The Vampire and the Virgin by Kerrelyn Sparks

The Vampire and the Virgin
(Love at Stake Book #8)
by Kerrelyn Sparks

Genre: Paranormal Romance Fantasy

Olivia’s packing list:

1. Sunscreen
2. Bathing suit
3. Flip-flops

FBI psychologist Olivia Sotiris is looking for a cool ocean breeze, sand between her toes, and a break from her crazy, and sometimes dangerous, life. But when she escapes to the Greek island of Patmos, all she gets is a meddling grandmother trying to marry her off. None of the men there interest her—except a mysterious Scotsman named Robby MacKay.

Robby’s packing list:

1. Synthetic blood
2. More synthetic blood
3. Jogging clothes (even a Vamp has to stay in shape!)

Robby needs to cool off, too, since all he can think about is revenge on the Malcontent bloodsuckers who once held him captive. But then he meets Olivia, the beauty with wild curls and a tempting smile. When a deadly criminal from one of her cases back home tracks her down, Robby will have to save her life, along with giving her a first time she’ll never forget …

Suffering from being kidnapped and traumatically tortured, Robbie is ordered away from his security job on a three month vacation to heal some wounds and clear his mind. Having some creepy personal ties to a deadly serial killer, Olivia is also ordered away from her FBI job in a chance to escape her growing fear. Neither can truly escape their dark pasts, but they do find some comfort with each other while in Greece. When the past does finally catch up to them, Robbie and Olivia's relationship isn't something most could except, but can they make it their new reality?

I expect Kerrelyn Sparks books to be pure fun vampy fluff when it comes to paranormal tales. They're usually easy to read books full of silly vampire adventures and hot romances, but I found it difficult to enjoy Robbie and Olivia as realistic characters throughout The Vampire and the Virgin. Something about them didn't really ground them enough to make me feel compassionate to their struggle of being together. I'm not sure if it is the series in general that is making me lose interest bit by bit, the weak plots I've been trying to overcome later in the Love at Stake Series or just my reading taste changing over the years, but I'm not enjoying Sparks books as much as I use to.

Another flop in reading for me is the whole "instant love" effect that takes over the main characters and believe me . . . they talked about it a lot throughout this one, but, as always, the instantaneous attraction/sex/love wasn't really working for me. I wanted more depth to the story, I wanted more details to the characters lives, I wanted more of a lot of things and it just wasn't there. Thus, I felt the overall story was lacking for basic substance. It was a bland tale, but if you're loyal to the series - check it out . . . if not, you could easily pass for something better in the vampire romance area.

Likes: Olivia's Grandmother had her moments.

Dislikes: I hate how Sparks seems to be getting desperate in adding characters to the series, thus she appears to be adding new ones ever other book now and, sadly, they're not really the wow-I-need-to-come-back-and-read-more-about these-great-character characters.

Ratings: