This book is the prequel to McAllen’s new Compelled by the Vampire series. To be honest, I don’t quite see how it will come into play, as Zoe and Rowan weren’t in the first book, but it is still a very entertaining standalone. Hopefully, the next few books will go back to them!
Zoe is a normal girl down on her luck. Her mom is an alcoholic who doesn’t really care that they are living in a trailer park, and her sister works in a strip club. She is cleaning in the police station as a side job to pay for her community college, but she honestly doesn’t see herself getting very far.
Rowan is a vampire who has had to live without his mate for many years. After starving himself, he plans to let himself turn to ash in the sun so that he can finally join her. Then he stumbles across a car accident, and one of the dead girls looks so much like her that he can’t help but drink from her. He finds himself arrested, and is too weak from the starvation to break himself out. Zoe finds him and is intrigued by him. She could help him, but this might mean that she has to leave everything she has ever known. But does she have anything worth staying for?
I loved seeing Rowan and Zoe grow together in this short story. Rowan comes to her very suicidal due to living alone for so many years. Without his mate, he never saw another vampire. Zoe has been alone as she is the only one in her house who hasn’t just succumbed to the circumstances, and she doesn’t have time in her day to hang out with anyone else. They came together at just the right time to give each other what they needed.
As this is a novella, I was expecting just a little bit of backstory about Caroline and Roric’s world. Instead, I received an entirely new story filled with vibrant characters and an amazing plot. There was description of every scene, from the trailer that Zoe lived in, to the cell that Rowan was in. It really made the book feel alive. Also, it’s worth mentioning that this was a prequel that took me a good 30 minutes to read, and I am a fast reader. This was one of the longest novellas I have read in a while! I would be fine with a full-length novel just about Zoe and Rowan.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new adult paranormal romance novel.
I received an advance copy of this book and this is my voluntary review!