Blurb from Resplendence Publishing: “When Liam Bates volunteered to visit lonely patients at his local hospital, he expected them to be able to talk back when he chatted to them. But, when he’s assigned to visit a comatose man, he soon finds himself spilling out his whole life story in an effort to fill the silence. It’s not long before the peace and comfort he finds in the man’s hospital room becomes Liam’s refuge from an increasingly hostile world.
Vampire Marcus Corrigan has been trapped inside his paralysed body for over three years, unable to communicate with anyone. The chatty young man who visits Marcus quickly captivates him, and Liam’s softly spoken words soon have him determined to rescue the boy from his current life, but, unable to move a muscle, all Marcus can actually do is lay there and listen.
There’s only one thing that can wake up Marcus. There’s only one thing that can save Liam’s sanity. Everything is about to change for them both, and it will change with a kiss.”
Please note: This story centres around a relationship that incorporates elements of BDSM. It also includes references to an entirely separate relationship which contains violent and abusive behaviour, perpetrated by a secondary character.
My Review: I gave it 4 out of 5 stars
This was the first book I have bought by Kim Dare and I did it on the recommendations of friends of mine. I thought this was a interesting take on the Cinderella story in the it starts with the ramifications of the kiss – a vampire wakes up.
The story also deals with physical abuse, and its effects on its victims both physical and psychological. As others have said, the abuse mostly takes place out of sight, so only the after affects are shown. She leaves most of what occurred to the reader’s imagination, which is what I prefer. The characters of Marcus, the vampire and Liam, the human abuse victim, are well done and multi-layered. I wish I had gotten more of the history of vampires in society in her universe. The tidbits like vampire babies being raised by a human couple as the norm, vampire rules for feeding etc, were tantalizing and left me with a mere idea of the social norms of her universe. If you are going to build a universe, I would like to know more about it.
I was not aware until I read her bio that she has written more than 50 books containing BDSM in them no matter the universe. But the D/s here is mild and the leather play mild as well. So I feel that this should not be a barrier to buying this book (it wasn’t for me; I do not normally purchase books with this content, just not my thing).
A very well done book and I did enjoy it. I wish I had gotten a little more feel of the future for them, but the ending was still very satisfactory.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 