We all know I love Cynthia Eden’s books, but most especially her paranormal romances. This was short and quick.

It’s Lark Kinsely’s birthday, and it’s New Year’s Eve. So what’s a girl to do? Blind date! But her blind date turns out to be a vampire. Luckily Lark is the daughter of an infamous monster hunter (think Van Helsing, or even Buffy, except there isn’t only one. And she’s not a very good hunter). She drives her stake into his chest, but misses the heart. She is able to escape, but she finds another vampire waiting for her. This one claims to want to help her, but as her mother said, Never trust a vamp.

Devereaux is a vampire prince. He runs the North American vampires. And he knows a lot more than he’s telling Lark. What he’s offering now is to come with him and he’ll protect her. Lark wants to know why, but he dodges that question again and again until he’s able to get her to promise a kiss at midnight to seal the deal. So she kisses him at midnight and comes with him,  and he’ll protect her from every single supernatural being coming after her. And apparently there are a lot.

It turns out that while her hunter mother made a lot of enemies, her father (whom she’s never met and doesn’t even know his name) has made a deal. He’s ensured her safety until her 26th birthday. No one can touch her. And he’s powerful enough that no one has ever tried to go after her. No one wants to risk his wrath.

I normally love novellas where things move quickly. I’m all for insta-lust or even insta-love, but I felt this was a lot more one-sided than her usual stories. This had a lot of Dev being in love with Lark and I get it; he had his reasons and they worked for me. But Lark was skittish (rightly so!) and she was pissed for him not telling her everything (also rightly so!), and I’m totally okay with her softening towards him, I mean, when he was telling her that he’d tried rushing her, and forcing her to follow him, he’d realized that was wrong, and he just wanted to keep her safe, and he would give up his mission just to be with her and could she maybe like him a little bit one day? Oh my gosh, it was so cute and adorable. I think I fell a little bit for Dev.

So I’m all for Lark falling for him too, but I feel like she went from don’t touch me I hate you, to OMG I love you pretty quick. It did make me want to re-read the story to see if maybe I’m being too harsh on her, but I don’t know. It felt like it was pretty fast. But I’m willing to suspend belief because they’re vampires and the rules are different. I mean I read it twice, so.

I loved LOVED the New Year’s Resolutions on each chapter. It was clever and funny. I really enjoyed Noren, the hellhound and if he does get a book, and by any chance Cynthia Eden is reading this, look, Laurie is a pretty awesome heroine name. Just sayin’. I liked this story and I hope the author makes this a series. It has Ms. Eden’s trademark dark heroes, some unexpected humor, and intense chemistry between the hero and heroine. Absolutely worth a read, and if you ever are in the mood for a good Paranormal Romance, Cynthia Eden always delivers.