Twice Tempted is the second book in Jeaniene Frost's Night Prince series, a spinoff from her Night Huntress series. (Which if you haven't read, I highly recommend.) This book picks up a few months after the first book, Once Burned, ended.
The books begins with a prologue (and I will get back to that later), and then the first chapter takes you back several weeks before the prologue occurs. In the first chapter, we see that there is trouble in Leila and Vlad's relationship. And yes, he is that Vlad of the Dracul family. Leila feels that Vlad has become more distant with her, and is worried that since she has lost her power to pull impressions of people from items that he is not interested.
One night, Vlad gives her a dress and invites her to a dinner party, where he tells her that he wants to reassure her of her place in his life. At the dinner the table is filled with other vampires, and Vlad gives her a ring sized box, and it not what you think. The ring is his family's crest and he wants her to become a vampire in his line, to which Leila is understandably upset. She leaves before she can cry in front of all of them and returns to her room. Later when Vlad comes to her, she tries to get him to admit his feelings for her, or at least say that she could mean more to him, and when he can't she tells him she is leaving.
Leila heads back to find Marty, her old carnival partner who happens to be a vampire, too. Maximus, Vlad's second, goes with her to insure she is okay. She finds Marty in Georgia, but he has hired a new girl to be the Fantastic Frankie while she was gone. Leila watches their show one night and after everyone else leaves, sees that there is another vampire watching the show. Thinking nothing of it she goes to see the carnival master to do a trade with her jewelry for cash. As they work their deal, there is a huge explosion in through the trailer. Lucky for Leila, she still has Vlad's protection from fire and Maximus is still hanging around to pull her out. Mainly because he still has a serious crush on her, and is hoping to make a move now that she is no longer with Vlad.
The fire seems to have drained the last of Vlad's aura over her, and she is able to pick up essences of people off objects again. Good thing to be able to track down the bomber, but it also seems to be letting her connect to Vlad in her dreams. So while her and Maximus look for the bomber, and later his mysterious vampire woman who hired him, Vlad is looking for her. Oh, and every time she tries to connect with the vampire woman, she has some serious bleeding problems.
Overall, I have to say I really liked the book. BUT, and there is a big but, it really annoyed me that the prologue was repeated almost word for word once the book got to the point where the prologue was. What was the point of the prologue if you are just going to repeat it later?
I do like the character of Leila. I think she is strong, maybe a little too rash at times, but really fights for what she believes. Even when it means leaving the man she loves because he cannot tell her if he will ever love her. Vlad I have liked since he first made his appearance in the Night Huntress series. He definitely has some emotional issues, but what he has been through both in his life and his vampire state, it makes sense. He does ending up being able to confess his feelings for Leila. Oh, and Cat (Night Huntess) makes a short cameo which is fantastic.
Currently Reading:
Deadline
by Chris Crutcher
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