Customer Reviews

His Forgotten Forever (Silhouette Nocturne)

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

 

 

His Forgotten Forever had a great premise with the gorgeous amnesiac Truvin who doesn't remember that he's a vampire. I liked the Truvin's vulnerablity and confusion as he struggles with the lost connection to his past and I liked the compassionate the paranormal-hunting reporter Lucy who adds Truvin to her collection of strays and then falls for the man she thinks he might be.

The middle part of the story where Truvin figures out that he's a vamp, and discovers that drinking blood brings chunks of his memories back was a bit of a let down. Once Truvin gets back enough of his past to start trying to step back into his old life, his connection with Lucy which was fairly strong until this point, began to falter. And with Lucy's wanking about her own forever and Truvin pulling away from Lucy to protect her from the monster that he thinks he is, the pair spend most of the rest of the book apart. It also bothered me that instead of working toward redemption now that Truvin had a chance at a new start, Hauf tried to throw in some justification that Truvin hadn't really been so bad to start out with and that he wasn't really a killer -- because the first witch he tried to murder hadn't died and that he hadn't been the one to actually light the fire when his Witch Hunter buddies torched the 'evil' witches -- this just didn't really convince me and weakened my feelings for Truvin a bit. The twist at the end was okay but not enough to bring the story back up to the level of its promising beginning.

This is the third in Hauf's series about witches and vampires as mortal enemies. I read the first, From the Dark, and the leads were both pretty unlikable, so I skipped the second book Kiss Me Deadly (Silhouette Nocturne). So I can tell you that His Forgotten Forever works as a stand alone story. I do suspect that I might have liked the story a bit better if I'd read the second book though, because there are hints that Truvin was in the second book in his bad boy persona and the bad-boy-goes-good redemption in this story probably would have been stronger if I had actually seen him in his Witch Hunter role.

Truvin woke alone in an alley with blood on his scalp and no ID. Oh yeah, no memory either. Not exactly a great day. Then there is the little matter of the people stalking him...

Enter Lucy Morgan, paranormal reporter and good Samaritan. She has a habit of taking in strays that need her help, and Truvin Stone is the sexiest stray she has ever had the good fortune to come across...

As his memories begin to return, Truvin realizes he isn't quite normal, and that the witches hunting him may very well have good reason. Sure, it sounds crazy to think he might be an actual vampire, but his instincts know the truth of it even before his memory does.

As Truvin and Lucy search for the truth about his life, they find themselves irresistibly drawn together. But what kind of future can a vampire and a mortal have together?

When I first heard of HIS FORGOTTEN FOREVER by Michele Hauf, I thought it had a very original plot. Or at least I had never read a story with an amnesiac vampire before, so I was intrigued. Combine an intriguing plot with the trust I have developed for the Silhouette Nocturne line, and I knew I wanted to read this book.

I found HIS FORGOTTEN FOREVER to be a very entertaining read. With a quirky heroine and a dangerous hero, Ms. Hauf has penned a rich story with just the right balance of fun to offset the darkness in the plot.

And there is definitely darkness... In fact, the story jumps right into it from the beginning, grabbing hold of the reader's attention and refusing to let go until the end. Of course, there are some lighter moments, and these give us the chance to really see the relationship between Lucy and Truvin develop.

Truvin's amnesia was a perfect plot device in several ways - the obvious one being the entertainment factor involved with a vampire who doesn't remember he is one. A more subtle benefit is that his memory lapse gives Truvin the chance to be himself, without the centuries of angst that he has harbored, allowing Lucy the chance to fall in love with the man he really is underneath it all. More than that, the brief interlude without his past to weigh him down gives Truvin the chance to really find himself, which provides a catalyst for personal growth once his memory does return.

Lucy is a veritable saint. She has a tendency to put other people first that is admirable, and something that Truvin finds more than compelling about her. Of course there is the little matter of their chemistry too... Her quirkiness is a perfect foil for his dark nature as a vampire, making her a bright spot in his life even after his amnesia is gone.

When Truvin finally regains his memory, we learn some surprising truths about his life, and the witches after him. Will he give in to his darker instincts or will he reach for the newfound light in his life?

HIS FORGOTTEN FOREVER is a great little paranormal romance that will undoubtedly delight readers of vampire love stories!

**Courtesy of Wild on Books**

This novel's opening scene will thrill any fan of film noir. On the dark winter streets of St. Paul, a man fights his way to consciousness ... only to discover that he has no memory of his past. A bizarre episode in the St. Paul cathedral teaches Truvin his name--and sends him running for his life, straight into the arms of TV reporter Lucy Morgan.

Lucy's stuck doing fringe work for a local cable station, and the fake vampires she's interviewed have her bored to tears. In Truvin, she sees the opportunity to do some good. Why not help the sexy stranger uncover his past? Attraction is inevitable, but when Lucy and Truvin kiss, Truvin's fangs descend. The amnesia victim is a vampire--a real one. And vampires need to hunt ...

Soon Truvin is stalking the night streets of St. Paul. Each new infusion of blood reveals another piece of his complicated past. Truvin plays a pivotal role in a war that has spanned centuries--the cruel fight between vampires and witches. For two hundred years, Truvin has accepted his portion of darkness ... but in Lucy's arms, he proves himself a decent man. Can he hold onto this new self, or will his vampire nature drive them apart forever?

This romance is enriched by Hauf's trademarks: sexual tension, humor, and intensely detailed worldbuilding. Vampire aficionados will find some fascinating additions to the lore; a related final twist adds real tension to the lovers' Happily Ever After.

_His Forgotten Forever_ is the third book in the _Bewitching the Dark_ series, but it stands on its own. Pick it up and inject your summer with some dark shivers.

Well, I did read this epilogue and I got most of the way through it, but Truvin is SO not hero material. In the memory where he strangles the witch because he can he goes from somewhat sympathetic character to evil sociopath. He also calls his victims his butterflies and that distracts too because every time he does that, all I can think about is crazy serial killers. I half expected him to go all, I love my butterflies and make dresses out of their skins, just eww. I guess I've been reading these novels in Hauf's world and I'm having trouble seeing her heroes as sympathetic characters, despite this I've been able to finish each one but this one. The heroine was nice enough, but it takes two to tango and both characters have to be a little a little sympathic for me to enjoy it. This is so getting deleted.

This would have been a much more entertaining read if the author's odd syntax hadn't been such a distraction. I can't begin to count the number of times someone 'landed the bed' or 'landed the floor.' Hello? 'landed ON the floor'? 'landed ON the bed'? What exactly is wrong with prepositions? Not to mention the author's odd way with all forms of 'have': 'He hadn't the memories'; 'something he'd not realized he was missing'; 'but what had she that was pink'? And the occasional slide into incomprehensibility: 'Though no longer swollen, but they had yet begun to heal.' Huh?

I liked the characters and the overall story was serviceable enough. I can't help but wonder where the author's editor was, though!

This book might seem a bit gimmicky from a cursory glance at the back-cover blurb, but once you start reading it, the idea hooks you very quickly.

A mysterious, well-dressed gentleman awakens in a back alley, wondering who he is and how he got there. A mysterious message on a scrap of paper directs him to a church nearby where he is attacked by a group of strangers; he manages to escape with the help of Lucy Morgan, a spunky reporter who's currently researching "real" vampires for a TV show that debunks myths and legends. Over time, he discovers he is, in fact, Truvin Stone, a vampire who was turned sometime in the 1700s, and his assailants were a group of vampire-hunting witches, whom he and his own gang of witch-hunting vampires had been tailing. Now he must decide which path he must take: his former less-than-gentle ways, or a new life and relationship with Lucy?

I love the bad boy-redeemed theme to the story line, and the love scenes, while numerous, are paced very well: no finding a way to get the hero and heroine in between the sheets until they've really gotten to know each other... Well, as much as they can when the hero is still piecing together his memories, bite by bite -- literally. The story loses steam a little as it draws into the third act, but it's got such a head behind it that it's still hard to put down. The world-building in this mini-series "Bewitching the Dark" is incredibly intricate (the hero was a supporting character in a previous volume, "Kiss Me Deadly"), and I think I like this one the best of them, mostly for its strong protagonists and its interesting twists and turns. The balance of the series so far has dealt with love between vampires and the witches whose blood is poison to them, but this time we see a vampire and a fascinated outsider together. Granted, this puts the witches in a less-than-favorable light, but this is due only to the fact that it's told from the side of the vampires. This, oddly enough, is refreshing, since it dodges the potential for the author to over-use the forbidden love plotline of the previous two. I'm looking forward to seeing more stories set in this universe!

Vampire Truvin Stone takes an accidental blow to his head from the holy water terrorists (in their mind saviors), which leaves him suffering from temporary amnesia. H wanders confused but recognizes the Excel energy Center and Saint Paul Cathedral so assumes he will recover his lost memory quickly. Reporter Lucy Morgan sees his bewilderment and has a need to help him; she brings the man who says his name is Truvin Stone, he thinks, to her home.

Later he tells her people are stalking him although he is unsure why. Thus she remains ignorant that Truvin is a vampire. Lucy and Truvin are attracted to one another, but he begins to recover his memory. He knows he committed atrocities that make change for him seem out of reach; however Lucy refuses to accept his impossible relationship quotient even as his stalkers seem to be closing in on him and anyone who offers him solace.

The premise of a vampire suffering amnesia is a unique concept that brings a fresh spin to this entertaining supernatural romance. Thus the pair falls in love as Truvin recalls the atrocities of his past; he feels unworthy of the intrepid woman he cherishes, but also fears he might one day harm her. Michel Hauf provides sub-genre fans with a brisk innovative vampiric romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner