The Oracle & the Vampire (The 13th Floor) / Christine Rains

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Christine Rains resides in Bloomington, Indiana and is a member of S.C.I.F.I. and Untethered Realms. This is part of her bio from her blog. “I'm a writer, blogger, and geek mom. I write paranormal romance and urban fantasy. I love a dark and gritty story. I have four degrees which don't help at all with motherhood, but make me a great Jeopardy player.” To learn more about her and her other books visit her at her website, facebook, or her blog.

Description:

The Oracle and the Vampire is the fifth novella in Ms. Rains’ The 13^th Floor series; this is the story of the residents of 1305 and 1306.

“Having fallen for her gorgeous neighbor might not be so bad if Harriet McKay wasn't in her hideous banshee form every time Kiral saw her. Such is her curse. True, he's a vampire struggling with a drug addiction, but he's a good soul. Yet no one could love a cursed witch … After having a vision of Kiral's death, Harriet makes it her mission to save him. Never before has she attempted to change fate … If only she can force him to listen to reason coming from a raving crone, perhaps she can save him from the demons hunting him and from himself.”

Appraisal:

Harriet is a healer, a white witch, who spends her days visiting and caring for elderly clients. She is a naïve but driven character with idealistic dreams for the future and a horrific handicap at night. She fails to seek a spell to protect Kiral after she dreams of his death. Her only plan is to stay by his side so he doesn’t get captured by the shadows that are wreaking havoc on Carmine. Kiral is a self-loathing vampire who has addictions which I had problems buying into. Vampires are self healing and the fact that he was affected by drug or alcohol tainted blood was incomprehensible for me. Was he denying himself all blood? He had to drink some blood, right? I had trouble suspending my disbelief with both of these two main characters.

I did like the peripheral characters in this story; the elderly characters that Harriet cared for were entertaining and engaging. The addition of the cat familiars, Elli and Kerr, was an amusing addition to the story. The plot moves quickly and I like the way all of these stories in the 13^th Floor series are woven together by the destruction happening in Carmine. Ms. Rains has done an excellent job with this aspect of the storyline. Vetis, the demon from The Marquis that is seeking Marc’s soul, is back and is more twisted than ever. The stakes are getting higher as the final showdown between these two characters approaches. I am looking forward to the next novella in this series despite not loving this one. 

FYI:

This book contains mild adult language.  

Format/Typo Issues:

I found too few editing issues to count these against the rating of this story.

Rating: *** Three stars