I love Vampire stories and this one hits the mark. Love, angst, revenge, bloodlust, everything that makes a good book. The storyline is a bit light on the details in some historical areas, but the book is still a good read. I'm never disappointed by this author's work. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book didn't really keep my attention. The one thing that I want and need in my books is dialogue. The witty banter and flirting is what I come to read, and there have been plenty of vampire stories that have done this. This one is not like that. There was so much more back story and descriptions that I felt myself skipping what was probably pretty vital story points. My bad,

As some other people have said, this book isn't really heavy on the romance because of the timeline that it takes place in. But the epilogue was fantastic. Where was most of that in the book? That was a lovely ending.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43667941-drawing-down-the-mist" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Drawing Down the Mist" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1548096044m/43667941.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43667941-drawing-down-the-mist">Drawing Down the Mist</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3138734.Sheri_Lewis_Wohl">Sheri Lewis Wohl</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2746094824">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
A vampire romance that was a trifle slow at times. I would've liked more interaction between the main characters Dee and Sasha but the end was still satisfactory. <br />3 stars<br />I rec' an ARC from NetGalley/Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

Vampires loving humans. Vampires hating vampires. Vampires killing humans. Vampires killing vampires. Good vvampires. Evil vampires. Internet-savvy vampires. Lovers turning enemies. Nurturing revenge for a century. Kindness. Cruelty. Love. Action. Fights. Insta-love. This one has everything for a true drama.

A hundred years back, when she was nineteen, Sasha Rudin, born Maria Nikolaevna (so the back cover says Maria Romanova, but the book says Nikolaevna…and we go by the name the character calls herself) watched her family being slaughtered. She was shot too, but then, she was turned into a vampire. She was shot and turned by a woman she was in love with, Katrina. Naturally the love didn’t last and a century later, both women feel betrayed by the other and as looking forward to vengeance.

Cut to present day. Dee Arkin a celebrated author is researching her next book on vampires. Willy-nilly she stumbles on to what seems to be proof that vampires exist. The net presence alerts all factions of vampires that she is sniffing too close and they decide that she needs to be stopped.

Katrina has decided that apart from exacting revenge on Maria, she wants world domination and for that human beings need to be pruned out. Sasha is set against vampires ruling the world and has been quietly working on a counter-offensive plan against the Consortium, led by Katrina, and their hopes to take over and rule the world.

Within the main plotline, the author weaves in the attraction between Sasha and Dee with a soft touch. Building a character who would stand their own against a charismatic, beautiful, larger-than-life vampire character would’ve been tricky but Dee pulls her own against Sasha.

However, it is the epilogue that is killer. The last scene of this impossible and obvious flight of fancy is so heartbreakingly beautiful and perfect that we actually felt our heart clench and eyes prick with tears. Every single star here for the epilogue.

There is nothing I love more than a good lesfic paranormal read. Stick some vampires in and it doesn’t get much better for me. As an author Wohl has been up and down in my opinion. Some of her books I really enjoyed, others were just meh. Still, I keep reading her because she is one of the few lesfic paranormal writers out there. I hear vampires and my expectations get raised and I hope this will be one of hers that really works for me. Unfortunately, I can’t say that this was any better than just okay.

Potential, that is the word that really describes this book. It started with such potential but it really fizzled out for me. An interesting premise: a bestselling author who stumbles onto some truth about vampires while she is researching her next book, intrigue and vampire politics, and a gripping history for one of the main vampires. It was all there to make a really gripping paranormal read but it just did not come together. I found the storyline turned really predictable and even boring. I did think the ending was good, but the meat of the story never got there.

Another issue that bothered me was the dialogue. Other reviewers have mentioned this and I really agree. There just was not enough dialogue. And the dialogue that there was, was mostly with “the bad guy/girl” so they felt more like main characters than the actual two mains. Maybe this will not bother some readers but I love good dialogue. I don’t do well with long exposition that often felt repetitive, all throughout the book.

I would not really call this a romance. There is the beginning of a possible relationship, two people clearly attracted to each other, but we don’t get to actually view anything happen. I understand the reason why not. Most of the book takes place over just a few days. I just wished we got to see more of a connection form.

Overall, a great premise and good beginning, then the meat of the story fell flat, than the ending was good. Lots of potential but this book just didn’t connect for me. Actually, I didn’t even connect to the characters like I always wish too. I can’t recommend this but I wouldn’t say stay away either. It is right in that just okay middle territory. Also, I echo what Dee said in her review, what is up with the cover? One of the mains has short blue hair in the book. The cover does not seem to fit except for the egg.

I'm not normally a huge reader in the paranormal universe, but this one looked really good to me from the outset. The premise was awesome, and I really, really wanted this to be a great story.

Unfortunately...

It's not that the plot was bad, for me what pulled this one down was the incredibly long and drawn out exposition that the author threw in. I'm not really sure why, but she continuously repeated portions of plot lines, and then beat the reader over the head with the drawn out exposition. It got old and became boring very quickly. There's very little dialogue between MCs, and what was there was just drivel. There were so many other directions that this could have gone - expansion on one of the MC's rich historical past, explanation about the overall vampire war and the different factions, etc, but instead it was just boring.

What could have been a great story ended up with this reader wanting to quit the whole book even as early as 40%. If not for this review... Such a lost chance.

2 stars.

**Many thanks to Bold Strokes Books for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.**

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and I am voluntarily leaving my review.

This is the first book by this author I have read and it is also the first vampire novel I have read in years. It is just making me want to read more of the same kind of books.

I enjoyed the storyline. After the initial first couple of chapters (which seems to be the norm for me at the moment) I then started to get into the book and just wanted to keep reading to see what happened next. I loved Sasha and Dee and the secondary characters of Prima & Rodney. My only criticism would be that there was very little dialogue between the two main characters (Sasha & Dee) in the first half of the book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and have already got more books by this author on my kindle to read.

Sasha Rudin, once a princess Maria Romanova before being turned into a vampire. She's been planning over a century for her revenge. Things are set in motion, and the time for action is now. She's backed up by her good friend Rodney, and her newfound allies Dee and Prima. Dee and Sasha grow closer in the midst of the action. Will they succeed or will their story be over before it begins?

This was an interesting story idea - however I felt like the story was very repetitive and it all took place within characters thoughts. I feel like there could have been more action and dialogue in order to do this idea justice - and it was a really neat idea. There was a lot of information the reader needed - but the characters kept it hush hush to keep their plans from other characters, and this just left the reader confused and slightly disconnected from the story. It's hard to get excited about a plan when you have no inkling what it is. A lot of the backstory was kept quiet too, which again was done with intention to keep it from the characters, but it made it hard from the reader's POV to really get behind a character. Cool idea so I kept reading, just skimmed a lot or the repetitive parts.

The characters were really great and definitely the stars of the book. I loved Rodney and Prima and found I could connect with them better than the others. There was a lot of missing backstory or too much the readers had to assume for Sasha and Katrina but I still really enjoyed their characters. I loved the way the story begins and end, it was really really beautiful.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, so I usually enjoy this author's books, but this one just fell flat for me. It starts off with a fiction writer who's looking to push into a new genre and finds more info than the vampires who live in the world's shadows want. Dee, the writer in question, meets Sasha, a rouge vamp who's looking for revenge against the older vampires. Dee and Sasha are effectively on the run from an older vampire named Katrina, who's about as bitchy as they come.

There's not much else. There's an overarching plot that is woven in there, but it just feels too big for the way the book was written. As others have pointed out, most of the dialog is between Katrina and her lackey, and basically revolves around how they're going to catch Dee and Sasha. So it feels like Katrina became the lead, even though the intention was for Dee and Sasha to be the leads. And Katrina could have been so interesting as a villain, but she just comes off as a lady who is holding a hundred year grudge because Sasha didn't want to play by her rules.

Dee and Sasha are great characters, and I love that they got some time in the beginning of the book to express themselves. But, unfortunately for me, they don't get to do much beyond repeat lines and feelings throughout the book. Dee's friend, Prima, and the reclusive hacker had so much potential to be great on their own, but they were boiled down to plot devices. Prima shows up to somehow introduce Dee to the hacker, who is housing Sasha. They then pop up here and there when the plot needs them to.

I think this has the bare bones of a really cool vampire romance, especially since Sasha is a Romanov (yes, of those Romanov's), but besides a few throw away lines about Sasha and Katrina knowing Rasputin, no large details are given about the past. So much could have been built off of the Romanov Dynasty and its down fall, but instead we have a pissed off princess (cool) and a whiny love struck villain who can't take no for an answer (not cool) who wants to take over the world by committing human genocide via a bio weapon.

This is the third book I've read by Sheri Lewis Wohl, and it was equally enjoyable.

It's been a while since I've read a book with vampires, and it was nicely done. The story is very much a battle of wits.

It lagged a little in the middle, but the ending was hauntingly beautiful, it made goosebumps race up and down my spine.

NOTE - I don't think the cover (or the title) is a very good representation of the story. The characters look nothing like the models. One has a mohawk with blue streaks.

Copy provided by the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, via NetGalley.

I ARC received via NetGalley and in exchange for an honest review.

Dee Arkin is a writer of a successful detectives series but she want to write something different and she choose write about vampires.

As she dives into her research she comes she realize vampires exist especially when she receive a threatening notes but this doesn't stop her.

Sasha Rudin wants avenge her family death as she realize that Dee is in danger as she tries to protect Dee she waiting for the right moment to attack Katrina who destroy her family.

I love this author but this book didn't really keep me in engage I like the characters of Dee and Sasha I don't know maybe it was a bit to slow for me. I love vampires stories but I have to say her others books are better. Looking forward to next book.

I had high hopes for this novel because I enjoyed Wohl’s last novel, “The Talebearer” so much. I also like vampire stories so a good writer combined with a theme I’m partial to should have been a win. And it started off really well too. Author Dee Arkin tells her editor that she wants to take a break from her incredibly successful detective series of novels and write about vampires. In her research she stumbles across two people whose photographs are not just similar to their forebearers, but identical making her want to investigate further. Then a threatening note is dropped on her doorstep but anyone who knows Dee knows that threats are not a deterrent. Sasha Rudin notices Dee’s research and knows the kind of danger she’s in. Sasha wants to avenge her family’s death and is waiting for just the right moment to take Katrina on.

Unfortunately, after 30% I struggled to keep my interest up and by 60% I would have given up if I was not committed to a review. I wasn’t given enough information about the vampire world, the factions, Katrina or even Sasha's origins until far too late in the story to have a vested interest in the outcome. Sometimes the slow delivery of pertinent information is tantalizing and keeps one reading but in this case I found it distanced me instead. I knew Sasha was seeking revenge and I knew Katrina felt spurned but the connection between them wasn’t expressed in a tangible enough way to make me understand or want to take sides.

The taking-over-the-world story line is too big and I found it hard to care about a nebulous human race about to be wiped out because, essentially there were six characters in the novel: four people in a bunker and two people in a hotel room. The descriptions and reactions from the characters didn’t give me the sense of horror of what was actually happening. This was also down to the slow delivery of information. Perhaps a narrowing of the focus to a century old vendetta with some broader power play amongst the vampires and a lot more characterisation would have worked better.

Most of the dialogue is between Katrina and her assistant, Eli, with the main characters having had just about no verbal interaction by 60%. There is a much greater sense of Sasha and Dee in the first and last chapter than there is in the entire novel and it’s beautiful. I just wish it had filtered into the rest of the story. Keeping Sasha's history back served no purpose. It didn't heighten the tension or create a desire in me to keep reading, it just became an irritant. When it finally comes to light, it’s a disappointment.

With regards to the last two characters, Rodney and Prima, I found there wasn’t enough information about them for me to care about them. And given Dee and Sasha’s later reactions, they didn’t seem to be terribly invested in them either. Rodney is a tech guru and I'm sure there should have been constant chatter and information coming in from all of Rodney's hacked cameras and systems but his value is ill-described and arbitrary. Prima, a psychic, seems to have had no other purpose than to introduce Dee to Rodney.
Another thread that had huge potential is that Sasha is living-dead Russian royalty. There is so much historical richness that could have played out but it gets lost in too many glossed over concepts. I did enjoy looking it up though. I loved the first and last chapter really struggled through the middle. I will read Wohl’s other works but this one wasn’t for me.


Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.