Last Resort

Alex Masters is doing the unheard of in opening VBR, a beach resort for vampires. His kind has gone without this type of experience out of necessity. Now, thanks to new technology the resort will be perfectly safe for vampires to enjoy even in the day. With the grand opening nearly upon them, Alex is less than happy to discover that there are no masseuses to work the spa. Demanding that someone appropriate be hired immediately, he leaves his manager to work out the details. The result is a bit unexpected.

Erotic dreams have been a steady fixture in Emma Trent’s nights for months now. Prematurely woken from one of them, she is made an extremely attractive offer for her services. Being a masseuse at a five star resort on a tropical island is not something she is planning on turning down even with such short notice to begin the position.

There Emma finds the man of her dreams and discovers that he has been sharing the same encounters with her in his sleep. A few details regarding the resort and its guests seem a bit strange though.

Ms. Painter gives us a very creative story. The idea of a beach resort for vampires defies all expectations in this genre. Inventions were ingenious and one loves the logic that went into the different items.

The sexual pull between Emma and Alex gives Last Resort a good erotic appeal. One particularly playful of these scenes really underlined the charm in having vampire abilities.

Our hero seemed better drawn than the heroine. One could feel his loneliness and yearning for his mate very early on in the story and that feeling is maintained throughout.

The plot while interesting did suffer from a couple of minor inconsistencies. The one that most struck had to do with the way that vampires were able to identify humans. This apparently brought on the drive to drink so to speak. Unfortunately, it makes the premise that vampires are able to live amongst humans without incident less convincing.

All in all, this was a pleasurably sexy romantic read. It is well worth the time with its interesting innovations for vampires and its unusual setting. One could definitely get into this kind of beach read.

October 2006