Nocturne Book Review *Syrie James*

Nicole Whitcomb is on her way home after celebrating her friend’s wedding in Colorado. She spent the time skiing and relaxing, and now must go back to her hum drum life. She makes the mistake of driving to the airport to catch her flight knowing that a possible snowstorm may hit the area. She is in peril as the snow grows worse and ends up crashing into an embankment. Nicole is bleeding and miles from help and passes out.

When Nicole gains consciousness, she finds herself in a warm bed. She has been saved by a Michael Tyler. Michael doesn’t seem too pleased that Nicole has invaded his privacy, but allows her to stay and recover until the storm dies down. Nicole finds Michael to be polite, but distant, and an enigma. As she gets to know this recluse of a man, she finds a few things odd about him. There’s barely any food in the house, Michael doesn’t eats and he warns her not to enter certain rooms. She does find out one major thing about Michael, and that he is her all-time favorite author, Patrick Spencer, who she has always admired and adored. But then Nicole figures out that Michael is something a darker and sinister than just an isolated author. He has a deep thirst raging inside, and each day Nicole remains close to him, he can’t control his urges. Nicole must decide whether or not to brave the dangerous storm to escape, or allow Michael to drink from her, for he is a vampire.

Nocturne should appeal to those fans who enjoy a dark, brooding hero, and the heroine who comes along and makes him smile and enjoy life again. This is a character based novel with not a great deal of action. Most of this action is through dialogue and internal thoughts, and because of that it falters. I found this to be a dull read because nothing exciting happens at all.

The feeling of isolation is strong, especially from Michael’s point of view. And even with Nicole entering into his life, he barely shows any real emotion to really grab the reader’s interest. Nicole doesn’t fare much better as she ends up questioning the majority of the time. These two barely have a connection and their sudden attraction is very tepid. We’re given reasons why these two should be together, but overall it didn’t work.

Nocture takes the vampire myth and tries to give it a twist, but just isn’t engaging enough or with well-written characters to recommend this more than blasé book by Syrie James. In a word, Nocturne was boring and read more like a failed experience at vampire fan-fiction. And the fact that this book is priced at $19.95 and under 300 pages would give me major pause in buying such a lackluster read. (Vanguard Press)

Final Grade: D+

A few other Nocturne reviews:
All Things Urban Fantasy
Good Choice Reading
Slice of Life