Review: Twice Tempted (Night Prince, #2)

Author: Jeaniene Frost
Series: Night Prince, #2
Release date: March 26th 2013
Publisher: Avon
Mass Market Paperback, 371 pages
Buy: The Book Depository

Dating the Prince of Darkness has its challenges...

Leila's psychic abilities have been failing her, and now she isn't sure what the future holds. If that weren't enough, her lover, Vlad, has been acting distant. Though Leila is a mere mortal, she's also a modern woman who refuses to accept the cold shoulder treatment forever–especially from the darkly handsome vampire who still won't admit that he loves her.

Like choosing between eternal love and a loveless eternity...

Soon circumstances send Leila back to the carnival circuit, where tragedy strikes. And when she finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer who may be closer than she realizes, Leila must decide who to trust– the fiery vampire who arouses her passions like no other or the tortured knight who longs to be more than a friend? With danger stalking her every step of the way, all it takes is one wrong move to damn her for eternity.

Jeaniene Frost still dances gracefully on that fine line between paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Her books are a perfect combination of paranormal mystery and steaming romance, and while her Night Huntress series seems to be suffering from a serious decline in quality, the Night Prince trilogy is moving in the other direction.

When Frost decided to promote Vlad from a secondary character in her Night Huntress series to the love interest/main character in a trilogy of his very own, she had to rebuild him almost from scratch, and I strongly suspect he proved somewhat elusive, at least at first. In Once Burned, the Vlad she gave us had very little in common with the Vlad we’ve come to adore through Cat’s eyes, and his deliciously sardonic sense of humor existed as no more than a fond memory.

In Twice Tempted, I think she finally caught him. For the first time, I saw him clearly, as a fully fleshed-out character, his personality consistently built upon known historical facts, a hardened soul breathed into his gorgeous, (in)famous body. Once again I found myself being frustrated by his actions and adoring him at the same time, but more importantly, I finally understood him completely.

And guess what? The cruel, enigmatic vampire with pyrokinetic and telepathic powers has finally met his match. Just like she did with Vlad, Frost worked tirelessly to develop Leila’s character into someone strong enough to handle Vlad the Impaler. It’s not easy to love someone who has a torture chamber in his castle and impales people for sport, especially when that someone adamantly refuses to love you back.

What made me finally like Leila (after disliking her intensely in the first book) was her courage to take the all-or-nothing route and do what any woman with a modicum of self-respect would do – leave him. I didn’t think she had it in her, but she turned her back on his I’ll-sleep-with-you-but-never-love-you attitude and went back to her old life. Honestly, I wanted to cheer.

She has become so strong, a real threat to her enemies, but watching her fight personal battles, both with Vlad and with her father, seeing her stand up for herself and for what she thought was right, that was the true delight. It was probably hard for Frost to find that perfect balance between a kindhearted heroine and a heroine ready to do what’s necessary even when it seems cruel, but both these traits are essential for a woman worthy of Vlad Tepes.

Twice Tempted is more romantic, more exciting and more tightly plotted than its predecessor, but it leaves just enough room for improvement to get me excited about the third and final book in the Night Prince trilogy.