Customer Reviews

Addicted

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Both stories are about vampires who drink limited amounts of blood from humans so that the humans stay alive. The vampires bring sexual pleasure to their victims while drinking their blood.

2 stars for BITE ME AGAIN.

STORY BRIEF:
Daniel Ward is a 400 year old vampire living in New Mexico. He frequents bars to have sex with women and drink their blood. He is helpful to humans. He teaches a guy how to be successful with women by treating them with respect, courtesy and patience. He takes food to kids living on the street. He meets Meg who intrigues him. He sees her a few times in the bars, tries to connect with her and follow her, but she evades him.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The relationship with Meg was interesting. I liked how he and Meg worked together in the end, fighting a bad guy. I was not happy with the story about Wolf and why he wanted revenge. It was too vague. I needed to know more. There were too many unanswered questions. There were a lot of sex scenes, but they were missing emotional development. I found myself skimming through them. This story had a more interesting plot than Once Bitten, but it was not good enough to recommend the book. Minor editing point: The main character is Daniel Ward, but the back cover of the book erroneously says his name is Thomas Ward.

DATA:
Story length: 162 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong/erotic with rear door activity. Number of sex scenes: 11. Length of sex scenes: 1.9 to 7.1 pages. Total number of sex scene pages: 43. Setting: current day Santa Fe, New Mexico. Copyright: 2008. Genre: erotic paranormal romance.


1 star for ONCE BITTEN.

STORY BRIEF:
Jake is a vampire. He has sex with many different women as he drinks their blood. He sees Athena and is immediately drawn to her scent. He realizes he wants her permanently as his mate. There is a group of humans successfully killing vampires. Jake and other vampires are trying to find them and stop them.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The relationship between Jake and Athena happens too quickly and easily. There was no developing of a relationship. I wasn't thrilled to see Jake continuing to have sex with other women after he and Athena were together. In the conflict with the vampire hunters I was annoyed with two stupid decisions, one by Jake and another by Athena. Also, I was not happy with another scene where Jake meets with Daniel. The author left that scene without answering some questions as to how Jake's meeting with Daniel was going to prevent Daniel from contacting Jake's enemies. In general, too many plot points did not work for me. The sex scenes were long and explicit, including group sex. But for some reason, I found them boring. Maybe it was due to lack of emotion or passion. I'm not sure. There was one thing I liked that I hadn't seen elsewhere. The humans wore battery-operated Kevlar-type vests to conceal the noise of their hearts beating. Vampires listened for heartbeats when hunting humans, so this was valuable to the humans.

DATA:
Story length: 191 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: strong/erotic with rear door activity. Number of sex scenes: 16. Length of sex scenes: 0.3 to 8 pages. Total number of sex scene pages: 51. Setting: current day New Mexico. Copyright: 2008. Genre: erotic paranormal romance.

Fresh and not the usual characterization for vampires. Please note that this is EROTICA mostly - not "always be true" type romance. Sex scenes are hot, and characterization of the males well-drawn. The female characters are more generic and similar to one another in both stories. Enjoyable, sexy, but not out of the usual for this genre.

There are two stories in one with this book and neither of them were really worth reading. In the first story, "Once Bitten", neither the hero (Jake) or the heroine (Athena) are likeable characters. The author, Lydia Parks, is trying to show the sexuality of being a vampire, but these two people will have sex with anything walking, and they do quite frequently, even after they get together.

In the second story, "Bite Me Again", the hero (Daniel, even though the book cover says Thomas) is a tad more likeable than Jake but even here he is having sex all the time with every girl he sees. And since the back cover also doesn't mention who the heroine is, I kept asking myself "Is she it?" It was very annoying.

I really love erotica romance, but this was just over the top. I didn't care one wit about any character in this book and frankly skipped through it to finish off. I suggest, if you really want to read this, buy it used.

It's great! I loved it! It was erotic, fun, dangerous, forbidden and accurate as far as Santa Fe was concerned. I loved it and will read it again and again.

"Once Bitten". Vampire Jake Brand is a caring person who needs blood for sustenance, but always politely asks permission of a possible donor. He also insures his volunteers enjoy the sexual experience of being with him. His world is perfect until he meets the human Athena, who has him dreaming of being a monogamist blood eater.

"Bite Me Again". Centuries old vampire Daniel Ward is proud of his ability to take blood while sexually satisfying his volunteers. However, he is very careful with his donors for he still remembers his youthful salad days when the bloodlust overcame his control. Now after decades of self control, he meets Meg who heats up his blood with passion and desire he has not felt in hundreds of years.

The lead couples are similar as the vampires are compassionate caring souls who feel strongly to take blood without permission is rape and the human females who boil their blood are somewhat innocent sharp women. Both tales are filled with bite as alpha vamps fall for feisty mortals making fun to read novellas; Lydia Parks delivers a pair of well written erotic vampire romances.


Harriet Klausner

Vampire-with-a-conscience Jake Brand may have to feed on blood, but he does so by asking permission and giving his donors intense pleasure while doing so. It's a fair trade, he thinks. Then he meets Athena, a beautiful mortal, and his desire knows no bounds in "Once Bitten".

In "Bite Me Again", Daniel Ward is an old vampire who's learned over the centuries to take blood while sexually pleasuring his donors. He never gets involved with his victims for fear of unleashing the beast. It's a solitary life, but necessary. Then Meg enters his life and he experiences a passion he hasn't known in centuries.

This single-author anthology is an intense and lushly dark novel about creatures of the night and the mortals they come to love. Replete with threats lurking in the shadows and sizzling sex between Alpha vampires and intelligent heroines, Addicted is a delicious recipe for an engaging bedtime story or erotic paranormal diversion.

"Once Bitten"

Vampire Jake Brand still resembles the cowboy and western lawman he used to be. He knows that he needs blood and as such, he gives his victims the ultimate in pleasure when he needs to feed. Involved for many years with a female vampire, he knows exactly where he stands with her and he accepts that and can live with how their relationship works. Meeting Athena, however, rocks his world and everything he thought he knew and understood about relationships and what he thought he wanted falls completely by the wayside.

Once Bitten is the first of a two-part anthology. I liked both lead characters but I did not like the storyline all that well. The part that stands out most in my mind is the characters need to have sex with others just for the thrill of it. It seemed almost emotionless to me. Being the reader that I am, I need emotional ties between my hero and heroine and didn't feel that with Jake and Athena until the very end. By then it was too late for me as a reader. The love scenes were scorching hot but I need realistic emotions to enjoy them.



"Bite Me Again"

Daniel Ward is a vampire who has learned to give sexual pleasure to the mortal women he feeds from. Women intrigue Daniel, none so more than Meg, a woman Daniel allows to follow him. Meg is looking for someone Daniel knows but until he trusts her, Meg will just have to keep looking.

I was confused for almost the entire time it took for me to read Bite Me Again. The back cover blurb mentions Thomas Ward. I kept looking for Thomas and then I realized that Daniel was actually Thomas. After that, it was all good as Daniel more than made up for my confusion. His desire for Meg began when they first met; I love how he could sense her following him. During every encounter and lust filled scene, I felt his attraction to her and am still sweating from reading their encounters.

Addicted is a hedonistic and often times risqué look at vampires and their sexual appetites. I loved watching the male heroes evolve. Lydia Parks added in electrifying sexual escapades and sinfully hot vampires to make an enjoyable anthology. While the storyline for Once Bitten didn't really float my boat, I thoroughly enjoyed Bite Me Again and would buy Addicted again solely on the merits of this novella alone.

Talia
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

This book was beautifully written and about as hot as it gets. I'm not much of a vamp girl, but Ms. Parks has definietly converted me. I guess I just didn't know that this type of fiction could be so well-written and so satisfying. One reviewer said it was intoxicating and I'd have to agree with her on that one. The love stories were well-fleshed out and the steamy stuff was enough to power a locomotive through the Rockies.

Very well done and highly recommended.

This book consists of two well written erotic stories about vampire lovers who are able to more than sexualy satisfy thier victims without harming them. Very hot, very intoxicating, and very satisfying. A great read.

Meh. "Addicted" by Lydia Parks is an erotic twofer from Aphrodisia. There's really not much new or unusual about Parks' vampires and thus my lower rating.

"Once Bitten" is 190 pages of hot sex. He's an old vampire, she's a young thing whose blind love for a wacko puts her in the vampire's path. When he takes her bait, her boyfriend almost kills him. Vamp recovers and comes after her. They fall in love while she's his captive and...well, you know the story.

"Bite Me Again" is the second story. This time she's a cop who's suspicious of his presence near some bad guys. He's innocent (of this anyway) and powerfully attracted to her. He helps her investigation into white slavery and runs into an old enemy. You can probably take it from here.

"Addicted" is definitely hot. But I found myself getting a little bored with the constant sex (bet you never thought to read THAT in one of my reviews) and didn't actually feel drawn to any of the characters. I also kept getting that deja vu feeling that I'd read this one before. I hadn't, but I didn't find anything that made Lydia Parks' vampires different or memorable from the other myriad vampires romping their way through books today.