Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425150429
ISBN number: 0425150429
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: November 01, 1995
Publishing house: Berkley
Sale Popularity Level: 130557
Studio: Berkley
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Witnessing the rebirth--and subsequent death--of his beloved Brenna century after century, the vampire Valerian vows that the subsequent time he sees Brenna, he will make her immortal at any cost.
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Rated by buyers 
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I'm not going to say that this was an altogether bad book. In fact, every so often, there were glimpses of brilliance in it. But that wasn't enough to redeem it. It was like a horse that finishes midfield in a race -- it wasn't the worst, but it definitely wasn't a winner!
Frankly, most of the time it was pretty dull, so much so that I could usually only read a few pages before I felt an urge to put it down again so I could go off and do something more interesting. In fact, I tried to read it to occupy my time while plumbers were unclogging treeroots from my toilet pipes, but got so bored with the book I actually ended up watching the plumbers, which means it was less interesting than looking at things found in my toilet!
I also got annoyed with the constant switches between third and very first person narrative, and even more so with the all too frequent switches back and forth between characters and points in time. I think the reason why there were so many flashbacks was to hide the fact that the story set in the present was so weak, thin and lacklustre. But these flashbacks became really intrusive and ruined the pacing of the storyline, particularly towards the end of the book -- when the tension should have been building and a big confrontation that would decided everyone's futures was looming, suddenly the author felt the need to flash back to something completely irrelevant that happened over a century ago, when the heroine was in another incarnation, one that had had no bearing on the storyline. It ruined the flow of the story, and it was really quite pointless.
Worse, though, this book was supposed to be a love story transcending time, but I really didn't feel the love. The two lead characters, Valerian and Daisy, barely spent any time together or even spoke much. Valerian rarely visited Daisy. In fact, he rarely spent time with ANY of her reincarnations over the course of hundreds of years. Each time he found the latest reincarnation of his long lost love, he seemed reluctant to spend time with her, and would disappear for weeks at a time. Perhaps he was out looking for the cause of the curse that would kill her each time, but then again maybe he wasn't. That wasn't made clear. Personally, I think it would have made more sense for him to stay wih her and protect her. If nothing else, at least then he would have spent some precious time with her, and gotten to know her, before he lost her again. Valerian is one of those strong, arrogant, broody, moody, humourless heroes that some women love, but I don't. I found him dull and two dimensional, and thought it no coincidence that he was named after a herb that helps put people to sleep. Plus I thought it was a bit unbelievable that he was supposed to be the hottest magician in town even though all he apparently knew was one cheesy magic trick. Daisy was supposed to be a homicide cop, and yet she seemed useless at it. She constantly threw up at crime scenes at even the slighest hint of ickyness, she knew nothing about detective work, and she was a complete ditz. (By the way, I couldn't work out why she and her partner seemed to be the only cops assigned to investigate the case of a serial killer. How unrealistic!) Anyway, Daisy and Valerian lacked chemistry, they were rarely together, and they had nothing in common. And yet they were supposed to be in love. That didn't gel for me. In fact, I wasn't convinced that Valerian was in love with any of Daisy's incarnations, given that he barely interacted with any of them. The only person I really thought he had a passionate love for was Challes, the man who turned him into a vampire! The hottest scenes in the book were probably between those two. I didn't mind that at all, but I don't think it was what the author intended, or what most readers want in a standard romance.
There were credibility gaps in the storyline, lots of them. And the plot was mostly predictable. I knew from the start who the 'mystery' bad guy was going to be, and I guessed fifty pages from the end how it was going to finish. But the biggest problem I had was with this line that Valerian says: '...it was good that, as a vampire, I had no bladder'. Er, why would a vampire not have a bladder? A vampire's body is the same as any human's. And you'd think that someone on an exclusively liquid diet would seriously need to have a working bladder. It made me doubt that the writer had thought through the logic of what she was writing.
Also, I should mention, this book had a seriously Christian slant to it, which I tell you not because I have anything against Christians, but because some readers prefer to be forewarned if a book is going to be pro-religion in any way. There are angels in this book, and an implication that vampires are a part of 'the One God's' plan. There is also a very traditional, old-fashioned view of hell, with all the fire and brimstone and torment. If you don't believe ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
There's a new magic show in town, and no-one can even begin to figure out how the mysterious Valerian does his amazing tricks. Daisy, a Las Vegas cop, goes to his performance out of curiosity and is as baffled as everyone else - and completely drawn, for no reason than she can imagine, to the handsome, enigmatic Valerian.
As he is to her - but then, he knows who she is. She is the latest incarnation of his beloved Brenna, killed seven hundred years ago. Ever since his creation as a vampire, he's encountered her about once every century, only to lose her again shortly afterwards. The omen of her death is always the same: a ruby ring, sent to her by an unknown donor.
This time, Valerian vows, he won't allow it to happen again. But the danger is even more apparent than usual, because someone is killing women all over town. Women he knows. The message is clear: his enemy is out to get him and, very soon, he will kill Daisy. Just so that the message comes across with no doubt whatsoever, warnings are being left for Daisy too.
So far so not bad. Valerian, unlike a lot of vampire characters and in particular unlike the execrable, insipid Aidan in Lael Miller's appalling Forever and the Night, is not whiny. He likes being a vampire. He's perfectly happy with his life as it is - well, apart from the fact that he wants Brenna, now Daisy, back. A plus point for that. I liked Daisy too: she's resourceful, intelligent and doesn't swoon when she discovers Valerian's true nature.
But from there on the book takes a nosedive. Valerian sets out to find the vampire responsible for all the murders, the one who killed Brenna in each of her incarnations. This sends him on a search through time as well as most of the world, and this makes some of the plot from then on just silly. There's this, for starters: once Valerian finds out who his enemy is, why does he then have to beg for favours from all and sundry to find out where the other vampire currently is? And to get powers to kill him? Why not just go back in time and kill the guy before he ever becomes a vampire? That's a TSTL moment to start with.
But anyway, he finds the guy and they talk. They're going to fight and they agree some rules for the fight and the outcome, but then... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Days, even weeks go past and we're waiting for this big fight, and *nothing* happens. Now, given that the other vampire is very keen to kill Valerian and claim Daisy for himself, this makes no sense whatsoever. Nor do the deals Valerian makes with characters such as Nemesis and Dathan. The plot with Nemesis, whereby Valerian asks for the power to kill the other vampire in return for agreeing to accompany Nemesis to the pits of hell, seems only to be there to add extra unnecessary angst: the reader is supposed to be in agonies fearing that Valerian will die. But Nemesis in the end has *nothing* to do with Valerian killing the other vampire. The whole sub-plot was pointless.
There were other irritations - Valerian's brother being called Krispin instead of Crispin, which would have been more appropriate for the time; the human Valerian somehow managing to have enough energy to make love when he's half-dead from blood loss after being stabbed in the stomach; Valerian never once biting/drinking from Daisy; and Daisy *still* being condemned to die and reincarnate over and over again. I don't call that a good outcome.
Two stars for the non-whiny vampire, but otherwise this is going into the recycling pile.
- wmr-uk
Rated by buyers 
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This book will have you turning pages long into the night. An excellent enjoyable read. Characters you want to continue to know.
Rated by buyers 
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I found this book at be an interesting read. It wasn't god-awful like Forever and the Night, and it wasn't awsome like For all Eternity. It's somewhere in the middle ground, and that's kind of disapointing because Valerian is the most charismatic in this vampire-verse.
The bad news before the good. It's kind of annoying the way it jumps around from very first to thrid person and back again. I'm pretty sure the general premise was ripped off from a movie I saw years ago on Lifetime. Lastly, the reoccuring vampire-romance love-trigger I absolutely hate (Lost Love Reincarated)was used in this book.
The good things are the plot was well paced. It devels into Daisy's pastlives, all of which were quite unique. In one life she was a tavern houri. In another she ran a saloon. I especially like that it doesn't have the-standard-heroine-becomes-a-vampire-so-they-can-be-together-forever ending. Another plus is that Valerian is a non-brooding vampire who has lived an over-all enjoyable 600 years.
This one's worth a look-see.
Rated by buyers -
This was the very first of Linda Lael Miller's books that I read and I was so impressed that I immediately went looking for another. The second one was just as satisfying as the very first without being in any way a copy. If you are a fan of romances, this has all the makings of a good one plus more character development so that you become totally immersed in Valerian and Brenna's world(s)- a classic 'can't put it down'.
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