The dark and mysterious Saxon Montague is Hollywood’s most sought after movie director. Savvy and brilliant, she is a rising talent—and secretly a two-hundred-year-old vampire. When circumstances force her to fulfill her studio contract and make one more film, she is not happy with the script. In fact, a vampire thriller is the last thing she wants to direct.
At thirty-eight, Faye Stapleton knows her movie career is at a crossroads. Quickly becoming too old to be America’s rom-com sweetheart, she yearns to play a serious role. When the opportunity to star in the next Saxon Montague movie comes, she jumps at it.
When the two women meet, their chemistry is electric. Tensions mount as each woman struggles to control their mutual desires. When their passions and secrets collide, both quickly realize not everything is as it appears and that following their hearts could lead them into disaster.
Bestselling author KC Luck writes women loving women action-adventure, contemporary romance, and fiction. Writing is her passion, and nothing energizes her more than creating new characters facing trials and tribulations in a complex plot. Whether it is apocalypse, contemporary, or a little naughty, with every story, KC tries to add her own unique twist. She has written nine books (which include The Darkness Trilogy and The Lesbian Billionaires Club series) and multiple short stories across many genres. KC is active in the LGBT community and is a member of the GCLS Board of Directors.
Eager to hear from readers, KC would be thrilled to get emails (kc.luck.author@gmail.com) or follows on her Facebook Page (@kcluckauthor).
3.5 stars. I guess the best word to describe the entire story is sensual. Whether between Susan and Saxon or Saxon and Faye, there was just this constant state of sexiness throughout. And the high caliber writing is there, complimenting some very well written lesbian love scenes. My biggest critiques here are that the plot was very minimal and there was nothing new or different here with vampire lore. The pacing was also tough to stick with, having multiple very slow and overly prolonged sections. I also didn’t feel like we got to truly know any of the interesting characters here on a deeper level. They were written to fill certain roles and that’s where things ended. So I could surmise that by replacing those slow points with some further character development, adding in a few interesting vampire tidbits, it would have resolved a lot of my issues. But overall it’s an ok book, however, felt a bit like the author wrote underneath her otherwise normal level of great writing.
Actress and America’s sweetheart Faye Stapleton is at the top of her game but at 39 she is also at a crossroads in her career and feels she is ready for more meatier roles. Hollywood’s rising star director Saxon Montague is willing to make her dreams come true. They feel a crazy strong attraction from the get go but Saxon – an almost 200-year old vampire - can’t let it escalate too far for obvious reasons. Her secret can’t come out, but a stalker changes all her plans.
We get to know Saxon’s back story by flashback chapters to 1850 when she meets vampire Susan who introduces her to Sapphic delights and so much more. It doesn’t take much to lure Saxon into the life of an immortal. She was like ‘Yes please! Fuck my dad and my brothers, let them toil on the tobacco farm, I’m outta here!’ Lol
Like K.C's Billionaire series, this novella length story is all about insta-attraction where the characters don’t spend a lot of time beating around the bush. Don’t expect a full-blown Gothic vampire extravaganza although we do see some action. Let’s call it vampire light, something for all to enjoy. A nice start of my Good Reads 2021 reading challenge. I expect with Venandi, a new series is in the making.
f/f
Themes: vampires in Hollywood, Faye has a stalker, the magic word is throbbing, there’s a lot of that going on, a nosy reporter, a vampire hunter is on her tail, New York City 1926, time to move again.
A sexy vampire read on Kindle Unlimited. Only short at about 2 and some change hours.
I really liked the mix of a director vampire falling for her actress, in a vampire film of all things! lol. The attraction is pretty insta and lusty, but I sort of can't complain. The whole vampire blood lust, coupled with insta love thing seems to lend itself to those stories.
I liked hearing about Saxon's past and how she was turned and her life previously. Faye is curious about her and inexplicably drawn to her. There's a few threats weaving through the undercurrent of stories that was interesting to give some action. Plus the characters own interpersonal drama was good without being too overly angsty.
I loved the premise of this book and the cover was striking enough for me to give it a go. I liken this to one of those old school paperbacks you could get at a five and dime that were low cost but fun to knock out in a few hours. There's not a lot of depth here, and you have to wonder why a vampire who needs to stay in the shadows for survival would willingly become a movie director, but hey - it's a fantasy, so why not just go with it. There's less horror than sexy time in this story so readers looking for something terrifying won't find that here. But for those that like a steamy romance along with a little scary stalker action and two hot MCs, this short read may be for you.
I'm not usually a fan of celebrity tropes or vampires, but I really enjoyed this one! Saxon was delicious, and the added element of the stalker (who wasn't the most obvious scumbag) added a nice element of danger. The irony of the movie they were making was brilliant, and the title of the book is very clever, especially considering what happens near the end. A great read!
A bit too much talk about the chemistry between the two MCs and not enough about how they fall in love with each other for their personality. Decently written, likeable characters, not really deep, but a nice short read.
It’s no secret I’m a sucker for good vampire stories. Not the teenage vampire blockbuster-like sensational revival of the last decades, but the more classic and lost in time intriguing characters created by Polidori, Le Fanu, Bram Stoker and later Anne Rice. There’s something that has always attracted me to their mystery. They are the Undead and yet, they seem to experience life as no one else can on earth. Emotions are extreme. Passion is off-the-charts. Their glance can see right through your soul, and you can’t but feel drawn to them. The power they exude is a total aphrodisiac. Yet, they are the most lonely and tormented creatures. They are the anti-heroes, the villains and the outcasts condemned to eternity.
My first ever sapphic reading has been Carmilla by Le Fanu, and it’s no mistake when I say that it combined everything I wanted when I was a teenager: to love and be loved with such intensity that you would lose yourself. To belong to someone and have someone belonging only to you, in Life and Death. It doesn’t that come as a surprise that I was literally drawn to Venandi’s cover as soon as I’ve seen it. Those eyes and luscious lips just did it for me. The Latin title was a total plus. There’s always a hunt and a strive to survive when it comes to vampires and this novel is no exception. When I started it, I thought I would be reading an historical novel, but I was soon mistaken. I should have known better, as the novel quotes “Time is irrelevant” with vampires.
I still enjoyed the initial setting in 1850 in New Orleans, it reminded me of Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice and I liked that, as I expected the retelling of how Saxon Montague, a former tobacco farm worker, became a vampire and how she managed to survive for more than one-hundred years. The history of it all was delightful to read. Vampires live million lives; they can be anyone and yet no one. In this life, Saxon Montague is a film director whose just been asked to cast the leading female role for her new movie “Venandi”, where an FBI detective is investigating a brutal serial killer who turns out to be a vampire.
The connection with the movie industry didn’t come as a surprise to me. The Vampire theme has been used and abused over the centuries by Hollywood. Every year a new series or movie comes out. Even this year BBC is releasing the series Dracula. Nevertheless, it never fails to attract my interest. I simply can’t have enough. There’s always been something that pulls me to them, and it will always do the trick in making me watch or read about these characters.
What I probably love the most is that with one glance they can look into your soul and know all your secrets. That’s what happens exactly when Saxon meets Faye Stapleton. Undeniable insta-attraction. Something you can’t explain. Something ancestral. A desire none of them can resist. An immovable force.
I must be honest here, I wished there was a bit more playing and teasing into it. A more shadowy toccata and fugue to raise the steamy atmosphere. I would have liked to see more lusting with no touching or that the reason of the lusting was explained later on. There seems to be a reason why Saxon feels this pulling towards Faye, but this is never explored deeply in the novel. I was wondering whether it was some kind of reincarnation, like it happens in Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Coppola with the character of Mina, but I didn’t find any evidence of it.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the novel (or long novella?) and the combination of flashbacks from the XIX to the XX century, the story of Susanne and Saxon, and later on in the XXI century the story of Saxon and Faye. All the classic elements of vampire stories are there, even if they are in a lighter version, so you can’t really think of this book as a Gothic Novel, more a bit of a thriller in a thriller. Overall, a pleasant reading and I will investigate into a possible sequel.
It's possible when the story takes a backseat to the flashbacks, if the characters have no depth whatsoever and when the plot is just too silly to countenance.
Despite the violent stalker guy and a vampire leading lady, there was no tension whatsoever.
Most annoying was the jarring way scenes were super-glued together that simply did not make sense together.
Te book was less than 200 pages but muscled through a lot of 'plot'. Yeah the plot was dumb - but all of that space was still robbed from the characters who could have interacted in that time.
Finally, the flashbacks - including gratuitious sex scenes with OW/former lover. The book just wasn't long enough to include past relationships, so I guess it was done to include more erotic content? Which is odd because some of the main couple action just faded to black ... why???
My takeaway is that indie wlw romance just does not have good editors. KC Luck has written and published other novels and when she writes a scene, it isn't grating or anything. Sure, she gets sidetracked into monologues a lot, but it's all still bearable. Her prose isn't overly purple and sometimes there's a good sentence here or there. But the work as a whole just doesn't hold up very well, as a novel. In published romance, I often see bad books. But I would still call those somewhat cohesive novels. In those, it's the characters or the dialogues that annoy me, or the ludicrous plot.
Here, we see that there this is not a novel. There is a story, and the author tries to tell it with her characters, but cohesion and rhythm are missing so that the chapters barely stick together.
WLW content sadly does not have the wide audience that MM romance does. But I hope that the overall quality of the genre will improve so that it becomes readable. I'd love to own a few genuinely great lesbian erotic fantasy/sci-fi works that I can lend to my friends.
Right now, all I have is Sarah Waters and honestly, that's literary fiction (and I don't even like her neverending London settings T-T). I need some good commercial romance.
A Vampire in Hollywood is directing a movie about a vampire. This concept may sound trite however K.C. Luck weaves this story into an angst filled age gap love story. (Pun intended). The characters are very likeable. The normal vampire savagery is not front and centre like most books in this genre. We are seeing the humanness of the vampire and it is quite admirable. She tries to do the right thing until she faces something much stronger than herself. The writing is exceptional as always with Ms Luck. My only negative encounter was the redundant chapter headers “Los Angeles Present Day” when we had not left the present in the previous chapter. It became mild irritating only. This novel is a solid 4.5⭐️
KC better be planning a sequel or anything, I want to meet Faye and Saxons again
Such an entertaining read! It was lovely to watch the romance unravel, especially with their chemistry, you could indeed slice their attraction with a knife; in addition to that you get some of Saxon's backstory, which is heartbreaking, and there's also a sense of danger related to other things happening. I couldn't stop reading. And it kept me on my toes. And my highlights are witnesses of how my guesses about who was behind things that happened were all terribly wrong.
The ending was something that made me very pleased but also frustrated because you know it's a happy ending, but you don't get to really see. It left me with a desire for more and since it's basically 2023, it was enough time to cook something more :p amirite?
Mind, this story you need to take everything as is, you won't have an answer of why, how and when about the vampires as a group and individuals; it's about the couple, their building relationship and getting over the obstacles in their way, but if you're not picky about this kind of detail, go for it because IMHO it didn't make it less enjoyable to read.
This is such a quick read for me. (Though there were some parts that i was just brief through) The romance between the main characters was too quick. Because there were not much interaction or romance between them because every time they closed to each other, they just wanted to kiss each other or have sex. Hence, there wasn't much of anything to show the chemistry between the pair. (But that might be because i missed some details because i briefed through as well) 😣 sorry.
I loved this story. Both characters have this instant attraction between, and so much difference between them as well. I loved the implementation of the past as well as current. Not every day you meet someone that becomes your knight in,shining armor in every sense of that word.I wish there was a bit more of how the movie was made, but that's just for my view and interpretation. I hope there will be future as well.
Even though Saxon felt like she trusted her to be open-minded, a person could never tell what might happen.
This was just too contradictory. Throughout the entire book - with the police (or lack thereof), security, Saxon overall, Faye, and more. Also, weird bits with the co-star that just seemed to be inserted to add... more length to the story, I guess? Some type of drama...?
There's the whole "you don't/can't understand" bit without any chance given 'cause talking... What's that? -.-
The last bit was suuper obvious and extremely disappointing. Almost any other way of going about it would have been better.
Overall, this really was just too much tell and no show. I'd probably check out the author again, though, out of curiosity. Interesting ideas.
OMG I love sexy vampire females and with no talent as a book reviewer I will keep this torrid sexy love stories plot to the reader. MS. Luck is a major talent and thankfully after 8 brutal years and residency at a E Coast hospital becoming a MD, I am taking off the summer surfing, playing volleyball, and healing my soul and heart along the New Port Beach and doing what I missed most reading remarkable novels by talented writers like Ms. Luck. What a novel, so errie, erotic and spell binding, I hope to get inside Ms Lucks head again with another of her novels. Surfs up, gotta scoot TY Dr. Amanda.
I think I'm in my vampire-paranormal reading mood phase lol. A quick little fun read.
This was an insta-love-insta-attraction moment. I enjoyed it for a bit. Stalker issues is the underlying driving plot to keep the story moving. The story gets from point A to B fairly, I guess. Rarely I ever care for "past" chapters, but in this one I think I wanted more - thought it was more interesting because it revealed more of Saxon's character. I wanted to care more for the characters, but I didn't. The ending left a lot to be desired. I could say more but... eh~ Overall, it was a fun snack-bite read. Sufficient.
Who doesn't love a good vampire story? I loved Saxon, she can turn me anytime lol. Good storyline, some great characters. Did I mention Saxon was hot, hot, hot.
As always, you never know what you’ll get with a kindle unlimited book. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised to find this is a great one. I loved both the mains (especially Saxon) and the story definitely kept my attention.
This is KC’s first try at a vampire story, and in my opinion she hit it out of the park. The cover of the book is just insane, so good. KC did a really good job designing it. Kudos KC!
The story is one of my favourite vampire stories to date and for sure KC’s best book yet, in my opinion.
It’s a fast paced story that switches between the present and the past. This way you get to know more about Saxons origin story and a little about what her life used to be.
I loved the fact that Faye kept Saxons vampire in check and in one occasion that was so extremely hot. –fanning myself here- phew
I did miss some things though, or am I just being greedy now? I would have loved to know more about Louis’s past. Also more of Saxons backstory and life before Faye would have been great. I mean she is an old vampire after all, she must have seen and done some things that would make for good writing material.
But this is all so easily fixable, KC just has to write a sequel. There’s no way around it. That would also give way to know more about the mysterious reporter, what’s her story? And of course more of Faye and Saxon, those two are just yummy together.
I think this is one of those books that could have benefited from being longer. I enjoyed it, and you can write a good story in a small amount of pages, but I felt like the story didn’t get to its full potential because of the length. For only being 200 pages and what KC Luck fit into such a short space this was a really fun read. I always enjoy a good vampire story, and I liked the setting of this one. Saxon and Faye were both good characters and I liked them together. Will definitely be checking out KC Luck’s other work.
Starts well enough, then it gets stupid By the dramatic culmination of this book it has thrown so much stupidity my way that I felt like I had actually lost IQ points just from reading it. From the contemptuous lack of research about one of the easiest jobs to learn way too much about "Movie Directors" to then treating directors like they have a part time job where they can just go home early on a whim, and have enough free time to sleep in or get lonely. Then we have an amateur celebrity stalker slip past professional security to grab a movie star and hold her at knife point in front of her trailer on a busy closed film set -with heighten security. The famous/mysterious movie director has never had her photo taken, but all the strangers know who she is on sight. oh yeah, and vampires who unbothered by sunlight but can die from getting stabbed with silver. (voice muffled by facepalm: That's werewolves urg!) And then there is the standard boilerplate stupid that you get in romance novels Like: "I must drive you away to save you from me" and the perennial favorite. "We must deny this love we feel, but first come spend a long weekend at my secluded romantic beach house, but you have to sleep in the guest room with no door lock to avoid temptation". Sometimes the old 'on again / off again' can raise tension, and sometimes it just feels like you're getting jerked around.
I'm giving this a 3.75 as it was a fun vampire read. The 2 main characters definitely had chemistry, however, they were a bit insta-attraction. I excused it because, you know, vampires. I got through it in a single sitting, so this read is perfect for those afternoons where you just want to relax with an easy read and forget the world for a while.
The only thing that pulled me from the story was a possible plot issue. At one point there is an incident involving police that was bound to have been recorded by security cameras, since Saxon had just had a high tech security system installed for Faye. I wonder what happened to that footage, because the police would certainly have wanted to view it to verify the sequence of events and compare it to witness statements.
I always love a vampire romance and I was intrigued by this synopsis. Saxon Montague was a 200-year-old vampire who quickly became a Hollywood sensation when her first two films (which she directed) won critical acclaim. When Faye Stapleton auditioned for a role in Saxon's latest film, she knew that Faye was the one (in more ways than one).
This book had a lot going on in a short amount of time and jumped from past to present to give the reader information about Saxon's back story. The stalker and vampire hunter played second fiddle to the drama going on between Saxon and Faye.
This was an entertaining read that probably could have used a few more chapters to help give the reader some more meat!
Vampires are a weakness for me and when I saw this book, especially with its gorgeous cover, I knew I just had to read it. Unfortunately, I was let down. This story felt like a typical romance where the author changed the main character into a vampire at the last minute. I was unimpressed with some of the scenes regarding the immortal. Vampires' senses are heightened beyond any humans' senses, so when the vamp was startled more than once by someone's presence, it totally killed the vibe for me. No vampire gets startled because no matter how far in their head they are, they always, always know when someone is approaching. They can smell it, hear it, sense it. It's in their nature because they are predators who hunt. I wanted to love this story but in the end, I only liked it.
I get it. You’re a vampire making a vampire moving. I enjoyed the seen at the casting call for the lead actress. I felt the pull then. And only slightly following. The persistent reporter???? Really? And our leading lady has a stalker?!? Our leading man is a cowardly diva?!? Many things to unpack here. And only a few of them are actually unpacked.
There was some good meat here. But how in the hell is a vampire staying alive without blood? I mean, I can count on one hand how many times it was mentioned; her lifeblood is insignificant? That just makes her a powerful immortal. No need for the vampire pull. Anyway, it wrapped up so quickly I got a bit of whiplash.
What I did enjoy was seeing how our film director became a vampire and when she thirsted for blood.
What an incredible vampire love story! The vampire, Saxon, and the actress, Faye, flew off the pages. I had the distinct pleasure of following Ms Luck's progress of the story on her Facebook page. What an incredible ride. KC Luck has out done herself.