[.ca] His Eternal Kiss (ISBN 0758203322)

utterly charming, romantic tales!:
These are not dark and deadly vamps, but very romantic ones. All the tales were very well written and special. I especially loved Lynsay Sands' tale. I have been a long time reader of her works so I come to expect things about her writing that is very familiar. Lynsay's fans, who expect her typical brand of hysterical historicals will be in for a treat as she shows yet another new side after her first contemporary The Loving Daylights, offers a much more tender and intensely romance Lynsay. Though I love her magic humour, this tale surprised me and touched my heart. (She will again bring you another vampire tale later in the year, as she once again pulls another hat trick give you yet another showcases for her wonderful talent). If you are looking for deadly vamps that are often more monster than man, these tales might seem tame to you. But if you are looking for troubled souls and woman that will risk all to be with the man they love, then you will find all these tales very heartwarming.

Well-Written, Captivating Stories:
While I usually prefer Christine Feehan, this book contained very well-written stories, well worth reading. I enjoyed all of them. I have read many vampire short story collections and this was one of the better ones. All of these authors are excellent, intelligent writers. A captivating story does not always have to contain a bedroom scene and this book proves it.

Showed promise, but could have been much better:
This volume contains stories by three different authors, all set in Regency England. In the first, the vampire is a lady, Anna; an actress in a travelling company owned by her own creator, Vladim. She is on a quest for revenge, but also longs to be mortal again. When she meets the descendant of the man she loathes, can revenge be defeated by love? And can a mortal love a vampire? In the second story, Stanislaus is a Transylvanian, born a vampire. In London as part of the Russian Tsar's entourage, he meets Aphrodite, a young woman who seems to attract trouble, and he is drawn to her and must protect her. But can she accept him for what he is? The best in the collection is about Stanislaus's cousin Sergio. A much older vampire, he has for over a century been searching for an ancient manuscript which will reveal to him the secret of how to become mortal again. This search becomes all the more urgent when he meets Tamsin and falls in love for the first time: he will not marry her and watch her grow old and leave him while he remains forever young. But Tamsin has a secret of her own... This is a collection of vampire romances, and therefore right up my street, I thought when I ordered it. Unlike some other reviewers, I'm not a fan of Christine Feehan or Laurel K Hamilton, so I was not looking for violence and danger; I wanted romance. However, the first story was very disappointing. Quite apart from the surprise of encountering a vampire who can go out in the daylight and who eats and drinks normally, and never drinks blood, the story simply didn't hold my interest. One star, perhaps. The second two were considerably better, although I was still taken aback by some of the variances from generally-accepted vampire writing - again, the vampires can go out during the day and eat normally. I would have also preferred both of these stories to be longer, and therefore perhaps to have been the only two in the collection, since the first was so poor. In both, the conflict between the characters was resolved far too quickly and too easily, clearly to fit the constraints of a less-than-100-page novella. Oh, and the area of London is Piccadilly, not Picadilly! wmr

Don't be fooled by the cover...:
...because this is a regency compilation. For those of you who don't know, that means no sexual tension, no terribly complex characters, and generally no consummation, shall we say, of the relationship except maybe for a kiss at the end. I stopped reading regencies when I was sixteen, so I wasn't thrilled with this book. Like its predecessor, Lords of the Night, His Eternal Kiss doesn't deliver on the promise of dark, sensual power most of us associate with vampires. If you are expecting something along the lines of Anne Rice, Laurel Hamilton or Christine Feehan, you will be sorely disappointed. However, those of you who enjoy regencies may well like this book.