The Vampire's Bride

Title: The Vampire's Bride
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: Atlantis Series (Book 3)
Genre: Paranormal Romance



Layel is the king of the vampires. He has already found his mate - but she was brutally raped and murdered, as well as their unborn child, by the Dragons. Needless to say Layel is set on revenge. For the past 200 years he has been trying to wipe out the entire Dragon race.

Delilah is an Amazon - a woman warrior who only takes a man during mating season and then casts him out never to see him again. Unfortunately for Delilah, this is not the type of person who wants this. She is contemplating breaking all of the rules set for her and her sisters of race to find true love.

The two are thrown together with a large cast of characters for the amusement of the gods. Ever since Poseidon meddled in Atlantis's business in book 3, the rest of the Gods are realizing that Atlantis could be interesting and want to have some fun with it too. The Gods decide that they should hold a competition - each God choosing a race and then setting them to compete against each other. The God who chose the winning race gets Atlantis.

2 from each race: Amazons, Demons, Dragons, Vampires, and some lesser races. There are 2 teams, each made up of 1 from each race. They then compete. The loosing team has to vote someone off and that someone gets beheaded. The winning team is given something positive - usually food.

Layel and Delilah are on separate teams and it is interesting to watch the two try and help each other while still helping their teams. There is a lot of jealousy between this couple.

Another interesting romp through a world full of supernaturals. It kind of reminded me of all the reality TV that we have. A paranormal Survivor of some sort. After each of the battles that the Gods have been throwing at the teams, I felt that the final battle was a little anti-climatic. I felt that the ending happened too fast and then BAM! the book was over. All of a sudden the Gods show up and start teleporting this person here and that person there. I felt that there also was little in the way of conflict. Sure Layel felt like he was betraying his previous mate - but we know they're going to end up together in the end.

Perhaps this is contradictory because in The Nymph King I mentioned how the book doesn't always need an elaborate plot. Maybe I just can't read two of those in a row.

Gena Showalter remains one of my favorite paranormal authors, but I did think this was one of her weaker series. Didn't mean that I enjoyed it any less though.