Yeah i deducted a half star because my favorite character dies. I won't say who, its a spoiler, but its the char at the end who dies.

That said enjoyable paranormal romp!

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There was something slightly unsettling about this book and the way that Cassandra nonchalantly discussed rooting around in a cadaver's body to see what made what muscle link where properly. Fascinating, but much like certain other characters I found it to be very off putting when I'm contemplating eating steak. And Cassandra loves to go on at length about such things (is it a good thing if you can put a vampire off his meal? I'm not sure).

However the sparkling banter between Rafe and Cassandra makes up for the unsettling moments of honest discourse about peeling back a man's skin. Some of you may remember my complaints about Angelica in the first book (Bite Me Your Grace), and how annoying she was as a main character. I can't speak to the second couple (Lydia and Vincent from One Bite Per a Night), since I haven't read that book yet unfortunately (they are lots of fun here though), but neither Cassandra nor Rafe were frustrating personalities.

It was refreshing to read about a romance heroine who could argue sensibly while also understanding the larger picture. Was it wrong of Rafe to jump to conclusions and basically turn her life upside down because he didn't think to ask before assuming she was a vampire hunter? For sure. But he was being very accommodating and aside from ludicrous threats against her life that no one believed BUT her, was the picture of helpfulness. Look when even the villains of the plot say to each other "He won't kill her" (and in fact use that as a reason to revolt against Rafe) you should probably assume he isn't going to kill you.

Truthfully her agitation over whether he would or wouldn't kill her came quite late in the game (after the initial fear she all but forgets about it) and felt more like a contrived reason for her to fall into the dastardly (but highly inept) clutches of the bad guy.

To settle on the bad guy, Clayton, for a moment - he was so over the top shady that I'm certain the only reason he wasn't figured out sooner was all the "Lords of London" (in three years they've had three different lords!) keep getting hitched and finding their wives. I was a bit squicked by a lot of how he allowed his goons to treat their prisoner. Mild Warning for discussion of rape - there's nothing explicit, but the prisoner mentions it, the goons mention it and while later on everyone is very clearly NOT OKAY with it (to some violent degrees) I wish it had felt less like a set-up for two characters to be drawn together.

Lenore, a supplicant of Rafe's who Clayton kidnaps and allows to be raped multiple times by his "rogue vampire" henchmen, later uses their sexual assault as a means to escape. Jolly resourceful, if not particularly pleasant, for her! She then escapes to a neighboring vampire's domain--a well known vampire who dislikes others tramping about in his area uninvited and is no close friend of Rafe's--and more or less falls into his arms. He helps her and then later, after extracting a debt from Rafe for helping him defeat Clayton, requests Lenore. Its stated, a couple times, that Lenore is afraid of men and shies away from all of them no matter who they are (understandably so). Except for this Blackwell, the vampire who helped her.

I think if such an issue hadn't been made about the assault, and a key reason why Clayton could never be allowed such power for allowing it in the first place, I would have been more okay with how those two characters meet. But after the end, and the request made to fulfill a debt, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Not sure why.

In all this was an enjoyable, if rather uneven, historical paranormal romp. I do think some of the descriptions of Cassandra and Rafe's ahem sexy times sounded less then sexy to me (I'm sorry "animalistic brutality" does not make me all hot and bothered), and Ann did kill my darling, but I definitely enjoyed this outing. ( )

When the heroine discovers the man she's admired from afar is a vampire and he's unable to mesmerize her to forget the discovery, he arrests her as vampire lord of the city and imprisons her in his house to await her fate. The heroine is not your typical kidnapped victim however, in fact she goes willingly with him. She's never treated like a prisoner and in turn, she does try to escape or cause any undue fuss. Partly, this is because she is a decent person and she knows and understand that her knowledge of vampires would put them at risk, but mostly because her scientist brain wants a chance to study them. The hero is horrible scarred and has no use of his one arm and she vows to use her medical knowledge to heal him. The hero, attached to the beautiful but insecure female has a dilemma on his hands. He's been told by the council that he's to either change his prisoner into a vampire or kill her. He utterly refuses to do the latter because he grows to love her quite quickly, but in the previous book he illegal changed a human and therefore can't safety change another so soon. In desperation he reaches out to anyone who can help him save her life. This was a very nice story but this whole series has been lovely. The hero and heroine are both so unsure of the others feelings but so drawn to other that it makes it impossible to stay apart. I absolutely adored the heroine. A countess who wants nothing to do with the society that's always shunned her and desires only to help people and receive recognition for her talents. She was beautifully rational and posed from start to finish and very rarely allowed reckless emotion to divert her from logic. The hero was once a stern and harsh vampire whom did not make friends easily and wasn't known for mercy. But with the heroine he was nothing but kind and loving. This was a great story and I highly recommend this series. ( )

"5 out of 5 stars! All of her life Cassandra has strived to become a Doctor. However, because of her being a woman she has had to learn everything she knows on her own, which is why she finds herself in a cemetery with plans on getting some cadavers so she could start studying the human anatomy. What she never expected was to have Don Villar (Rafael/Rafe) find her there and to have him turn out to be anything but human. Now with Cassandra embroiled into the vampire world Rafael has a month to find a way to change her into a vampire too or there will be drastic consequences. But with a rebellion on the horizon will they be able to accomplish everything in time or will it be all for not?

A wonderfully dramatic tale set in a historical paranormal world where you’ll find a sweet love story between a progressive woman and a stubborn scarred man. Now that I think of it this novel reminds me a little bit of “Beauty & the Beast.” This was the first novel that..."

Read more of this review and THREE TEASERS here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2016/03/idolizing-in-scandals-with-bit... ( )

This is a very entertaining series. I've been interested in Rafe since the first book and am very happy for him to get his HEA. And having his mate be Cassandra was brilliant. I've never read about the problems that women had in trying to practice medicine or even be considered for medical college. Having her to be capable of healing Rafe inside and out was a sweet little romance. Looking forward to more in this series. ( )