Soul of a Vampire

“Are you sure you want to know my secrets, Tessa?”

Nikolas Petrou has only been a vampire for mere months, but he is desperately searching for his soul. Refusing to believe Marianna, the vampire who turned him, when she declares it is lost forever, Nik is determined to not become a soulless monster. He certainly does not want Tessa Garret to see him as such. The dark haired beauty has enthralled him so quickly, so deeply, that Nik is battling with himself about being in her presence alone. He is on the edge of a knife, between finding his true self again and losing everything to the darkness that calls.

Tessa works in a museum, researching and documenting paranormal artefacts. She finds the history of the pieces fascinating but is far from believing every ghost story ever written. Yet, her friend and co-worker, Jan, thinks otherwise and encourages Tessa to have an open mind on things that go bump in the night. Of course Jan would feel like that, after all she spends her time with mummies in the Ancient Egyptian department. Those mummies even give Tessa the goose bumps. When the museum receives some very strange pieces, Tessa has her work cut out for her, determining the history of each artefact is a long process. She thinks a securely closed jar that holds a strange light is the most cryptic. Tessa is only beginning to understand thereal truth behind the myths, after showing the jar to Jan, she realises the true depths to her good friend. Walking home after another late night at work, the two friends meet Nik. Tessa is drawn to him and it's more than his good looks.

Unable to stay away from Tessa, Nik decides to kill two birds with one stone and hires her to do research on vampires. Feigning the role of 'rich man with time on his hands' he plays down the importance of the subject matter to Tessa. The last thing he want is to lose her, but, with the help of Marianna, the darkness is very quickly taking over Nik, the taste of fear in a vampires prey is too sweet to resist. Will he ever recover his soul and be the man he once was? Or will he lose all hope forever?

Ok, this book was so hard for me to review - in a good way. I was very close to giving spoilers - just by gushing about the storyline - never mind the hero!! I typed and deleted the whole story line so many times, I loved it that much! I can say (spoiler-free), in Soul of a Vampire, Lauralynn Elliott creates a story that will make the reader scream for more. Her hero is torn between the man he was and the monster he is encouraged to be. Her heroine is an unassuming lady who (and this is important to me, as a reader) does not go from average human to vampire mate in 0.5 seconds. Tessa needs time to process everything, including all she learns from Jan, which brings me to the secondary characters. Personally, I want to know ALL of their stories. Lauralynn Elliott's talent for writing is clear from page one. I really, really believe that she wants to cure the world of narcolepsy - you will stay awake all night long to finish this book. If I could give 10 Stars, I'd be asking to give 11 - read this book!!!

Walking the Dark Line
Lauralynn Elliott sure knows how to bring the creep factor in her novels. Soul of a Vampire starts on the melancholy ground of a devout Christian who is turned into a vampire. Even as he mourns the loss of his soul, he finds there is a way to retrieve it -- with the help of a specialist in paranormal artifacts. Nikolas is in dangerous territory; he wants to keep his morality, but he is slipping day by day. And when he slips...it's darker than I expected from beginning with a Christian vampire. Right and wrong are very important to Nikolas the man, and Elliott does a good job exploring how that slips away as he turns into a monster. There's definite romance involved, and without Tessa there's no way Nik can get what he wants. But Tessa is a huge temptation for Nik, and as she helps him, she's also pushing him further into the darkness.