ONCE BURNED - Jeaniene Frost
A Night Prince Novel , Book 1
Avon
ISBN: 978-0-06-178320-2
July 2012
Paranormal Romance

Florida and Romania - Present Day

After accidentally touching a downed power line when she was thirteen, Leila Dalton's life changed forever.  When she finally woke up from the coma, she realized that she now emits electrical energy, and if too much builds up, she can electrocute someone just by touching the person with her right hand.  She also can get visions by touching someone, and usually sees their worst sins before anything else.  As a result, Leila's dreams of being an Olympic gymnast were shattered, and now as an adult, she taken those talents to work with a traveling circus.  While looking for her partner, Marty, one night, Leila inadvertently “sees” that a woman will be murdered by her husband later that night, and blurts it out.  This leads to a notoriety that Leila doesn't want, and a few weeks later she is kidnapped by four vampires. They want Leila to use her ability to find out where a specific vampire will be, but during the vision, the man she is looking for realizes that Leila is inside his head.  Though the memories she has about this man are pretty terrifying, Leila decides to ask him for help, and while he does rescue her, she is told that she will now be his guest so she can help track down the person behind her abduction.

Mentally rolling her eyes at the vampire who calls himself Vlad and has even taken this vampire thing to the extreme by living in Romania, Leila goes along – not that she has much choice – and finds herself in Vlad's monstrously huge castle in Romania.  Marty, who is also a vampire and tried to rescue Leila, is also taken to the castle, and it's only after Leila confronts Vlad about torturing Marty that she realizes the truth: he is the actual Vlad Dracul, and he's not very fond of being called Dracula.  The fact that he is immune to her electrical charges is intriguing for Leila, and while through her visions she's seen some pretty scary stuff in Vlad's past, she's also seen a softer side that attracts her.

A compelling new series from Jeaniene Frost, ONCE BURNED introduces readers to Leila and Vlad.  Leila's life was turned upside with the accident, and consequently she is aware of things that not many people know about – such as the fact that vampires are real.  Knowing about them does not mean that she has no fear of them, so her abduction scares her enough that she's willing to trust a total stranger simply because he is the enemy of her kidnappers.  Vlad is frightening, but even more scary is Leila's attraction to him.  Because of her abilities, she hasn't had any intimate contact with men, and Vlad, emotionally closed off and being the Prince of the Night and all makes him possibly the worst person to get involved with, but Leila can't help it.  As they work to figure out who is hunting Vlad and trying to use Leila to do it, they grow closer, but there are a lot of obstacles in the way.

ONCE BURNED is a captivating tale that will keep readers riveted, as well as anxious to find out what happens next with Leila and Vlad.

Jennifer Bishop