Samantha Sommersby has continued this Forbidden saga with a powerful love story and complex suspense. Without reading Forbidden: The Claim you may not fully realize the depth of love and true characters of Byron and Violet. Most of the best parts are requoted here so it could be stand alone but the two together are even more romantic. Byron has given up immortality to mate with Violet. When she dies, he will die.

The author develops this part of the story with great eroticism and an even better look at the couple, the vampire clan as well as the mixed society of vampires and humans. Ms. Sommersby makes the tale of the vampires uniquely her own as she varies from the stereotypical vamp usually written about. She tells us that Cain, of Cain and Abel in the Bible, is the first vampire. Through him all others have come. To put it mildly, he’s really not a nice entity.

This isn’t a horror story. It’s all about love and learning to trust other people and beings. The character of Violet is definitely stronger than that of Byron through most of the book. He’s loveable but it’s only through love and trust of others that he can learn to become all that he can be.

I sometimes shy away from sagas and continuing series but I can’t with this one. It’s too well done. The characters, dialogue and storyline are excellent. I’m really looking forward to seeing this series continue for a long time.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Explicit

Reviewer: Dee Dailey
August 27, 2008