Customer Reviews

My Wicked Vampire (Castle of Dark Dreams)

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

 

 

I read this book in one night. It was an easy read for me.
I have read Nina Bang's other "Castle of Dark Dreams" books as well.
I enjoyed seeing Eric ,Sparkle,Ganymede, Edge, and the
other characters again. The plant idea was very different.
I do wish there had been more plot line for the characters,
Cinn and Dacian. I could have used more gritty fights too.
But, Nina Bangs has me for an auto-read every time.
Her Castle of dreams series is a fun place to visit.
Wish there was a real Hotel, where wishes come true.
I would sign up in a heart beat.

Read this one in about 5 hours. I found it to be fun and entertaining. Enjoyed the development of the talking plants. I was wanting more details of the final battle going on in the castle. It (battle) centered mainly on Cinn, but I found myself interested in more than the going ons of her entourage. Outside of the ending, I would like to read another one book about Cinn, her vampy man and Vince the talking plant:)

I bought this book on a whim before a 5 hour flight. I wanted something lighthearted, easy to read and fantasy-based. This book delivered on those promises. I remained engaged the entire time and I developed interest in the characters. Now, this book isn't FANTASTIC but it's exactly what I was looking for at the time. I just wanted to forget about everything around me. I would've liked to seen more character development because I did feel like I was missing out on back-story. When I bought the book I checked to make sure it wasn't part of a series, but maybe it is? The ending had a lot of potenial to be cooler, but all-in-all - this was a good read!

Not a good representation of this author's work. This book was unbelievable and at times boring. Though all of her books are fantasy, this one was just over the top and I could not get involved with her characters. The only thing I found interesting was, of course, Sparkle and Ganymede. Gotta love a fat, lazy cat.

I love this series. It nice and light and fluffy and fantastical at times. Pretty much all the characters are larger than life and you just kind of accept it and go along.

This particular book I felt lacked a number of things. Number one was it needed more and better editing. There was, in particular, a chapter ending with a character leaving the room and then in the next chapter beginning the character that just left some how was still in the room and passed a phone to another character.

The transitions from a number of scenes were not smooth and I had to go back and re-read to figure out that a character started in one scene and then just kind of appears in another scene.

The other thing disappointing thing about this book was that all the characters were really weakly developed. I know there's a history and a backstory to all the characters but you needed to remember a lot of the past books to understand who the characters were in this book and I'm not even sure if you did remember or if you went back an re-read the books if that would have helped the characters in this book be more than just words on a page in this book.

I was disappointed. I think if the poor editing hadn't gotten to me that the lack of character development and depth wouldn't have bothered me.

Sparkle Stardust welcomes botanist Cinn Airmid to the Castle of Dark Dreams. However Cinn insists she does not need the cheerleading team spirit pizzazz as she works with plants who are loners. Still Sparkle mentions her soul mate Mede who came close to being vampire fodder on the road to Galveston.

Although Cinn is sinfully good with plants and may have made a sentient species, she scoffs at vampires, demons, and cosmic chaos creators. However, she has to reconsider what she knows of the universe when she meets Dacion, who has played dead as an undead for almost six centuries to avoid his sire Stephen, who with his minion is coming.

The "Wicked" return to the Castle of Dark Dreams is filled with pleasure, fantasy, humor, and danger, as the cosmic trouble making duo are one night's bite from trouble as their overarching subplot takes quite a twist. The vampire and the botanist are a wonderful pairing of love with the paranormal minion converging on them. Fans of the saga will appreciate MY WICKED VAMPIRE while newcomers will enjoy this tasty tale and seek the wicked urban romantic fantasy backlist to learn how far Ganymede and Sparkle have come.

Harriet Klausner

Who doesn't lust after a dangerous, psycho vampire? Bad boys get me everytime and this book didn't disappoint me. It's the first Nina Bangs book I've read, but I'm going to be reading more now. I loved this book!

Awesome book Love my cosmic trouble give me more of that I would love you forever.
there no likes and dislikes because this book is funny and sexy . so enjoy

This book is why I read, takes my mind off all the current bullcrap going on in my little world for a few hours.
It kept my interest and no pages were skipped, that's rare for me!
Looking forward to the next book!!
If you are looking for a well written book that will take you to a worldand make you feel as if you could visit such a world then buy this book!!

Please visit my blog to see my review in all it's glory! Thanks, Jess.
[...]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plot: 3

Setting: 4

Writing: 5

Originality: 5

Characters: 4

Passion: 5

Overall: 26/30 = 86% - B

Cover/Title Bonus: 2

Dorchester Pub sent this to me a few weeks ago to be reviewed.

Plot:

Cinn is the newly hired attraction at The Castle of Dark Dreams. She has a talent with plants. She doesn't know what's she's gotten herself into, wants to leave but is forced to stay for at least two weeks per her boss: Sparkle Stardust. She's thrown into the castle managers who turn out to be wizards, demons, cosmic troublemakers, and vampires. Oh, there are also talking cats and plants! :) And because of the plants there's an angry Goddess after Cinn!

Setting:

The Castle of Dark Dreams is like a theme parks for adults wishing to live "fantasies" that just so happen to be real supernatural beings living amongst each other. A lot of the story takes place in Cinn's greenhouse, the dungeon, and various rooms of the Castle. There's a shopping trip to a well known super store chain that is rather adventurous. One character has a talent to make dream fantasies which are pretty cool.

Writing:

This was my first book by Nina Bangs. She did very well at keeping my attention. The detail used in the plants and the castle were very well done. The tone was light yet realistic.

Originality:

The setting made this book incredibly original. The plants were out of this world! I had not read a book with the main character being a botanist or rather a gifted botanist who creatures plants that mature into having feelings, talking telepathically, and even moving!

Characters:

This was the first book I've read that a few of the characters were plants! Vince was a not so normal periwinkle. I actually looked at him as a character and not just a plant. How cool is that?

Cinn was a pretty normal girl, besides having the wicked green thumb.

Sparkle was such an overbearing nonsense character. I felt like smacking her a few times.

Dacian is a vampire that suffers from bouts of rage cast onto him by his maker Stephan, who is trying to create an army of vampires loyal to him. Dacian refuses to join forces, which brings all hell down on the occupants of The Castle of Dark Dreams.

Oh, and how exactly do you say his name: Dacian? I was angry by how I could not pronounce his name in my head! I ended up just calling him D. I did NOT like his name!!!

Ganymede is a cat by choice and Sparkle's other half. He consumes enormous amounts of junk food and has a ton of the troublemaker power. And breaks out into a gorgeous, ass kicking human form at the end of the book.

There are a few other characters that have minor roles and are very cool.

Passion:

Cinn and Dacian are the major characters of the book. They end up bonding because Dacian has the role of protecting Cinn from the plant Goddess. Their relationship does turn sexual and very romantic actually. Dacian is a true gentleman in his own way.

Overall:

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining this book was. I still can't believe how much fun it was to have plants, cats, vampires, Goddesses, and the troublemakers all thrown together as a big happy family. It was weird yet fascinating at the same time.

Cover/Title:

The title seems to follow the rest of the series with the word wicked being included. The cover image however is being shared with another book that was recently released: The Eternal Kiss.

Eternal Kiss

I like the cover of My Wicked Vampire oh so much better than The Eternal Kiss but it wouldn't be my first pick for this book. Something with a castle and maybe PLANTS on it would have been entirely more appropriate than a picture of a lady with multiple ear piercings. It shows nothing of what to expect in this book what so ever.