Embrace the Night

Title ~ Embrace the Night
Series ~ Night, #1
Author ~ Crystal Jordan
Publisher ~ Aphrodisia
Published ~ 1 June 2011
Genres ~ Paranormal/Romance/Suspense/Erotica

My Rating ~ 4 bites out of 5

Chloe Standish is a doctor and a biochemist. She’s also a witch. When she discovers her vampire boyfriend is cheating on her she heads to the supernatural friendly bar Sanguine to look for a hot one-night stand to occupy her mind and body.

Merek Kingston is a loner, a cop and a warlock with powerful abilities. He’s not just clairvoyant. He’s clairvoyant³ where he sees all the way into the past, all possibilities in the present and to the end of days in the future. He struggles constantly to keep his seeing under a tight rein. He stops at Sanguine to drown the near-future vision of his partner lying dead on the ground when he meets Chloe and can’t see anything about her. In her presence his abilities are quiet and while he knows it’s not a good sign he can’t prevent himself from taking her home with him.

Two months after that night and Chloe’s sneaky dash away the morning after the two meet again when Chloe’s life and werewolf research are threatened by a werewolf terrorist. They have to go on the run to give the FBI time to catch the bad guy, but this means being in close proximity to each other and the out-of-control lust they feel. Will they be able to overcome their painful pasts and trust their hearts to each other? Will they stay a step ahead of the bad guys? Will Chloe finish her research that could prevent werewolves from dying during their monthly Change? You know what they say…where there’s a will there’s a way.

This was a great story. The plot was tight with plenty of twists to keep it interesting. The characters, including secondary ones, were well-developed and appealing. The pace is where it fell a tad short for me. The suspense would build and then there’d be a sex scene. The sex scenes were detailed and hot, but there were too many of them and the imagery was a tad repetitious. I felt as if I was running with the characters trying to stay ahead of the bad guy and the suspense would just begin to get to me when Chloe and Merek just couldn’t keep their hands off each other. I was trying to ride the suspense wave to the conclusion, but instead I sat there twiddling my thumbs waiting while they got it on yet again.

I did enjoy the characters and the world in which they live though, so I will be checking out Book 2, Night Games.