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Taken By The Night

Kathryn Smith

Published 2007      384 pages

Summary (from book jacket)

Six hundred years have taught Saint one thing – it is better to stay away from humans, and save himself the pain of loss. 

Ivy Dearing is no stranger to vampires or the passions of men, but Saint is the first to tempt her.  The daughter of an infamous madam, Ivy has no fear as she begins to track down the murderer of her friends. 

As they search for a killer and fight to protect each other, Ivy and Saint will risk everything for a chance at a love that will last forever.

The Review

Taken By The Night is the third novel in Kathryn Smith’s Brotherhood of Blood historical vampire romance series.  Taken By The Night is a stand alone story and while you don’t have to have read the previous novels in the series it may help if you have done so, because this novel assumes the reader knows quite a lot about the vampire mythology in this story. 

It is not until three quarters of the way through the story that it is explained how Saint became a vampire and this explanation is fairly scanty, which is a shame because it is not the usual tale of getting bitten – this story involves Lilith, the Knights Templar and drinking from a sacred (or poisoned) chalice.  While this novel is a hugely enjoyable read by itself - it also feels like it is part of a larger story arc, and it may just be me, but I am convinced that I have missed out on important details by not having read Be Mine Tonight and Night of The Huntress.

Taken By The Night is set in London at the very end of the nineteenth century, about ten years after Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror in Whitechapel.  This makes an excellent setting for a historical vampire romance because the reader can easily picture Saint creeping about fog shrouded London streets.

Ivy is an interesting character and makes thoroughly modern heroine.  She isn’t a miss-ish girl but a woman who has spent all her life living in a brothel, and as the daughter of the madam she has seen some of the worst kinds of human behaviour, although the brothel setting is written in such a way to make it seem like a nice place. It is a place where artists, aristocrats and celebrities of the day meet for parties (and sex happens but every one enjoys it and nobody gets hurt.)

It wasn’t being raised in a brothel that gave Ivy her somewhat cynical view of relationships but it was the way her aristocratic father treated her mother (he abandoned her when she was pregnant with Ivy but her mother still loved him) that made Ivy determined she would never behave like that over a man.  It is Ivy’s resistance to falling in love and committing to a long term relationship that Saint must overcome in order to win her for his own.

Saint is a vampire who has always loved the ladies but he has reached the point in his existence where he doesn’t want to love anybody else just to see them die while he lives on untouched by time.  Ivy soon changes his mind about falling in love again as they band together to find out who is responsible for a series of gruesome murders. 

The victims are prostitutes who lived at the brothel.  They were all killed in a style reminiscent of the Ripper and they are all linked by Ivy who took photographs of them before they died.  Saint believes that Ivy may also be a target for the murderer and he sets about trying to protect her before the murderer can strike again.

The romance between Ivy and Saint is scorching hot making this book an erotic read.  This combined with the exciting mystery sub-plot means that Taken By The Night shouldn’t fail to satisfy even the most demanding paranormal romance fan.

Recommended reading!

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