Loose Id, $4.50, ISBN 978-1-59632-466-4
Fantasy Romance, 2007
In Hera St Aubyn’s Undead in the City, our vampire hero Malveaux is unusual in that he has a craving for both blood and sex. Okay, that makes him “unusual” in the sense that there are probably a thousand similarly “unusual” heroes out there in the erotic paranormal romance genre, but for the sake of this review, let’s assume that he is, in some way, unusual.
At any rate, our poor hero is currently plagued by an erection so painful that he thinks it can only mean one thing. No, it’s not that he has drained the blood from someone who has overdosed on Viagra, he’s going to have to create an “offspring” soon (turn someone into a vampire, that is) or he will go mad. Insanity from an overheated erection – now that’s something new. Meanwhile, a naughty vampire called Quade is sending his henchmen after Malveaux. I’d think someone with a hard-on that won’t go down and a bisexual tendency will enjoy buggering those hapless vampire goons but Malveaux just kills them, alas. It’s amazing though that his erection persists while he’s killing those goons. Maybe that’s why he is “unusual”.
Our heroine Tempest Moon is a rocker gal in a band. She’s more like Ann Wilson or Stevie Nicks when it comes to sexual appetite, which is good as it makes her come off like a “real” rocker instead of some silly virginal Goth girl wannabe. When her world and Malveaux’s collide, baby, it’s rock and roll.
Don’t be fooled by the emphasis of the story on Malveaux’s erection in the first few chapters of the story – Undead in the City soon morphs into a beautifully gory horror story spiced with plenty of naughtiness. Hera St Aubyn is channeling Nancy A Collins rather than any random current “I shag my way through all the werewolves and vampires in the city because I’m a Mary Sue that way” urban fantasy authors out there and the result is unexpectedly good. Tempest is a complete man-eating slut and I so adore her as she gets down to business with Malveaux with style and plenty of sass. Malveaux is pretty fun too as he’s a vampire who is bad-ass rather than whiny-ass. He rips people’s head off without remorse while becoming only a little bit mushy when it comes to his adoration of Tempest.
Undead in the City is too much fun for words. It needs to be longer, though, if only because I hate how it ends in what seems like a most premature manner.
