INTO THE FIRE

In the fourth Night Prince novel, centuries-old Vlad Tepesh, aka Dracula, and his wife, Leila, battle shadowy necromancers who want to use his newfound love to control him.

Frost (Bound by Flames, 2015, etc.) first resurrected the legendary vampire in her popular Night Huntress series and gives him room here to unleash mayhem in defense of the first woman he has loved in his immortal life. Taking up where the last episode left off, the novel finds the married couple on a mission to break a curse that puts Leila in danger, only to find that an unknown group of enemies has learned of it and wants to capitalize on the vulnerability. As is standard in paranormal romance, this leads to a series of supernatural skirmishes, with the lead couple supported by a promiscuous Englishman and one of the oldest vampires in the world (who will be familiar to readers of the previous series). As they race across countries, enemies multiply, mountains crumble, and people and places go up in smoke. Among the good guys, there is the swapping of a soul to a demon for a favor, a human is turned into a vampire, allies are lost, and Leila tries to get Vlad to practice his communication skills. Their romance is expressed less through direct sexual or sentimental interactions and more through acts of self-sacrifice, collateral damage, and couple’s-therapy style conversations. The pair also seem to be retreading some of the plotlines of old novels, but their chemistry has its moments, and the movielike descriptions of magical locales provide fodder for the imagination.

An occasionally enjoyable read that wraps up loose ends and sets up new stories in Frost's paranormal world.