Roman
Vampire's Mate Book One
By Grae Bryan
Vampire's Mate, Book 1
Danny Kingman is used to fending for himself. Working nonstop as an ER nurse to pay for his mother’s care, he’s been putting his own life on hold since he can remember. But when an unbelievably hot, strangely intense man saves him from a mugging, Danny has a feeling everything is about to change. Especially when that man suddenly pops out a pair of fangs.
Roman Mourier has been wandering aimlessly for decades, waiting for the inevitable day when the last of his humanity leaves him, and the demon inside him takes permanent control. He doesn’t believe in fated mates, or the myth that there’s a soul out there that could tether his humanity to him. Until he feels a strange pull to the lovely young man at the hospital, and hope stirs in him for the first time.
But Roman has demons other than just the one inside him. Is he strong enough to keep Danny safe from the past that haunts him? He knows one thing for sure: now that he’s found his mate, he will do anything to keep him.
Roman is a heated, fated-mates MM paranormal romance with a HEA and no cliffhanger. It contains insta-obsession, a cinnamon roll of an ER nurse, and the possessive vampire determined to keep him. It also contains explicit, steamy scenes between two men, and the moderate violence (and mentions of blood) that one might expect from a vampire romance. Not suitable for readers under 18.
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Excerpt
Danny
“You goddamn, flipping piece of crap, son of a hot potato!” Danny yelled, shaking his fist at the current bane of his existence. “You were put on this earth to torment me, weren’t you, spawn of Satan? Don’t even try to deny it.”
The copy machine did not, in fact, try to deny it.
“That’s what I thought,” mumbled Danny, a trifle smugly. Then he remembered he was talking out loud to an inanimate object in the middle of the night, and all smugness was forgotten. He took a quick look around to make sure nobody was nearby. He was generally pretty good when it came to controlling his admittedly dirty mouth while at work, but he wasn’t actually quite sure what had come out just now.
The office was abandoned. Chloe, the night-shift charge nurse and his work bestie, had left her computer to go grab coffee and snacks, and he was pretty sure the other emergency room nurses were sneaking naps on some of the gurneys in the lesser-used patient bays.
It was a dead night.
Danny supposed he should be glad about that, since it meant no one was horrifically ill or injured, but it also meant he had time to help out his charge and copy the new schedule, necessitating the use of the copy machine from hell, so his feelings were a little conflicted.
The copy machine that was currently possessed, refusing to copy and also refusing to tell Danny why.
″Agh! I give up. You win again, demon.”
″Danny Boy, please stop talking to the copier. It’s concerning.”
Danny jumped at the sound of Chloe’s voice. She had appeared in the doorway, coffees in hand, a few bags of chips peeking out of her scrub jacket pocket.
Danny immediately blushed at being caught—he f*cking hated that he blushed so easily—but still managed to defend himself. “That beast started it.”
″Be a good boy, step away from the copier, and drink your coffee. I appreciate you trying to help me out but not at the risk of your clearly fragile sanity.”
He was tempted to stick his tongue out at her, but he was a professional, damn it. He took the coffee with a quick grin of thanks.
Danny was nearing the end of his second year working nights in the emergency room, but it was too unpredictable to get used to any sort of routine. Their hospital was in a smaller city, but the mountains around Hyde Park, Colorado, attracted outdoorsy tourists, and that meant that some nights it seemed everyone and their mother needed to be seen and some nights there was not a patient to be found.
It was hard to stay awake on the slower nights, but he knew if he tried to nap like some of the other nurses, he’d just end up throwing off his sleep rhythm. He tried to help out with some of the charge nurse duties when he had time, but sometimes he ended up more hindrance than help.
Carra's Review
For a debut novel, I must say this author did a solid job with the overall story, the writing, and the characters. When the first book has me eagerly awaiting more in the series (or just more at all), that’s a sure sign of a successful debut. That it is vampires and fated mates was a big bonus for me.
Danny is selfless and compassionate—these traits are obvious from the start. He’s also sweet and understanding…even when confronted with Roman’s inner demon (who I actually really liked). It’s a classic case of the eternal good guy complementing the tortured vampire, and I am very much here for it. I loved seeing Roman go from being mostly apathetic towards others to doting on and protecting Danny as HIS. Their excellent chemistry didn’t hurt either ;-)
There is a solid cast of supporting characters; I was most intrigued by Soren, as seemingly eccentric as he was. Gabe, Danny’s brother was a touch annoying mostly due to his big brother attitude. I’m looking forward to seeing how things go between Soren and Gabe in the next book…that seems like a fun matchup with their clashing personalities. There was also Roman’s maker, Luc, who I was sort of on the fence about since it felt like he was blaming Roman for something outside his control for too long, but now I’m hoping that somewhere along the line he might get his own story, be redeemed, and get his own happily ever after.
I’m wavering between 4 and 4.5 stars for this one, so I’m going to go with 4.25. I’m already watching for the next book in the series, and am so glad I have a new author to add to my M/M paranormal regulars. This story is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content.
Enter the Giveaway:
To celebrate Roman: Vampire's Mate Book One, Grae is giving away 3 e-copies of the release!
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About the Author:
Grae Bryan has been reading romance since she was far too young to know any better. Her love for love stories spans all genres, and while her current series is of the paranormal variety, she knows she’ll be exploring other worlds further down the line.
She lives in Arizona with her husband, who graciously shares space with all the imaginary men in her head. When not writing, she can generally be found reading more than is healthy, walking her monster-dog, or cuddling her demon-cat.
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