READING: Nocturne by Syrie James

Nocturne by Syrie James

Publication Date: January 4th 2011

Publisher: Vanguard Press

Hardcover, 224 pages

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When Nicole Whitcomb’s car runs off a Colorado mountain road during a blinding snowstorm, she is saved from death by a handsome, fascinating, and enigmatic stranger.


Snowbound with him for days in his beautiful home high in the Rockies, she finds herself powerfully attracted to him and soon comes to realize that the feeling is mutual. But there are things about him that mystify her, filling her with apprehension—and Nicole can’t shake the feeling that he doesn’t want her there.


Who is Michael Tyler? Why does he live alone in such a secluded spot and guard his private life so carefully? What secret—or secrets—is he hiding?


Nicole has secrets of her own and a past she is running from—but Michael understands her better than anyone she has ever known. Soon, she is falling as deeply in love with him as he is with her.


But as the sexual tension between them builds, the clues mount up. When Nicole learns the terrifying truth—that her host is an ages-old vampire who is torn between his love for her and his desire for her blood—there’s nowhere for her to run but into the blizzard raging outside, and he’s the only one who can save her life.


Filled with unexpected twists and surprises, Nocturne is a page-turning, haunting, and deeply romantic story of forbidden love that will grab your heart and not let go.

Nocturne by Syrie James was a quite pleasant surprise!The reviews I read about this book were a bit mixed,so I was a bit hesitant when I started reading it,but quickly after a handful of pages in this novel,all my reluctance disappeared!

Syrie James managed to create a wonderful novel and an amazing atmosphere by only using two characters throughout her whole book!It must be the first time I read a book where only two characters appear and the whole story is evolved just around them.Surely,I've read some novels where a couple is mainly feautured,but not one where noone else ever appears...And to be honest,the fact that James manages to catch and preserve the reader's attention with just two characters,tells a lot about this book!

I really liked Nicole as a character.Sweet,smart and sensitive and at last a heroine of a paranormal romance who struggles a bit more to accept the paranormal truth of things and reacts as any normal person would have reacted if stuck in a situation like hers.Surely,she accepts some things and falls in love with the "monster" but at least her reactions are a bit more believable and rational...

Michael on the other hand,may not be one of those male characters that will stick in your mind for a long length of time with their hotness,but a likeable character nonetheless.I liked the way he struggled internally to preserve anything human left in him,but not in a much too troubled and way too tormented way I am usually used to.

Both Nicole and Michael are what I call "quiet" characters (the kind of characters that have rational and measured reactions) but despite that they manage to grow fond of you and stick in your memory.

The atmosphere also,was among my favorite things in this novel.All the secluded,and trapped in a -luxurious surely!- place vibe just excited me!Who wouldn't want to be stranded with a gorgeous stranger (not the dangerous kind let me clear!) in a magnificent place and fall in love with that stranger while a blizzard is raging outside?I'm a sucker for those kind of stories and I just ignore in that case the rational part of me who says that a stranger isn't always the gorgeous and to die for guy but that this kind of situation could easily turn to be the staff of nightmares are made off...

But what made me love this book was its ending...An ending unlike any other!You don't get to have your typical ending with Nocturne,that's for sure.For the first time,I get to read a book that surprises me the whole time,even with its ending!Don't wanna say too much about it,only that:It will make me remember this book,even if all details are blured for a really long time...