Customer Reviews

Kiss of the Vampire

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a collector of vampire novels, and after reading a few recommendations, I picked up Nancy Baker's "Kiss of the Vampire" (which by the way is also "The Night Inside)." Do not make the mistake of picking up both books like I did. It is the exact same story.

Ardeth is a graduate student living at college. She just finished a project with two of her friends (also graduate students). She is saddened when one of her friends and ex-lover dies, but that sadness also becomes wariness when the second person she was working on the project with also dies. Also, she felt at one point that she was being followed.

Her fears become reality, when while jogging on campus one morning, she is literally snatched by two men, thrown in a van, and knocked out. When Ardeth recovers she finds herself locked in a cell, with a vampire in another cell next door named Dimitri Rozokov. She finds out that she has been kidnapped to be his food source. She is terrified of the vampire, but as time passes, she realizes she is even more horrified by her sadistic kidnappers (who are making [some] snuff films for profit using the vampire).

As the days pass, Ardeth begins to see the vampire Dimitri as a person, and as they get closer, she realizes her and Dimitri will have to come up with a plan to outsmart the kidnappers. But just how far is she willing to go to live?

I don't want to give too much away, but this is an excellent, excellent story. I really enjoyed all of the characters. I would highly recommend (...).

Nancy Baker's "Kiss of the Vampire" begins with the waking of a long-dormant vampire. He has been asleep for about a century and finds out that the twentieth century holds a particularly nasty development for vampires--ultrasound. It is, therefore, rather easily that he is captured when he awakens. Shortly thereafter, Ardeth Alexander, a young graduate student, is abducted. She is taken captive and used as the food supply for the vampire.

In their dismal prison, the two, predator and prey, form an uneasy alliance against their captors. Though he takes from her without giving anything back, she has sympathy for him; he is, after all, as much a prisoner as she is, and the degradations he suffers are as bad as hers. With several women dead, Ardeth knows the fate planned for her, and she must decide whether to allow him to transform her into a vampire so that she can survive somehow.

"Kiss of the Vampire" (formerly "The Night Inside") is somewhat hard to classify. Certainly the vampires would seem to make the book fall within the horror genre, but the vampirism does not dominate the novel, much of which is a thriller that just happens to involve vampires. Unlike many thrillers, though, "Kiss of the Vampire" features an especially well-rounded protagonist. Ardeth Alexander is a complex character, a woman with flaws that make her seem very real. The vampire, a fifteenth-century Russian aristocrat, is also well drawn. These three-dimensional characters are what holds the book together through some of the slower spots (of which there are a few but not too many).

When I first read this novel I was 12 years old and like the review below, hated it. It wasn't at all like other vampire romances I had read..not overly happy or full of pretty images. But, somehow, every time I'd try to give the book away something stopped me. The images in the story always came to mind because deep down I think Nancy Baker paints a picture of how vampires would act if they were real. It may not be pretty, some of the things Ardeth and Rozokov do, but they *are* blood drinking *vampires* after all,it's their nature. This book is for readers that don't mind a darker more realistic romance between two hunters of the night. Ardeth faces many parts of the meaning of being "alive" in this book which I think will make anyone stop and think.

This is a haunting, well written book that no vampire fan should miss. Ardeth Alexander is an average graduate student living an average, structured, somewhat boring life. One morning while exercising she is abducted, blindfolded and finds herself thrown into a cell in a former sanitarium. As if this isn't enough of a shock she realizes the cell next to her is also occupied, and the inhabitant isn't human. Ardeth soon discovers she is there to *feed* the vampire until her usefulness runs out. Ardeth decides to keep her sanity and believes she can bring the vampire out of his world of madness (he is also a prisoner & is forced to do things against his will for some real sickos) by forcing him to speak to her and when he tries to ignore her she tells him all about herself. This begins the relationship between Ardeth and Dimitri and if I go on I'll give too much away.

Pick this one up! It's one of those books you just can't put down no matter what is going on around you. It also takes you on an emotional roller-coaster ride and you won't soon forget the heroine.

I picked this up because the catchy title. I was hard to put down in the begining, but towards the end it wasn't as good. It was kinda confusing, I would have prefered something gothic, but it was pretty good overall. I just loved the main heroine, whatta change. I'm glad see found out how to have a good time, if you get me. now it needs a sequel!!

"Kiss of the Vampire" is the title for the American mass market ed. of Nancy Baker's superlative vampire novel "The Night Inside." Along with novels like Garfield Reeves-Stevens' "Bloodshift" and Scott Ciencin's "The Vampire Odyssey," "Kiss of the Vampire / The Night Inside" is a clear forerunner of the "vampire action" novels that are currently all the rage. That Nancy Baker is not better known is unfair, and this is one book that should be reprinted. If you like vampire fiction before the genre came to be equated with mainly romance, give this book a shot. Definitely recommended.

This is a fascinating, engrossing book, and one that the reaser will not soon forget. I would also like to know: is there any way to find the other two books in this series? such as a online website? Feel free to mail me at silver_moon12L@yahoo.com

This is a fascinating, engrossing book, and one that the reaser will not soon forget. I would also like to know: is there any way to find the other two books in this series? such as a online website? Feel free to mail me at silver_moon12L@yahoo.com

This is a great book full of romance and suspense. Nancy Baker is a talented author when it comes to writing about vampires and I hope that one day I will be as good as her. If you want to read other books by her, I strongly suggest "A Terrible Beauty". It is my favourite book by her followed by this book. Ardeth is the kind of girl we all want to be: strong, fearless and courages. Dimitri is the kind of guy all girls want: sweet, caring, tough, and a bit scary:)! To all who read it, enjoy!

This was a very good vampire novel. As a result, I did some research and found that there are two more books in this series, Blood and Chrysathemums, and A Terrible Beauty. They are published in Canada, and kind of expensive to get. I can only hope that they will be published here!