Vampire Mine

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Synopsis

Connor Buchanan has watched all his friends fall in love, but haunted by past heartache, he's decided that he's too cold-hearted to be caught in that trap. However, that all changes one night while he's investigating a scene where the Vamps arch enemy, Casimir, has left a trail of dead bodies and he sees a mysterious flash of light in the distance. Upon checking it out, Connor finds an unconscious, naked woman with terrible wounds on her back. He rushes her to Romatech for medical attention, only to have one of his friends harmed when they touch her. Feeling he's to blame and wanting to make sure no one else gets hurt, he takes the woman to the Vamps remote hunting cabin, where he discovers that she's an angel when she wakes up. Connor vows to do everything in his power to keep Marielle safe until she can earn her way back to heaven, but soon he finds himself having unholy thoughts about her. Before long his heart begins to melt and real feelings for her form, but he may be doomed to another heartbreak if she's successful in her mission and decides to leave Earth.

Marielle Quadriduum is an angel of death who's been cast out of heaven for not following orders. She's lost her wings and is stuck in an unfamiliar human form, but she still has some of her angel powers. She's horrified to learn that she harmed someone while unconscious and wants to make it right. When Marielle discovers that she might be able to put her powers to use helping the good Vamps defeat Casimir and the Malcontents, she's eager to join the cause. As Connor trains her to focus her powers so that she won't be a liability in the field, she begins to fall for him and eventually finds herself conflicted about whether she truly wants to go back to heaven if it becomes a possibility. But if she stays, she'll have a challenge on her hands convincing Connor he's worthy of an actual angel.

Review

Vampire Mine is the tenth book in Kerrelyn Sparks's Love at Stake series. About to turn 500 years old, Connor is having a "mid-life crisis." He's having trouble following orders, which is causing friction with his boss, Angus. On one such night, he ignores a direct order from Angus to follow a lead on their arch enemy, Casimir, and ends up at a camp near Mount Rushmore, where he finds several dead humans. While still at the scene, he sees some mysterious flashes of light, and upon investigation, he discovers a barely conscious, naked woman with burn marks and wounds on her back. Thinking she's a Malcontent who might be able to give them information about Casimir, he teleports her to Romatech for medical attention. However, it quickly becomes clear that she's neither Vamp nor human when a human touches her and almost instantly dies. Knowing she poses a risk to the mortals at Romatech, Connor takes her to a remote cabin to look after her, where he eventually discovers that she's an angel of death. Marielle was banished to Earth for disobedience, where she's stuck in her human form, but retains some of her angel powers. Never having been human before, she finds everything about it a new and interesting experience, particularly her attraction to Connor. However, missing the Heavenly Host terribly, she's determined to earn her way back to heaven. After spending some time with Connor and his friends, Marielle finds purpose in helping them defeat Casimir and believes that it may be the whole reason she was abandoned on Earth. By the time she's ready to assist in taking down their nemesis, though, she's fallen in love with Connor and isn't sure if she truly wants to return to heaven after all. But if she stays, Connor doesn't feel worthy of a sweet angel like Marielle, instead believing that actions in his past have made him irredeemable.

Connor watched many of his fellow Vamps fall in love, and while that's well and good for them, he scoffs at the idea for himself. He believes he's a cold-hearted bastard and has no intention of following in their footsteps. He loved someone once, and it ended in tragedy, so he's avoided any romantic entanglements ever since. As he approaches his 500th birthday, he's also starting to have something of an existential crisis as well. When he finds Marielle, it gives him something to focus on, but when someone he cares about is harmed after touching her, he blames himself for bringing her into the midst of the people he thinks of as family. However, when he finds out she's an angel, he vows to protect her while she's on Earth and do everything he can to help her get back to heaven. After discovering that she can sense impending death anywhere in the world with her angel powers, he thinks they might have found the perfect secret weapon to taking out Casimir, so he begins to train her in focusing her powers to help them do just that. Along the way, he starts to develop feelings for her that he thought were long dead, but his love may not be enough to keep her on Earth. And even if she did stay, Connor believes himself marked for hell because of things he did in the past and doesn't believe himself worthy of his beautiful angel. Connor is one of the sexy, Scottish Highlander Vamps in this series that I'm a total sucker for. He's not the kind of guy who sleeps around and I think it was briefly mentioned that he's been celibate for a long period of time, which is always appealing to me. He's experienced tragedy in his life that gives him some of the hallmarks of a classic tortured hero, although I have to admit that I found myself wishing that his feelings surrounding everything that happened had been deepened a little more and that it hadn't taken until nearly the end to find out what was bugging him so much. But overall I really liked Connor and thought he was a good hero.

Like Connor, Marielle sometimes has trouble following orders. Years ago, she was a healer angel who really enjoyed her work, but after disobeying, she was reassigned to be an angel of death as punishment. Now she's once again defied orders, which has resulted in her banishment from Heaven and losing her wings, though not all of her angel powers. Trapped in her human form on Earth, she awakens to find herself in Connor's care. She's horrified to learn that she harmed someone while unconscious and can't understand why Connor seems to be okay after touching her. She soon learns that he's a Vamp, creatures many of her fellow angels disdain and call Cheaters for having cheated death. But Marielle is open-minded enough to realize there are both good Vamps and bad ones who are called Malcontents. When she discovers that her powers might be able to help the good Vamps defeat their enemy, someone who has destroyed many human lives, she's eager to help. Connor spends every night training her to focus her powers so that she'll know how to protect herself and they can use them to find Casimir. In the process, she begins to fall for her handsome protector, and finds herself in a quandary about whether she wants to stay with him or return to Heaven as she originally planned. But if she decides to stay, she may have trouble convincing Connor he's a worthy mate for an angel. Marielle is totally adorable. She's sweet and innocent, completely unfamiliar with her new human body and all the feelings that come with it, both physical and emotional. I love her for being so kind, compassionate, and accepting of Connor and all his flaws. At the same time, she's brave enough to go into battle with them against Casimir, so I thought she was a pretty well-rounded heroine.

As is usual for this series, there are appearances in supporting roles by many of the other characters who have their own books. Of course, Roman and Shanna (How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire) are the leaders of this merry band of Vamps. They experience some pretty significant changes in this story, as does Shanna's father, Sean. As the heads of Mackay Security and Investigations, Angus and Emma (Be Still My Vampire Heart) are also front and center, leading the charge against Casimir. Jean-Luc (The Undead Next Door), Ian (All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire), Jack (Secret Life of a Vampire), Robby (The Vampire and the Virgin) and Phil (Forbidden Nights With a Vampire) all take part in the pivotal battles. Phil's mate, Vanda, along with her sister, and Phil's sister, Brynley, show Marielle the ropes of being human and teach her a few questionable (LOL) things. Brynley will be paired with Phineas, who is seen several times in his new capacity as head of security at Romatech, in the twelfth book, Wanted: Undead or Alive. Playboy Gregori, who'll become the hero of the next book, Sexiest Vampire Alive, can't resist coming to visit and flirt with the lovely Marielle. Some other series characters are mentioned but don't have actual lines, and we also get updates on several of them, many of whom are now expecting.

I have to admit that I finished Vampire Mine feeling that it definitely had some weaknesses and wasn't the strongest, nor one of my favorite books of the series. One of my biggest issues was that there were two main plot points needing resolution, the first being the big battle with Casimir, and the second being Connor's feelings of unworthiness. Unfortunately I came away from reading the book, feeling rather let down on both counts. The points were resolved individually, but in both cases, they felt rushed and rather anticlimactic. There just wasn't quite enough tension or buildup to either one and then they were both over in fairly short order. The other thing that kind of bugged me is that there's quite a bit of repetition. Connor keeps saying how he's on hell's short list, not worthy, etc., while Marielle keeps saying that she has to find a way back to heaven, both of which got a little tiresome after a while. I think a little deeper introspection and character development might have helped with this. I was ever so slightly disappointed with the steam factor as well. I seem to recall most of the previous books of the series being pretty sexy, but this one only had two love scenes that I thought were only perhaps a half-step above moderately descriptive. Up to that point, I kind of felt like I was being hit over the head with what was supposed to be sexual tension, but it was more told than shown. That's not to say that the story was bad, though. I did still enjoy it for what it was. I know this series is on the lighter side of the paranormal spectrum, so I don't exactly hold it up to quite as high of a standard as I would a more serious one. In some ways that helped to save it for me. I also really liked Connor and Marielle, both as individual characters and as a couple, which is always a big plus in any romance's favor. And there are lots of other fun supporting characters to catch up with as well. There were several amusing moments as Marielle learns about being human, and also a LOL funny scene where the Vamps have to figure out what to do about Sean Whelan, a guy none of them likes very much, when things don't go as planned. So overall, despite my issues, Vampire Mine was still a pretty good read.

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Kerrelyn Sparks

Themes

Tortured Heroes