Night's Caress

Mary Hughes is a new author for me and I’m very happy I was given the opportunity to review her latest work. I discovered about half way through Night’s Caress (Ancients #1) that it is a spin-off from her series Biting Love. However, there is no need to have read this series first; Night’s Caress works perfectly well on its own and does not rely on the reader having any previous knowledge. I enjoyed it immensely and had no problems falling into that world, but the characters introduced were so interesting that now I must go back to read the Biting Love series to get all their backstories! Mary Hughes has a wonderful writing style. It is very casual and relaxed while at the same time completely compelling and addictive. I had to keep promising myself just one more page or chapter then I’d go do something, only to return to it as soon as I could, repeating this process until it was finished. I was so absorbed in the world and characters created by the author. The characterisations of Seb and Brie were very well done. Brie is a strong, intelligent, and independent woman, wary of anything vampire after a bad past experience. Seb is a very dominant character, with just enough arrogance to be highly attractive, but not so much that he will not listen to other opinions, even if they diverge from his own. He is wary of any emotional entanglements after his past experience; and watching them both move beyond their pasts was an interesting and emotional journey. I was so happy that this book was written from both of their POVs as it allowed a look into both Brie’s and Seb’s mind and thought processes. Many books have a sub heading naming the character from whom the POV is coming; this didn’t happen in this book instead it was a change in person from 1st (Brie) to 3rd (Seb) that was the first indicator that a change of POV was happening. I didn’t mind this switch, in a strange way it suited their personalities, with the more formal 3rd person suiting the ancient vampire. Even though many of the secondary characters had their own books or novellas in the Biting Love series they were presented in this book as fully developed with enough backstory so that new readers could easily follow the relationships between the characters without including too much repetition for readers that have followed on from the original series. I was thoroughly entranced by my first experience of Mary Hughes' work and I’ll certainly be following up with her back catalogue of titles. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys character driven paranormal romance with a touch of action to keep it interesting. *Advanced Reading Copy provided by publisher in lieu of an honest review.