete self-confidence during the course of the book is one of the more satisfying elements of how it ends.
Samson is very alpha, but also very caring and tender-hearted. He is every inch a gentleman, particularly with Delilah, but he also has a vicious and unforgiving side to his personality as well that is seen in brief outbursts at times. We gradually learn about his history from the hardships he faced early in life that brought him to America as a young man, to the heartbreak and betrayal he experienced much more recently that led to the problem he has at the beginning of the book. He doesn't really try to deny what he feels for Delilah once he realize it himself, nor does he ever really play the "she's too good for me" or "I'm a monster, she's better off without me" game that's often too common with caring vamps like Samson (except perhaps slightly at the very beginning before he talks to the doctor about her), and that is a major plus in my book for I always find that to be a turnoff.
The story easily held my attention from beginning to end, and despite often being distracted to a greater or lesser extent with work stuff I was doing I had no problem following along with it. I guessed who was behind the attacks on Delilah relatively early on, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment of watching the plot unfold and listening to find out how the characters in the book would figure out whodunnit. It played out mostly as expected, though there was a twist to the ended that I didn't expect and wonder if what happened there will come back to bite them in the future. Besides the whodunnit plotline, the romance between Samson and Delilah plays out pretty much as you'd expect as well, with plenty of hot sex and and few misunderstandings thrown in to keep it interesting. I did think Delilah was overly "OMG he's a vampire! ack!" when she finds out about Samson and friends, and holds onto that "he's a vampire therefore he must be a monster" mindset rather too long even when given plenty of evidence to the contrary. I would have thought she'd have gotten over it far more quickly given her intelligence, but it just goes to show that blind panic can short circuit even the smartest person's brain at times.
Overall I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of paranormal romance, and of vampire romance in particular, so long as you're not easily offended by sex scenes that are often rather graphic (but hot!). I'll definitely be reading or listening to the rest of the series as soon as I'm able to (which might be awhile). 4 solid stars to a highly entertaining story.
Oh yes. Been a while since I read this one but that opening line...totally memorable. lol Glad you enjoyed it!
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