Twice Bitten and Bewitched by Lynne St. James

 Selena Blake’s life has gotten a lot more complicated since reuniting with Bree, her childhood friend. Diagnosed with lupus and told she only has a few months to live, she is focused on only one thing—to help Bree save her father.

Max Golitsin and Xander Rostov have been through their own hell. First turned and then captured, they had to flee for their lives from Russian peasants. Then they spent over a century searching for their mate.

Arriving at Eternity to help with the new club, they meet Selena and realize she is the mate they’ve been searching for. Now they have to convince her, and that won’t be so easy.

While trying to protect her, they push her right into danger. When evil forces and her illness threaten to end her life, they have to make some difficult choices. Will they be able to get to her in time to save her life? Or will they have to make the ultimate sacrifice?

Note: While Twice Bitten and Bewitched is a stand-alone title, it is suggested that this series be read in order for continuity.

In the Vampires of Eternity series, this is the third book and carried all of the same characters from the first two books along in the plot, which is a huge plus for me in series such as this.  Twice Bitten and Bewitched is the story of Selena, Bree’s best friend and her two new vampires Max Golitsin and Xander Rostov, both from Russia. 

Selena found Bree in the last book after Bree ran away ten years earlier.  Selena needed to tell her that her father was missing and her mother was not helping the police.  After Bree’s return the two bonded again and went back to Bree’s home in another state when Selena was left homeless.  This is where she met Max and Xander at the Eternity Club.  Selena was harboring a lot of secrets about her health and her powers that she gained from her good witch mother.  There were more secrets that she was going to discover that was going to change her world. 

Max and Xander weren’t free from a complicated past.  Carrying scars and brands on their body from their escape from Russia, they were as different in every other aspect as they could be.  While Max is reserved and jaded, Xander is free with his love and believes that every woman he sleeps with could be the one that will save them from the curse that the vampires of Eternity suffer from.  When Max sees Selena in her frail and fragile condition the walls around his heart begin to melt and he begins to see that maybe they did have one woman out there that would save them from death and complete their lives. 

What they didn’t expect to battle was Selena was stronger than her body portrayed, she comes from a witch and other family genes that they will soon discover.  She is also a sarcastic spit fire when she gets mad, she was a virgin and oh yeah, she is dying from lupus because her blood is not like others and is not curable. Of course the guys knew there was a way to save her, they just needed to get her to see that she was the one and allow them to take her life and turn her into a vampire.  She wasn’t even willing to accept a little of their blood to give her strength, so this wasn’t going to be easy.

While I loved this book and the characters just as much as the first two, I found that the author focused more attention to Selena and the vamps and not the whole story of suspense that I had become accustomed to.  It wasn’t till the end of the book that we had an encounter with Bree’s mom and the gypsy and found out about her dad and cat.  Until then we watched as Selena, Max and Xander’s relationship grew with new issues that Gwen and Bree did not have to deal with when it came to bonding with their vampy gentlemen.   

I was worried that this was the end of the series, I still had questions left to be answered but the author introduced us to yet another woman who is connected to this group.  I am hoping the next installment will be her story and I can hardly wait for you guys to see how she has been in this series all along and we were clueless.  I know I mentioned in my first review how I was not into the vampire stories on the market but this author has made me a fan of hers.  With the intensity and suspense of a modern day mystery novel and the emotions and love of a romance novel it was easy for me to just transition into the vampire scene smoothly.  She does a great job at explaining the terms and changes that go along with this environment so I haven’t felt lost at all in this genre.  Keep an eye out readers, as soon as I can get my hands on book four a review will be coming.   I have invested too much of my heart in this series now to not find out how this will end for our Vampires of Eternity. 

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