Bride of the Night (Vampire Hunters) [Libro de bolsillo]

In 1865 Pinkerton detective Finn Dunne believes Confederate spy Tara Fox plans to assassinate President Lincoln when Tara tries to run the Union blockade of her hometown of Key West. She fails as her ship and Finn's vessel become shipwrecked on an island. However, the half-vampire is wrong about her intentions. Instead of wanting him dead, she follows her visions in an effort to prevent the killing of the president.

Tara explains to him what her mission is, but he distrusts her. As they fall in love, vampires attack them. They survive the assault and begin a perilous journey to DC hoping to arrive in time to prevent the murder of President Lincoln and expose the diabolical leader behind the conspiracy

This is an entertaining Civil War era paranormal romance in which Heather Graham merges historical facts with a vampire thriller. The story line is fast-paced except when Tara goes into vision mode, which detracts and slows down dramatically rather than enhancing the plot. Still in spite of being over the top of the Key West Lighthouse, fans of the author will enjoy this overall entertaining Americana thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Bride of the Night is a paranormal romance set during The Civil War.

Our main characters Tara and Finn are both half-blood vampires (human mother, vampire father). Tara had never met anyone like her before, she suspected there were more of her kind but had never encountered one until the day she meets Finn.
Finn is a Pinkerton detective in charge of President Lincoln's security, he knows others like him that also work for the president, but Tara is different, she doesn't know much about their kind, what she knows is because she had discovered by herself. She doesn't even know she has half-siblings.
At first Finn sees her as a treat to the president, he knows there is more to her or at least that's what he wants to believe because of his attraction to her, attraction that is making him careless and forgetful, things he had never been. Circumstances throw them together in a place where they need to work close to each other to survive. After spending sometime together Finn realizes she is as devoted to the president as he is.
Tara finds Finn fascinating, it's not just that he is the first one of her kind she has met but she admires his passion for his job and the president's welfare.

I really liked Tara, she is sweet, caring and strong. I really liked her determination, she has an objective and does whatever is require of her to reach it.
Finn is dreamy, he is a "man" of principles and courage. What I liked the most about Finn was his ability to accept when he was mistaken.
They relationship developed slowly, their attraction was believable and hot.

The secondary characters are diverse and interesting. I really loved Tara's best friend Richard and Tara's almost step-dad Seminole Pete. But the one I loved was President Lincoln, he's conversations with Tara were beautiful and inspiring, and I really would have loved to know more about him.
Even though I had some suspicions about the villain I can almost say he was a surprise, I really liked that twist in the story.

My final thought: Although Bride of the Night was an entertaining read I had some problems with it, it felt slow and a bit repetitive at times. The actions scenes were good but they became too much of the same and I wanted the story to move along a bit faster. After some stalling the pace picked up one third to the end and there Bride of the Night became a page turner difficult to put down.
What I found fascinating about this book is the way Mrs. Graham intermingles accurate historical events and details of the time with the paranormal aspects of the story; she writes them so well that they feel real and easy to believe.

This was the third book in a series, and I didn't know that before I picked this up, but from what I can tell these are all pretty much stand alone. I've heard good things about Heather Graham, but I guess I shouldn't have started with this book, because now my vision is skewed to the not so favorable position. The writing was bad, it was very descriptive, so descriptive you know everything that's coming. More importantly it was boring and really not all that interesting. Yes, it's `cool' that we see a lot of the historical aspects of the end of the Civil War and how Tara really wants to save Lincoln, and how they are connected. But, overall the story is just flat, it leaves little to the imagination because it's all drawn out for you in painstaking detail. I don't know maybe people like everything laid out for them and the predictability of everything but this one just wasn't for me. I will have to pick up another Heather Graham book in the future, but it'll be one that I've heard more praise for.