Also by this author: Dead Man's Hand, Queen of Hearts, House of the Rising SunWelcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year.
The tourists think it's all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better.
Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.
When Delaney Ellingham enters the Nocturne Falls Valentine’s Day Bake-Off, she has no idea that an old rival will create such havoc. Her husband, Hugh, and her friends all come to her aid, but even they can’t guess the surprise that lays in store…
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So I may have a bit of a problem, I love the world of Nocturne Falls so much that when my husband gave me a Amazon gift card I bought not only the 5th book but all of the shorts, which this “Vampire’s Valentine Surprise” is one of. So if you haven’t read the Nocturne stories, I would suggest checking out Delaney’s origin story that I and Melanie did a review on; The Vampire’s Fake Fiancee.
So Delaney entered herself in a Valentine’s Day Bake-off, yes the owner of the wildly popular bakery feels that she needs this to validate herself as a baker. Drive and all of that. Well down the street from here there is another bakery type place, one that Delaney hasn’t ran out of business, but the owner does not like her. Well to make matter’s worse someone or something is sabotaging Delaney’s work station, even while she is trying to help her rival’s daughter be successful. When it becomes obviously that something is really wrong with Delaney she has no choice but to call in her husband, founder of the community, Hugh Ellingham, even if it may cost her the competition. When she is examined by a doctor however, they realize that there is a lot more going on then originally thought.
So obviously I like the series, since I have bought/read/reviewed all of the full length novels and now I am moving on to the short stories. I think that a couple of reasons why I like it is that it is your normal every day town, that loves Halloween so much that everything they do is Halloween based. If I could live in that town, I would. But it isn’t that they love Halloween as much as they love themselves, and they want their paranormal citizens to feel comfortable in their own skin.
At the base level, Nocturne Falls is about living your life the way you were meant to, fangs and all. Also it is about being true to ones self and I think that is a great element of these stories that resonate with so many people. It is hard to be your self, everyone wants you to wear a different mask; job, family, significant other, etc. Add on to that being paranormal, and I can not even begin to imagine how hard it is for these people if Nocturne Falls didn’t exist. Being from a small town and not being “small town” was hard. My parents were educated thinkers that pushed me to go outside of what the town could make me and seek more, seek to travel, seek to learn, seek to live essentially. I did it, heck, I am still doing that when funds and family allow. I think that is why I am so enthralled by these books, they speak to me on some base level.
The only thing that I didn’t like was the cover. Delaney looks like the perfect little Vampire, but her husband Hugh? I do not picture him looking like that. I see him having more charisma then the man on the cover. But that is just me, and I am sure that he is walking around in the author’s head just like on the cover.
About Kristen Painter
When the characters in Kristen Painter’s head started to take over, she decided to put them on paper and share them with the world. She writes paranormal romance and the gothic fantasy vampire series, House of Comarre, for Orbit Books. She has also been published in non-fiction, poetry and short stories. The former college English teacher can often be found online at Romance Divas, the award-winning writers’ forum she co-founded. She’s represented by Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency.
