3 Stars

Marie Morin

Eternity

New Concepts Publishing

ISBN 1-58608-307-4

2004

In this funny, briskly paced romance, Emily, an American from Georgia, arrives in Scotland to take possession of the castle she has bought sight unseen. Unfortunately, the photos she viewed when considering the purchase were taken over 60 years previously. Emily's appalled reaction to the nearly-ruined condition of her dream home is hilarious. So is the reaction of Nigel, the former laird, who awakens from more than two centuries of suspended animation in a casket in the dungeon to find an intruder claiming ownership of his home. Having expected to arise no later than 1800, he is shocked and bewildered by the 21st century. Morin handles the familiar "fish out of water" motif of a vampire's awakening with delightful humor. Although some scenes are exaggerated to the point of slapstick, they are still fun to read, especially Nigel's attempt to learn to drive (a vehicle with a standard transmission, no less). With Nigel's unshakable conviction that the castle still belongs to him and that he retains full rights to order around the lower classes the way he did in the 18th century, naturally he and Emily clash with conspicuous fireworks. And of course they immediately fall in lust with each other. Emily has trouble deciding whether Nigel is a vampire or merely a lunatic. Her moral quandary about profiting from the discovery of Nigel's stash of antique gold coins adds to her difficulties. Running into Simon, an old enemy of Nigel's, further complicates the situation.

Nigel is a hereditary vampire, not a supernatural undead creature. He drinks animal blood but takes only life force from his human lovers. Like the classic literary vampires of the 19th century, he is made uncomfortable but not harmed by sunlight. As well as engaging in conventional sexual intercourse, no longer an uncommon behavior pattern for fictional vampires, he also eats ordinary food. He can, however, change shape and turn into a cloud of mist, like Dracula. A recurring joke springs from his ability to transform into a bat and Emily's panic at encountering this creature in her living quarters.

If you can accept the coincidence that Emily's attempt to get the coins appraised leads her directly to Nigel's worst enemy, the plot unfolds smoothly. I did wonder why Nigel, after it should be abundantly clear to him that he isn't in 1800, blurts out his 18th-century origin to Emily. Wouldn't a powerful, intelligent vampire exercise more discretion? The book also suffers from a distracting handful of typos and mechanical errors that should have been caught in copyediting, such as "layed" for "laid," "it's" for the possessive pronoun "its," "wrung" for "rung" (of a metaphorical ladder), and the currently all-too-common substitution of "lay" for "laid" as the past tense of "lay." Nevertheless, I found this novel to be a delicious light read with a satisfying conclusion. Fans of vampire romance will enjoy the way Morin plays with the familiar motifs and themes of this subgenre.

Reviewed by Margaret L. Carter