Review: Too Brazen to Bite (Gothic Love Stories, #5) by Erica Ridley

                                                  

Print Length: 160 pages

Publisher: Erica Ridley (June 21, 2016)

From Goodreads.com:  The devilishly seductive, irresistibly rakish Mr. Macane is ravishing all the ladies of the ton—despite the fact that he is penniless, untitled—and believed to be a vampire. Hired to disprove such an absurd claim, the skeptical Miss Elspeth Ramsay does not expect to tremble in his presence—until the graze of his teeth on her neck ignites an appetite of her own, and she finds herself biting him back! Surely this sudden bloodlust can only mean danger for her family and her heart—or a love for eternity...

  

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

This was the final book in the Gothic Love Stories series by this author, and sadly (for me anyway), it was also the worst. It started off promising enough, a young lady of the ton hires a bluestocking with a reputation for disproving theories to prove that Mr.Macane is actually a vampire. The two meet, and sparks definitely fly. She is drawn to him because of how handsome he is (and probably in part to the claim of him being a vampire), and he is drawn to her because at first she reminds him of the vampire he has been spending 200 years trying to track down, but when he realizes she is someone completely different, he finds himself captivated by her. I enjoyed their first meeting, and the way that she assumed he was going to bite her, so she bit him first made me laugh. 

Only the very next day, she started acting differently and I thought to myself good lord, the author is not going to have her transitioning into a vampire because she tasted a single drop of Caine's blood is she? Thankfully, the answer to that was no, but the truth was even more ridiculous. 

Once the house party started things only started going downhill faster and I feel like the plot was lost entirely by the time we got to the weird marriage proposal at the end. You see....

****SPOILER ALERT (use your mouse to highlight the hidden words)****

As it turns out, Ellie's mother is the vampire that Caine has been chasing for 200 years. You see, she had been promised to marry into another vampire clan as a sort of peace agreement, but having fallen in love with a human man, she made the choice to run off and marry for love. Even though she knew it meant her husband would eventually die. And they want her to pay for her crimes, hence the reason Caine has been tracking her all this time. 

But somehow, despite the fact that she is a vampire and therefore frozen at the state that she was when she turned, she still managed to get pregnant by her husband and give birth to Ellie. Making Ellie, you guessed it half-vampire. Kind of a big plot hole there if you ask me, but whatever, not my story.

****END SPOILER ALERT****

ANYWAY. Caine finds out that Ellie has fangs when she bites him during their lovemaking (in response to him biting her first), and immediately jumps to the conclusion that she has somehow been able to deceive him due to the fact he could hear her heart beating and see the blush on her cheeks. The truth comes out about what she is and he stupidly brings up the elder vampire council and how excited they will be to learn of her existence. Which of course makes her panic, and she flees into the night with her mother. 

However, Caine is not about to let Ellie slip through his fingers, so he immediately takes off after them (I'm guessing there is only one road in and out of where they are), and because he is on horseback instead of riding in a carriage, he is easily able to overtake them. Where he then proceeds to propose to Ellie, but not before clarifying two points. 

One, her mother is not to be killed for her running off two-hundred years ago. Times have changed. Okay, so why was he still chasing her? What was her punishment to be since it was obvious the elders still wanted her found and brought before them? This is something we are never told. 

Two, he didn't mean the elders would be excited because they wanted to study her, but because apparently vampire bloodlines are dying out (which makes no sense to begin with since they are immortal, but since they are also forbidden from turning humans yeah they are going to die out). He meant they would be excited to find out that humans can apparently procreate with vampires because that means they can make more of their species. Is anyone else as confused as me yet? 

And then the book ends. We get no epilogue. We have no idea if they return to Scotland and what happens to Ellie's mother when they do (or if Ellie's mother continues to move around as she has always done while Ellie and Caine return to Scotland to start a life of their own). We have no idea if Ellie is immortal or can have children of her own. Heck, we don't even know if she decides to accept Caine's proposal after they have get the chance to spend more time together and really get to know one another. All we know is they are riding off together to parts unknown and it suddenly doesn't matter that Caine is a warrior who has an oath to uphold. All that matters is his love for Ellie. 

All things considered, while I typically enjoy the books this author puts out, and I will definitely continue to read new things that she releases, I am glad to be done with this particular series.