Blood Wine and Pale Roses

Eighteen months ago, Eden Colbourne ran from life and back to her home in England. For the past year, she has been continuously drawn to the burnt remains of an abbey by unknown forces. Always equipped with a sketchbook, Eden draws the face of a man she has never met and enjoys making up stories about his life. On the one-year anniversary of her “discovery”, she finally meets that man.

Sean is a vampire, turned by the evil Evander after being forced to watch his wife’s murder over one hundred years ago. His heart and soul are hardened and he is none too pleased with Eden trespassing on his territory. Sean tries making nasty threats to scare the woman off, but nothing seems to work…until he bites her.

After Sean’s bite, Eden awakes in the abbey with no memory of what happened to her. She returns home and bits and pieces of the night start to creep back into her thoughts. She finds she cannot resist Sean and returns to see him after nine long and agonizing days. Things start to get hot and heavy between the couple and after he shows himself for what he truly is, Eden immediately assumes Sean did it on purpose to shove her away. With her temper taking over, she stalks out of the abbey.

Sean is only trying to protect Eden from the vampire inside. He also knows that if he gets to close to her, Evander will take her life. Sean goes to visit Eden while she is sleeping and immediately senses danger. Whisking her back to the abbey, Sean only hopes he can keep her safe.

Together, Sean and Eden must find a way to rid themselves of Evander and find true happiness. Can they overcome the trials that life is throwing their way?

Being a lover of paranormal romances, this story did not disappoint. Miss Bridger has weaved a wonderful tale of love and suspense. The plot was well thought out and the story flowed beautifully. Her descriptions are very vivid and I felt like I was really in the story with Sean and Eden, experiencing their thoughts, feelings and actions. One part of the book in particular had me in tears due to the high emotions that were felt between the characters. She provided steamy sex scenes and I was able to really get a grasp on the love felt between both hero and heroine. She also did a very good job in creating the villain, Evander. I could feel the evil radiating off of this character and I loved to hate him.

All in all, I don’t have any complaints about this book. It had all the necessary elements to keep me transfixed until the very last word. If this is the type of story I can expect from Miss Bridger then I look forward to reading much more from her in the future. Blood Wine and Pale Roses comes with my highest recommendation to anyone who is a lover of paranormal romance or is looking for a new genre/author to try. Bravo Denyse!

Reviewed by: Jennifer M