Love Undying: A Kiss Before Dawn
The year is 1876. In the century or so since you became a vampire, you’ve seen quite a bit of the world. All too often, your attempts to settle down have ended the same way: fleeing the torches and pitchforks of a furious mob. It was just such a mob that recently drove you out of Bucharest, but you’ve found a new haven in the Cornish village of Boscawen. Posing as an eccentric aristocrat, you settle in and make yourself known among the townsfolk, the local high society, and a coven of your fellow vampires. You’ve managed to deflect suspicion while keeping your blood-hunger at bay, but another vampire’s reckless behavior threatens to undermine your careful balancing act. With a tenacious vampire hunter back on your trail, and the loyal servant who has served you for a decade starting to want more out of life, you wouldn’t think it was an ideal time to fall in love … and yet it’s possible there’s someone you just can’t stop thinking about.
Lauren O’Donoghue’s Love Undying: A Kiss Before Dawn is almost everything I was hoping for from a historical vampire romance. O’Donoghue is clearly well-versed in vampire lore - the first chapter is all but an homage to Bram Stoker - but isn’t afraid to tweak the standard formula where it suits her purposes. She doesn’t gloss over the gruesome and violent realities of life as a predator, but leaves it up to the player whether to revel in bloodlust or wallow in guilt. It’s a romance, but it’s also very much a vampire story.
It’s hard not to compare Love Undying to Dash Casey’s Vampire’s Kiss, HC’s earlier tale of love among the fanged set. They’re about the same length, and even contain some of the same romantic tropes (from the ever-popular “mortal enemies to lovers” to the oddly specific “dominant redheaded female vampire leader with big plans”). Vampire’s Kiss is set 250 miles and 150 years away from Love Undying, in modern London. It’s faster paced and a little more plot-driven, and offers much more explicit sex scenes. Love Undying, although there’s a lot going on in Boscawen, unfolds with a little less urgency, and gives its relationships a little more time and depth to develop. (For the record, I enjoyed both, and look forward to replaying them both to pass the time while I wait for Casey’s promised follow-up historical vampire epic, Dance of the Night.)
Love Undying isn’t the most original take on vampire romance, but it really doesn’t need to be. It’s just a solid story with some great character-building and intriguing love interests, and that left me hoping O’Donoghue’s first ChoiceScript title won’t be her last.