Tall, Dark & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel, #1) in The Indie Bookshelf

Feb 11, 2012 Leslie rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance, steamy, freebies, paranormal, vampire

This book actually caught me by surprise. The fact that it was a free download on Barnes & Noble didn't hurt either. However, since I have to base all my reviews on honesty, the cost of a book won't sway me either way.

This story begins in early 1800's London. "Ephraim," the story's hero, who also happens to be a 10 year old boy, is transforming into a vampire. After a month in a coma, Ephraim now looks like a fully grown man of 25. His family is stunned into disbelief only adding to the chaos an This book actually caught me by surprise. The fact that it was a free download on Barnes & Noble didn't hurt either. However, since I have to base all my reviews on honesty, the cost of a book won't sway me either way.

This story begins in early 1800's London. "Ephraim," the story's hero, who also happens to be a 10 year old boy, is transforming into a vampire. After a month in a coma, Ephraim now looks like a fully grown man of 25. His family is stunned into disbelief only adding to the chaos and confusion. However, Ephraim's father knew his wife had relations outside the marriage, resulting in her pregnancy, which subsequently kills her upon childbirth. Unfortunately, once Ephraim's transformation is complete, he spends the next 20 years in a dungeon due to his family's need for secrecy and thinking he is an evil, blood-sucking monster.

Fast forward to present day as the author swithces gears and introduces the reader to our heroine, "Madison." She's the member of a terribly dysfunctional family to put it mildly. Her two siblings, Jill and Joshua are much younger and her strong sense of responsibility only enhanced her need to independently raise them. (Mostly due to their mother's selfish "me first" lifestyle, her lust for any man with a pulse and money; along with her sub-zero heart.) One disater after another finds Madison and her family, including her good-for-nothing mother, moving into their grandmother's boarding house. There, our heroine meets one of the boarders, "Ephraim."

The writing style of Mathewson's was impressive, including her incredibly unique storyline. She would also tell parts of this story through the eyes of Ephraim and then swtich to the same scene through the point of view of Madison...all the while keeping it in 3rd person. I was intrigued by that alone! The book had so much humor as well which only added to my enjoyment...not to mention some very steamy scenes! I must admit, however, the story seemed a little choppy in the middle, but as I kept going, I was thoroughly entertained by several action-packed scenes and surprises towards the end! This was a fun, sexy and sometimes macabre read and I've come to enjoy everything I've read by this very talented author.

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Aug 14, 2012 Daisy Sloan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vampire, romance, paranormal, kindle, a-bnl

Follow this review and others at www.mysecretromancebookreviews.com

Tall Dark and Lonely has given me a new vampire to love! I LOVE EPHRAIM!

I was hooked on this book from the first sentence. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing this book. I couldn’t get enough of Ephraim! Madison is a wonderful counterpart to Ephraim. She tests his resolve and patience. They are a dynamic pair and keep each other their toes.

While Ephraim is a vampire, he’s a special vampire. He’s a Pyte. He al Follow this review and others at www.mysecretromancebookreviews.com

Tall Dark and Lonely has given me a new vampire to love! I LOVE EPHRAIM!

I was hooked on this book from the first sentence. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing this book. I couldn’t get enough of Ephraim! Madison is a wonderful counterpart to Ephraim. She tests his resolve and patience. They are a dynamic pair and keep each other their toes.

While Ephraim is a vampire, he’s a special vampire. He’s a Pyte. He also has standards he lives by and refuses to become a monster. Being a Pyte means he’s a daywalker! In addition to being a daywalker, he was born, not made into a vampire.

Madison was forced to grow up early as her mother isn’t really a mother. Madison’s mother, Candy, is more concerned with partying hooking up rather than being a mother, so Madison stepped up.

When Madison and Ephraim meet, sparks fly and so do the tempers. I found myself laughing, crying, and cringing throughout the story. I laughed at the arguments Ephraim and Madison got into, cried when they were being too difficult to listen to each other, and cringing when Ephraim went all me, vampire on Madison.

I loved this story and found R.L. Matthewson’s take on vampires to be refreshing. R.L. had many of the traditional view on vampires as well as some new insights. R.L. also managed to introduce the beginning of vampires and sentinels without belaboring the point and boring me. It flowed nicely into the story and was integral to the storyline. R.L. also did an amazing job of showing how vampires are like what we’ve traditionally thought as well as some new aspects.

While I loved this book very much, I would have liked to have seen more action and suspense in the story. There was definitely some suspense in the story, but I would have liked to have seen that ramped up a bit.

I found the way the romance played out between Madison and Ephraim very realistic. They were definitely attracted to each other but both had issues to work through. The resolution to their problems was not a walk in the park, they had to work for it and the culmination of that hard work was oh so worth the wait!

This was a fantastic start to a new series and I’ll definitely be reading more! At a find of 99 cents for the book, R.L. Matthewson is quite the find! This book is definitely worth more than that!
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