A Hidden Fire
Elemental Mysteries, Book #1
By Elizabeth Hunter
ISBN# 2940013283251
Author’s Website: http://elementalmysteries.com/category/elizabeth-hunter/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Giovanni Vecchio is a vampire that is over 500 years old, currently living in Houston. All vampires have an affinity to one of the elements: earth, fire, water, or wind. Giovanni is a rare fire vampire, which makes it impossible for him to handle any electronics without the fire that burns inside him zapping and frying it. At the request of his ancient friend, Tenzin, Giovanni has been transcribing the Tibetan Manuscript by hand since the book is too fragile to do so otherwise not to mention Giovanni can’t be around fax machines or computers. This task leads him to meeting student librarian, Beatrice.
After digging into Beatrice’s background Giovanni discovers that she is the daughter of a man that could be the key to locating his library of books that had been stolen from him hundreds of years ago. He now wants to gain her trust so he can use her as a bargaining chip to get back what is rightfully his. But the road to get what he wants isn’t easy. He has to face his past and the biggest mistake he’s ever made. And, he must make a choice of what’s most important to him, his treasured books or the human that has wormed her way into his heart.
This is the first book in the Elemental Mysteries series written by independent author, Elizabeth Hunter, and I have to say that I was impressed. Most books I’ve read from independent authors, especially their first books, tend to be a bit rough around the edges with difficult transitions from scene to scene; making them a bit choppy and sometimes hard to follow. I didn’t have any of those problems with this book. It read smoothly and it was easy to understand what was going on. Not to mention the characters were well developed and interesting.
I liked Giovanni and Carwyn a lot. Giovanni was suave and sexy in broody loner kind of way, but would do anything to get what he wants only thinking of number one; himself, at least before Beatrice came around. And, then you have Carwyn that’s the fun jokester with a heart of gold and one of the last people you would expect to find out is a priest! I’ll just let him speak for himself to illustrate my point…
“Love is friendship…just with less clothes, which makes it far more brilliant.”
I did find myself getting a little bored when they really started getting into the Pico letters and the history of it all, especially when you started running into the multiple people named Giovanni, which was a bit confusing at times.
I’m not a trashy romance reader for the most part, but this book and its sexual innuendos kept leaving me wondering when Giovanni and Beatrice were going to get over their internal hindrances and just do it already? I thought this book was screaming for a nice sex scene to break-up the tension between this duo, especially once she started staying with him for protection. The sexual frustration was so thick, I could feel it in the air weighing down on my chest and I felt sexually frustrated myself!
“Oh, wow.”
“What do you think?”
“I tried to imagine, but–I mean…it’s so much more–”
“Think it’s large enough to keep you satisfied for a while?”
“It’s so much bigger than I expected”
He backed away, leaving Beatrice to gaze in wonder at the library that took up half of the second floor.
“I think I’ll just leave you two alone for a bit,” he said with a chuckle.”
The ending of this book really left me scratching my head though. I kept expecting this great love scene, not a sex scene, but a scene where Giovanni confesses his feelings and refuses to let Beatrice out of his life, but it never comes. The conclusion of the book alludes to them having a future later on, but doesn’t make it a guarantee.
For the most part this was a decent book. It had its flaws, as you would expect with a debut author, but it was a solid read and I expect the series to just get better from here.
