Review: Marked by the Vampire by Cynthia Eden

A Vampire's Christmas Carol was the first story I ever read by Cynthia Eden, and I loved it.  I'm also a big fan of her Mine series, so I was looking forward to reading another vampire book by Eden.  Marked by the Vampire is the second book in the Purgatory series.  (The first book, The Wolf Within is the first book, and I believe the ebook is free, at least it was when I got it.)

I enjoyed this book, as well as The Wolf Within, but not as much as I expected I would.  It's entertaining, plenty of action and romance.  Purgatory is a prison for paranormals - werewolves and vampires.  But there's something bad happening there.  Olivia is a doctor who goes into the prison to do some research - she wants to know what makes paranormals kill.  But things go very wrong and Olivia isn't safe.  Shane's a vampire who is working undercover.  Luckily, he's able to assist Olivia in escaping when the prisoners break free.  

There's a lot of action in this book, the characters are constantly on the run or fighting, but I didn't feel like there was much depth to the paranormals.  I guess I wanted to know more about Shane and his vampire past, or how being a vampire affected his life.  He just seemed like a normal guy who happened to also be a vampire.  Also, I didn't feel any strong emotional connection to the characters' romance.  Nonetheless, this is still a fun book.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.  

I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.

Review: Mine to Have by Cynthia Eden

Not sure why I've taken so long to finish this review.  I know I started to write the review right after I finished the book, but it was a couple of weeks before the book was going to be released, so I thought, no rush.  Now weeks later... I blame work. Work always interferes with the fun stuff.

Mine to Have is the fifth book in Cynthia Eden's Mine series.  I like this series so much.  On Saturday morning, when I got the email saying I'd been approved for a review copy of this, I set aside any other plans I might have so I could do nothing but read this book.  And it was completely worth avoiding the rest of the world for a few hours.

This is supposed to be Saxon's last job, he's spent too much of his life working undercover, living pretend lives.  But he rescues Elizabeth and there's something about her.  I enjoyed the development of their relationship.  Elizabeth is a strong heroine.  She doesn't understand why people are after her.  She doesn't think she's done anything to cause a person to want to harm her.  As Saxon tries to keep her alive, they begin to unravel the mystery of why someone wants Elizabeth dead.

My only issue, and it was a very minor issue, is that I would have liked to have seen some more of the characters from the past books in the series.  On the other hand,
someone who hasn't read the other books in the series wouldn't have any problem at all starting with this book.  But you really should read the other books in the series, because they're really good.

This book delivered exactly what I've come to expect from the other books in this series.  Lots of action, danger, lots of twists and surprises, mystery and some very hot sex.  Makes for the perfect weekend escape when you can't actually escape for the weekend.

I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.