Review(ette?) of "Dhampir Passions" by Mary Corrales

I won a .pdf copy of "Dhampir Passions" by Mary Corrales from a Halloween contest, and am I glad!

The premise:
" Living in the post-war American Western Barrans, Linea Kamiya is in danger of becoming a vamp master's minion. While she hides Desmondi's evil mark from the townsfolk of Whickeup, the town council intends to take her farmland for themselves. Linea's only hope lies with an enigmatic stranger.
Raduslav Dracula is hunting for the vampire who stole the Draculesti Bloodstone from his family's gravesite. When Radu's attraction to Linea turns physical, he knows he will have to battle with his heart as well as the demon Desmondi. Is the half-blood Dhampir strong enough to embrace his own cursed nature to defeat Desmondi? "

Oooo sounds good, right?! It is! I was so interested in the setting, it says "post-war" in the synopsis, but it seems to be post-some-huge-nuclear-war-that-changed-everything. Okay, not everything. But people are sterile, or at least some of them, and single women are.. well, I don't want to say taboo, but they only have a few years of being single, and if they don't find someone to marry them, they have to go to whorehouses. Really, the author could have just focused on this world and created a book and then some. I would have loved to see more development of the world, but that's just me wanting to read more about it. Which is a good thing, of course. As for the plot, I liked it. As usual with shorter books, I wish there was more ("Dhampir Passions" is.. well, we'll say about 40 pages). But despite how short it was, I think the characters were well developed, likeable, and I kinda want my own Radu. I also thought it was interesting that she actually made Radu part of the Dracul bloodline.. and instead of being a full vampire like most do.. he's a Dhampir. I thought that was great.

So! I would give "Dhampir Passions" a FIVE out of FIVE. I really liked it, I just can't get over how cool the world was, and as I said, I want my own Radu. Christmas is coming up, you know.. someone get on that!

Happy Reading, everyone!
~ Morning Glow

Photo courtesy of Eternal Press (publisher)
.pdf copy was won in a contest, copy was not received in exchange for a review. Review was provided for fun.