(The Harcourte Society Book 1)
BLURB
Mistress Jolie Harcourte has lived a very long time.
She’s seen things come and go in her eight centuries, but one thing always surprises her- how humans and her kind can’t be left to their own devices. When someone is killing humans and leaving their bodies scattered all over the town, there’s only one thing to do.
~The right thing.
She has to help.
As an expert in deviant behavior, Jolie has volunteered to help the police solve this mess. Or, in this case, lead them astray while she ‘handles’ the situation. With her guardian by her side, she must navigate the slippery slope that is a fine line between the truth and what goes bump in the night.
Everything seems in control until that fateful moment when she sees him.
Detective Flynn Brogan.
He’s trouble for women, and vampyres alike, but even more dangerous to the Harcourte society.
Why? Because he’s about to find out the truth.
Now, it all comes down to trusting this man, chancing his betrayal, and catching the vampyre who’s risking them all.
One the truth is out, it can’t be bottled back up.
Dangerous Revelations are coming…
Now it’s a matter of who will survive.
3 STARS
My Review
Someone is killing women and draining them of their blood. The police are baffled. So they bring in Jolie Harcourte, a psychologist with a specialty in deviant behavior. Unbeknownst to the police, the good doctor is also an eight hundred year old vampire.
Detective Flynn Brogan is not happy with the idea of having an outsider moving in on his cause, until he sets eyes on the beautiful Dr. Harcourte. She's not at all what he expected and there's no denying the instant attraction between the two of them.
As they set out in search of the killers, Flynn finds himself drawn into a world he never dreamed existed. Can they stop the killings before Jolie's kind are outed, or will these Dangerous Revelations be the end of them both?
I wavered between a two and three star rating for this book. My main problem is all the sex scenes. I don't like to read sex scenes, they bore me. I would have rather seen more scenes like the one in which Jolie gets really angry and objects start flying around like there's a tornado in the room. That was cool. Also, I couldn't seem to get very interested in the story of the hunt for the killers, because it seemed like more of a side plot rather than the main focus of the story, which is mostly concerned with the three main characters.
It was the characters themselves who pushed the book into a three star rating. At first, Jaques annoyed me. He was so hopelessly clueless that Jolie had to literally spell out her feelings before he could get it through his thick skull. I swear I wanted to reach into the book and slap him upside the head. However, the further the story progressed past the two of them finally getting together, the better I liked him. He's solid and so adorably in love. He stood by Jolie's side as her friend and protector for five centuries, never daring to even hope she might reciprocate his feelings. Now that's love.
Flynn is funny and sharp. He deals remarkably well with an insane situation and proves himself time and again as a good and true friend.
Jolie was my favorite character. She's sexy and smart and not afraid to do what needs to be done. She won't hesitate to kill, but she's not heartless or cruel. She's basically a good person whose position in life sometimes forces her to do bad things. She's also fiercely protective of those she cares for and woe on anyone who dares harm her 'family'.
Some of the side characters are interesting in their own right, though others were rather flat and lacking in personality.
Dangerous Revelations got off to a really slow start for me. I was well into the book before I started feeling any spark of interest. Still, all-in-all, this is a decent read and well worth getting invested in for the characters alone. I'd be interested to continue the series so I can find out what kind of trouble they get themselves into next.
Amazon
EXCERPT
1800’s
Paris, France
Harcourte Manor
“Mistress, there has been another slaying in the city,” the
deep, rich voice whispered into the darkness of the room, waiting for her to
offer instructions.
“Is it the same as the others, Jacques?” softly came the
reply.
There was a rustling of silk gossamer, but still the
mademoiselle remained in the darkened shadows of her sleeping quarters, hidden
from even his eyes.
“Yes, my Mistress. The local authorities are in the process
of questioning anyone, who may have seen or heard anything on the night that
the killing occurred.”
Again, there was a pause and almost a moment of trepidation
on her behalf.
“Jacques, please! I must know. Are all of our people
accounted for on that evening?” she asked. “I don’t wish to have to come up
with another alibi for our society. It’s getting increasingly difficult to not
look like we have something to do with these murders.”
“Mistress Jolie, we have all been accounted for on the
nights of the slayings. The authorities can’t drop this one into our laps.
Surely, we will come across as being free of guilt.”
There was the soft tinkle of laughter. It spoke deeply of
what neither of them were saying, but instead thinking.
Both knew that guilt didn't matter.
Not this time, and not ever.
It wouldn’t be the police who hunted them down like animals
in the streets.
She continued, “Was all the blood taken from this victim
too, Jacques?”
“Yes, my Mistress. There was none found near the victim, and
it does appear that it was one of our kind who did it. Someone is feeding from
the humans and leaving them for dead.”
That was the worst news they could give her. If one of their
species was making a meal of the humans, it was going to come back to haunt
them.
It always did.
Jolie had lived a long time and seen many atrocities. There
had been some to her people, and some to the humans. Either way, she had
learned to never discount fate and what could, or would, happen.
They were all pawns in the game.
“This doesn’t make me happy, Jacques, not at all. We’re
hunted to begin with. We don’t need to have a rogue vampyre drawing attention
to us.” She paused, choosing her words cautiously before speaking them. The
vampyre before her would do anything she asked, and as of late, it was
imperative to keep her family safe, him included. “I need to know who it is
Jacques, and I need it handled immediately, if you understand what I mean,”
stated Jolie.
She had made her decision, hoping their carefully
constructed façade would remain intact. If that crumbled, they would have to
escape for their lives.
“Ask and it shall be yours, Mistress. You know I’ll handle
anything that you require done.”
He spoke the vow which he had whispered so many times and
centuries before. “I’m ready to serve you.”
Jolie pondered the ramifications, and she prayed that
ultimately, they wouldn’t be the ones who suffered in the end.
It was now or never.
Making the decision, she set fate in motion. The man before
her would undoubtedly handle it. “We must act now, before we are found out and
eradicated by the hunters.”
Jacques knew what was
required of him.
“Yes, my Mistress,” he replied, watching as she came into
the candle light. Momentarily, he was astounded by her ethereal beauty. It
always caught him off guard and made his dead heart quicken. “If it is your
wish, it shall be done.”
“See to it, Jacques. I wish for the person doing this to be
brought to me. I don’t care what society he or she belongs to. I’m enacting my
rights to put a stop to this. We must handle this personally, before the
authorities start knocking on our door. I’ve not lived six centuries to have my
life ended now, and so haphazardly.”
He understood and was willing to handle it, as he always
did. After all, it was his job, his responsibility, and his duty.
Jacques knew his role, and it was to be her personal weapon.
“I shall work on it, Mistress.”
There was no doubt in her mind that he would make sure it
was done right. If there was anyone who she could trust, it was the man before
her. Jacques wouldn’t let her down.
For now, he was their only hope.
Mademoiselle Harcourt turned to her fireplace. Silence
befell the room as she watched the flames burn and the wood spark bright
colored embers. Her heart ached for a simpler time, where they would be safe.
It was all that she wanted for her people.
Yet, it was getting harder and harder to find it. As
technology grew and time passed, their moments were counted like the ticks of a
clock.
Jacques watched her with compassion. Desperately, he wanted
to go to her and offer her some sort of reassurance that she was making the
right decision.
He knew how heavily this was weighing on her heart, and now
it weighed on his too.
“I’ll be fine,” she replied, catching the thoughts that
flickered though his mind and into hers. Jolie appreciated how willing he was
to offer her some peace.
It simply was his way.
But alas, she was the primus of the city, and it was her job
to make sure the humans could co-inhabit with her kind. These atrocities must
be stopped before their existences were further threatened. They didn’t need
the hunters on their doorsteps.
That meant certain death.
If anything, Jolie Harcourte was a survivor, and she wouldn’t
let someone else be her downfall.
It simply wasn’t happening.
“Jacques, call the society together. I don’t want anyone in
our inner circle to not see what’s coming. I fear that we can’t wait any
longer,” she said, moving toward the man standing in her room.
“Yes, Mistress. Right away.”
“Then, you may go to work and handle it.”
His eyes dilated, and he stared at her emotionlessly. The
killer in him was begging to surface. The uncontrollable beast, just below the
surface, was willing to comply to her every request. “As you wish, my
Mistress.”
Jolie watched her trusted companion close the door. It was
her greatest fear that her reign in Paris was coming to an end. She sighed,
stepping back into the darkness to begin her evening energy ritual to prepare
for what seemed to be the inevitable.
There was a war coming.
And she was helpless to stop it.
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