The Vampire's Accidental Wife (Nocturne Falls, #8) by Kristen Painter

The Vampire's Accidental Wife by Kristen Painter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well, now I come to the last Nocturne Falls romance book I haven’t yet read (I’d read the last, or most recently published, Nocturne Falls related book – the most recent Frost book, after this one). Again, and this is kind of a reoccurring theme with me, I was reluctant to read this specific pairing. More the Julian part.

You know rakes? And having them be a main character in a romance story? Most, or I should say, at the most we are talking about men who have ‘been with’ (oddly this is a quite clean undescriptive series, sex wise, so ‘been with’ instead of ‘fucked’) a large number of women in a rather short period of time, though occasionally ‘short period of time’ is ‘thirty years’. Here? Well, there’s no question Julian is a rake. He’s not someone who liked the idea of pretending to be one (as has been seen in some books), he’s not the one who is considered one but didn’t realize others thought of him that way, etc. etc. No, others know he is one, and he knows he is one. Of course he lives in ‘modern times’ so using the word ‘rake’ seems vaguely odd. Except . . . and here’s why I went on about 30 years and the like, except Julian has been a rake since before 1666, and it’s now, oh, 2017. He’s been with a ton of women for more than 350 years. He’s never been anything but a womanizer. When his family was ‘saved’ from the plague of 1666, his two brothers were married – while he himself never had considered the idea. He had continued to not considered the idea until about a year before this book begins (or, well, there’s a mix of ‘some stuff happened before this book starts’, ‘stuff happened’, ‘it’s now a year later’ that messes with my ability to tell time) when Julian first spotted Desdemona Valentine performing in Vegas. As a Vampire. Or, I should elaborate, she was performing as a human pretending to be a vampire (while, in actuality, having been a vampire for hundreds of years).

This is one of those rare Vampire-Vampire stories. It’s almost like seeing one of those creepy kinda icky books titled something like ‘My Billionaire’s Boss’s Butler’s Billionaire Boyfriend’s Roommate’, though here both parties would be billionaire’s, or, I mean, Vampires. If I recall correctly, this is only the second time in this series that two of a kind romance each other, and that includes the Frost series (well, a Winter Elf and a Summer Elf are two different things . . . in that universe). Here we have two vampires, and in ‘The Werewolf Meets His Match’, there are two werewolves.

Now that I’ve written all of that above, I’ve forgotten what I had actually intended to write about this book. Hmms. I rather liked both main characters, and the story.

ETA: Ah, I recall now what I wanted to write.

Julian and Des open the book in the same bed. Julian had been chasing her for a while, and Des kept putting him off. Willing to be near him but . . . she just can't allow herself to love because of her past history. Why are they in bed together at the start of the book then? Because . . . they had just gotten married the night before (not seen in the book). Des, you see, was celebrating a career advancement type thing (television contract), and was drinking. One thing lead to another and . . . well, I forgot to mention this part - they are in Las Vegas, so . . .Julian and Des got married.

Julian wakes up the next morning and wanders around, happily doing things, getting a drink, getting Des a drink, etc. (Crap. 'next morning' technically is 'next evening' since, Julian is a daywalking type vampire, but Des is a night-walking type vampire - as in, Julian can survive regardless of the time of day, while Des will burst into flames in sunlight). Des wakes up, looks around and . . . well, long story short, she's quite annoyed about the situation. One thing leads to another and Julian talks her into allowing them to stay married for a year then, if she still can't 'love' him, they'll get divorced.

Flash forward almost a year - Des calls Julian needing his help (and quite reluctant to ask for it). There's someone stalking her, which in and of itself isn't unusual, but they've injured her double in a car crash - so this is a much more serious situation. Again with the 'one thing leads to another' and Julian and Des head to Nocturne Falls to hide.

For the vast majority of their marriage, no one knew they were married - except for each other. And they hadn't actually consummated the marriage despite waking up in bed together afterwards.

Stuff in Nocturne Falls occurs. Des' backstory is revealed. Stalker bounces around. More story unfolds. etc. etc. The end.

Rating: 4.5

February 21 2018



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