** spoiler alert ** Gabrielle is an up-and-coming (and stunningly beautiful) photographer. Lucan is an ancient (like 900 years) Breed Warrior, a vampire who hunts down vampires that have gone rogue and are wantonly killing humans. He falls for her, but cannot commit because he's a warrior and that's his number one priority. He's not about to tie himself down with a mate. She falls for him and discovers that he's a blood-sucking monster... or so she thinks.

Turns out these vampires are noble and fabulously wealthy and only drink the blood they need to survive. They don't need to kill and can wipe the memory of those that they feed on (or, if they want to kill, they just feed on bad guys.. drug dealers, the like). They also can procreate, the old fashion way, through sex, but only with a few select women whose DNA is compatible with them. These woman are breedmates, and the vampire who drinks from a breedmate is bound to her forever. (By feeding her his blood, the vampire keeps the breedmate eternally youthful.)

Guess what Gabrielle is. Yup.

The vampires don't have it easy, though. They are in constant danger of giving into bloodlust... the overwhelming urge to just keep drinking, to be a scourge on humanity, to become a rogue vampire. And none are more venerable than Generation One vampires.

Guess what Lucan is. Yup. That's his weakness. He's *this close* to losing it and giving into bloodlust.

Oh, yeah, the vampires are all descended from The Ancients, these beings from outer space. Yeah. That bugged me. I mean, it's an ok plot device: have a race that needs to feed on humans fall to earth and start a vampiric breed, but... but... Gen One vampires like Lucan, who are more than 900 years old, how did they *know* that their father was from another world? When he knew his father, people didn't have the concept of "another world" or "aliens" or "space ship". Those are modern concepts, not something you'd encounter or *understand* in the 1100's. These beings would be considered devils.

So, I kept trying to figure out how *they* figured out that the Ancients were crash-landed aliens... Maybe that's my scifi/fantasy background for you. It just didn't work for me.

And really, my first thought upon reading that plot device was: Vampires from outer Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! And then I couldn't stop giggling.

Overall, the plot was fine. It kept me engaged. The sex was pretty hot. Lucan was good and hunky. Gabrielle was dumb in places, but mostly so Lucan could rescue her. I mean, the heroine has to be in mortal danger at some point... and if you're smart and cautious, you just don't get into those situations where the bad guy kidnaps you.

I did get annoyed by one aspect of Lucan that were entirely writing-based. Lucan's voice in the beginning of the novel as an old-fashioned feel to it, how he phrased things, the way he spoke, which makes sense for someone 900 years old. But by the end of the novel, that was completely gone, and he spoke like some bulking guy out of a modern street-warrior scene. The shift was drastic and noticeable. I wonder if it was one of those things where the author changed her mind about how she was going to voice him, then didn't do a good enough job of going back and cleaning up the earlier chapters.

I also found the other breedmates (ugh. I hate that word.) kind of shallowly characterized. But that's also an aspect of this kind of romance, I think... the non-heroine women characters kind of act as a plot device to calm the new girl, and show her around the fabulous new world she's fallen into, and to tell her that the men that make up this world are fine. I suppose they're a kind of chorus, in a way.

In addition to the romance plot between Lucan and Gabrielle, there was a sub-plot of a brewing war between the good vampires and the rogues... someone is organizing the rogues (who are usually just chaotic bloodsucking fiends). Some of the good guys die, there's a betrayal, and a foil for Lucan.

The subplot was interesting enough that I'll probably read the next in the series.