'Desire to Die for' Warriors of the Enclave #1 by Jessica LEE

From the BLURB:

Kenric St. James wants revenge. Three hundred years ago, an ancient female vampire turned him against his will and killed the woman he once loved. He’s spent more than a century building an Enclave of warrior vampires who’ve sworn their allegiance to defend humanity and to eliminate the ancient vampire determined to destroy them all. After two centuries of denying his body’s needs, and with vengeance finally at hand, the last thing he expected to find was the one woman he burns to claim as his own. If only giving her his love wouldn’t surely mean her death.

Emily Ross is a nurse struggling to start a new life. She’s a survivor, coming off the tail end of an abusive relationship, and the tragic death of her parents. All she desires is time alone to learn who she is without a man and to save the home that holds her heart. The last thing she wants is another controlling, dominant male calling all the shots, in bed and out. Never would she have thought stopping her car one night to save a dying man might change her mind and her life, forever.

Kenric St. James has been a vampire for 300 years. That’s 300 years living the life of a monster – a life that was thrust upon him by an evil bitch called Marguerite Devonshire. Marguerite turned Kenric with every intention of mating with him, and sharing his master vampire powers. Instead, Kenric refused her advances and she killed his fiancée.

Kenric has lived 300 years waiting to take revenge. . . With his band of fellow vampire warriors, Kenric has spent the centuries fighting off Marguerite’s vampire junkies and waiting for the night he could end her evil forever.

One night Kenric is fighting Marguerite’s minions when one gets in a lucky cut. He’s lucky that nurse Emily Ross finds him, unconscious and bleeding to death, and takes him to the hospital where she works. What Emily doesn’t realize is that by rescuing John Doe, aka Kenric, she has endangered his existence by exposing him to scientific scrutiny. And what Kenric doesn’t realize is that in Emily, Marguerite has discovered a way to wreak vengeance first.

‘Desire to Die For’ is the first book in Jessica Lee’s paranormal erotic romance series ‘Warriors of the Enclave’. The Enclave refers to Kenric’s band of merry vampire warrior men and their home-base. This fanged troop have made it their unlife mission to bring Marguerite down and save humans from blood-lusting vampires.

I didn’t particularly like this book, but only because I felt like I’d read it before. The storyline is not uncommon to the paranormal romance genre – in fact, vampire warriors could almost be a sub-genre unto itself. You know the plot – a group of hunky vampire men who have sworn to protect the human race from their own monster species. This storyline blends romance, erotica and offers up a cast of delicious men and their ‘mates’ to explore in each book.

Only a couple of pages into ‘Desire to Die For’ and I had this book all worked out. I’m sorry, but there was nothing in here that surprised me, and for that reason I was a little disappointed.

This story has been done before. JR Ward’s epic and wonderful ‘Black Dagger Brotherhood’ series. Diane Whiteside’s ‘Texas Vampire’ trilogy and Lara Adrian’s ‘Midnight Breed’.

‘The Warriors of the Enclave’ is closer to the Lara Adrian end of the spectrum – with heavy doses of erotica mixed with the action. But overall Jessica Lee isn’t offering up anything new.

Because I have read so many variations of this storyline, I did find my patience maxed out while reading the book. I didn’t find Kenric and Emily to have much sparkage, the other Enclave vampires didn’t stand-out as distinctive secondary characters and the villain didn’t get enough page-time.

“I love you.” His velvet voice caressed her, drawing her gaze to his. “I’m yours, now and forever. Take me for your pleasure, my love. My flesh, my soul, and my blood, they’re yours. Draw me into your body. Blend your essence with mine, and spend the remainder of eternity with me.”

Overall I finished this book thinking “been there, read that, bought the t-shirt.”

2/5

Warriors of the Enclave #2