Book Review: Midnight Embrace

Midnight Embrace
Author: Amanda Ashley
Mass Market Paperback
378 pages
Published by Love Spell (Dorchester Publishing Co.),
February, 2002
Genre: Vampire Romance


This is the second of my two favorite Amanda Ashley novels.  The plot and characters are equally mesmerizing, although this book has a different feel.  However, the basic conflict is the same: a lonely, tortured vampire falls in love with a young girl who is all innocence and light.  One could say that this is already a hackneyed story, but Ashley somehow turns what could merely be a formulaic plot into something fresh and exciting, thus pulling her readers into the tale, inexorably keeping them there, too, until the very end.

It is precisely Ashley's ability to pull readers into her stories that I believe make her books so utterly addictive.  The reader readily identifies with the heroine, and so, this somehow becomes the reader's story, as well.  I can definitely affirm that this is what happened to me as I read.  

The story opens with a rather sad scenario -- a teenage girl lies dying in a hospital, having lost her entire family to an illness that ravaged their village.  Then, one night, a mysterious stranger appears next to her bed, and gently orders her to drink something that restores her health.  Dr. Martinson, her attending physician, will not believe her when she insists that a strange man has visited her hospital room.  He can only marvel at her complete recovery.  

Analisa is released from the hospital a few days later, but she faces a very bleak future, since she has no family left, and, of course, no inheritance, since they had all been poor.  But then another miracle takes place, as Dr. Martinson hands her a note from someone named Alesandro de Avalone.  This mysterious person invites her to spend an extended holiday at his residence, Blackbriar Hall.  Analisa is taken completely by surprise at this, since she has never heard of this man.  The note includes some money to help pay for her transportation to Blackbriar Hall.  When Analisa inquires as to her hospital bill, Dr. Martinson informs her that all of her expenses have been paid for by Lord Avalone, who comes from an aristocratic Italian family. 

She makes her way to Blackbriar Hall, which is the typical dark, Gothic mansion.  It's even raining as she arrives, accompanied by flashes of lightning followed by rolling thunder.  Granted, this sounds quite stereotypical. Nevertheless, the reader is intrigued by the mystery of Alesandro Avalone.  What could possibly be his interest in this young orphan girl?  Naturally, it turns out that he is the stranger who appeared in Analisa's hospital room.

Lord Avalone has already fallen in love with the innocent Analisa.   She is alone in the world, and, tormented by his own nature, he decides to help her.  She does not know that there is an emotional bond between them, due to their sharing of blood at the hospital.  He not only gave her his blood, which healed her, but took hers in return.  She was merely too ill at the time to be aware of this.

There are similarities with A Darker Dream at this point in the story; Analisa, like Rhianna, is given a tutor so that she might learn to read.  In this book, the tutor turns out to be the housekeeper, Mrs. Thornfield, who has been with Lord Avalone for years.  Her name is obviously a nod to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, for the Gothic house in that novel was named, as any Bronte fan knows (and I count myself among them!), Thornfield Hall.

As in the previous Ashley novel, days pass blissfully by, although Analisa continues to be puzzled by her mysterious benefactor.  Eventually, she discovers what he is, but by the time she does, she's already in love with him....

Alesandro has a mortal enemy-- Rodrigo, another vampire.  Long ago, they had been friends, and both were transformed into vampires by the same female vampire.  Rodrigo, engaged at the time, attempts to continue his relationship with his betrothed, who ends up killing herself.  Rodrigo bitterly blames Alesandro for this sad event.  Ever since then, he has been wantonly taking human lives, for the sole purpose of watching Alesandro desperately struggle to save those Rodrigo has left with some life still in their bodies.

The struggle between these two vampires -- one saddened by his transformation, and intent on sparing human lives from himself, while the other one vengefully engages in murder -- is one of the things that make this novel so fascinating.  Alesandro is as ethical and good as his nature permits him to be.  Rodrigo revels in killing, in causing suffering, not only to his hapless victims, but to Alesandro as well.  So here we have the eternal battle between good and evil.

There is no miraculous ending to this novel, as there is with A Darker Dream.  Alesandro, however, has found love with Analisa, who has unconditionally accepted him.  His centuries of loneliness are over, and a new life begins for these lovers -- one free from the struggle to defeat a ruthless enemy, one full of as much peace as the undead can hope for....

MY RATING: