Hello everyone!
It's time for another book review and, lo and behold, I'm actually doing much better this week than I had the last one. If you'll recall, I had to switch books right before my review because - to my everlasting shame - I hadn't finished the one I wanted to write about, originally.
This one also isn't exactly the one, BUT, and a big but, I've actually wanted to put it up here for a long while and never got to it before.
As you all know, J. R. Ward is one of my all-time favourite authors, and has been ever since I first started reading her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Despite the fact that the past couple of books involving the Brothers haven't exactly given me much satisfaction (and indeed I don't even mention one anymore!) I still thoroughly enjoy going back and reading the original stories because, well, sentimentality.
Also, the Brothers themselves.
So when I stumbled upon a novella set in the same world but not quite part of it, I figured I should read it.
That's how I nibbled on The Story of Son.
Now, unlike with my previous blog posts, I won't be doing an entire list of books I've already reviewed by the Warden - I will, however, give you the link to the most recent one. At the bottom of THAT blog post, you'll find all the other vampire-related stories which have found their way onto my blog before now.
Yeah, at some point, I should probably get them all together somewhere ...
So basically, The Story of Son seems to be a sort of exercise for the author because, as much as I recognize things that eventually make their way to the world of the Brothers, some things are definitely NOT the same, and kind of make little sense unless you don't take this at face-value.
But anyway.
The story centers around Claire, a strong lawyer who inherited the business, or at least partnership, from her father, as well as his clients. She's a no-nonsense type of gal who doesn't really get the whole 'I want to be a mom' thing and hasn't yet found a guy she'd actually enjoy spending time with. Not even the other partner in the firm can give her what she wants, so there you go.
Her life sort of takes a turn when she goes to meet with an elderly client of her father's, just to go over her will with her, and ends up not only finding the entire scene creepy - big old castle-like house, old lady, old butler, no one else around - but also getting her tea drugged.
Because, you see, the owner wants Claire to meet her son, and while Claire thinks it's a social visit kind of thing, it's actually something else.
Son - that being the only moniker the poor guy knows or has - is actually something else entirely.
Not only is he being held captive in a windowless room somewhere in the basement, but he also needs to feed for about three days each year.
Feed as in drink a woman's blood, by and by.
This is where Claire comes in, and despite the fact that she will be treated as royalty for the duration of her stay (namely haute cuisine and basically gourmet treatments) she still needs to give Son her blood, though he promises to make it painless.
The two of them initially mistrust each other, but eventually Claire's inner justice kicks in and she starts questioning things, starts asking Son questions, starts wanting to be awake when he feeds from her ... starts wanting HIM, on top of everything else.
It's classic Stockholm Syndrome, except Son hasn't had anything to do with her abduction besides needing her blood, so.
Anyway.
Claire thinks it's complete outrage what's happened to him, unjust to the extreme, but she learns that she won't be able to do anything once she leaves - he'll strip her memories of himself and she'll never remember a thing.
This just pisses her off further, but doesn't stop her from renaming Son to Michael - very apt in a way - and having sex with the vampire.
The two of them happily go at it while she's there, and Claire makes all sorts of plans to free him once the butler comes to get her, but Michael knocks her out mentally before anything can happen and she wakes up ... remembering nothing.
The thing is though, she later finds out she's pregnant, and once the elderly lady dies, Claire both attends the funeral AND springs Michael from his cage.
Making a run for it, the pair of them have to deal with the butler (who's a hell of a lot more athletic than the usual doggen) and take refuge with Claire's former partner from work - oh she kind of quit her job, by the way. Then they promise to make a new life for one another - and Claire does a bit of forging to make sure Michael inherits the estate and funds his mother would have otherwise left to everyone but him.
The story ends with Claire watching Michael playing with their two children, a boy and a girl, on the moonlit grass - because vampires and sun don't mesh well - and she also tells her husband that she's once again pregnant. Because why not have as many children as you can, right?
The end!
It's a short and sweet story that, really, feels like a trial run for what works and what doesn't work for the vampires Ward wanted to create. It was still quite satisfactory however and I enjoyed the fierceness of Claire coupled with the gentleness of Michael. I hope that at some point in the future we may get to revisit the family! It would be kind of neat, wouldn't it?
If you want to read the whole story and all the little bits and bobs I may not have mentioned in this review, make sure you pick it up - it's a standalone novella, and you can easily read it in an hour or two.
xx
*image not mine
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