Review: Tempted by a Vampire by Susan Griscom

Tempted by a Vampire by Susan Griscom

(Immortal Hearts of San Francisco #1)

October 27, 2015

196 pages

Genre: Paranormal Romance 18+

Contains: explicit sex, language

Cian DeMarco, a sexy, rockstar billionaire vampire has lived in San Francisco's prestigious Cliff Side neighborhood in his beautiful mansion overlooking both the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean for seventy years. Happily—or so he thought. Until the rare beauty that is Magdalena De la Rosa sits down at one of the front-row tables in Club Royal where he and his band perform once a week.

Magdalena De la Rosa has it all—Bachelor's degree in journalism, a job she loves in California, a gorgeous apartment in San Francisco, and a dream guy. Except her boyfriend lives and works in Sacramento—an hour and a half drive from the city Magdalena has always fantasized about living in. All her dreams change, however, when she and her girlfriend find their way into an upscale nightclub and she's suddenly swept off her feet by the lead singer of that night's performing rock band, The Lost Boys.
Sparks ignite between the two until a threat that was thought to no longer exist returns to wreak havoc on Cian's and Magdalena's lives. Will the temptation to be together outweigh the reality of what Cian must do to keep Magdalena safe from harm?

A stand-alone book. The first in the all-new Immortal Hearts of San Francisco series. 18+ due to adult content.

'Tempted by a Vampire' is a quick read. I flew through the pages, compelled to get to the end and see Cian and Maggie's story through. So for that I give this story great readability. Maggie is new to the city where Cian has been living as a vampire for years. From their first meeting to the final scene, we get a fairly straight-forward love story with some interesting twists thrown in for good measure. We also have additional side characters who add a little something to the story, and I imagine at least a few of them will later get their own books. So, though my rating isn't super high, I will say that I was entertained.

There were some things that kept me from loving this book. For one, I almost DNF'd it in the first chapter. Cian did something that I felt was entirely unnecessary and felt like it was added in for shock value. It worked. I was shocked and bothered by his actions and the author's justification. Had this scene been modified, I would have liked this story so much more. But this was my first impression of Cian, and it remained in the back of my mind for the entire book. Though Cian did remain entirely faithful to Maggie from the moment he met her, and he has some other great qualities. So I blame the author on trying to be shocking, but instead casting shade on a hero.

Otherwise, the story really drew me in. But with the quick pace of the story, I would have liked a little more character and relationship development. This was insta-love through and through. Now, I don't entirely object to insta-love, but I wanted to see more in their relationship than the physical attraction. I feel like they could have developed emotionally better. It also took a bit to like Maggie. She was a weak character in the beginning. It was nice to see her grow a backbone. I've already said why I didn't like Cian in the beginning. He did grow on me, however. And I'm a sucker (pun intended) for a vampire love story. Oh, and one more thing: this story was pretty sexy. I'll admit to jumping my husband in the middle of the night when I was reading this book ;)

For spoilers, see my review on Goodreads.

2.5 to 3 Stars

Amazon ~ Goodreads