Review of How to Marry A Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

I was in the mood for something different when I picked up How to Marry A Millionaire Vampire. Well, it definitely is different! Millionaire Vampire Roman Draganesti has lost a fang, leaving him in desperate need of a dentist. Bring in the lovely Dr. Shana Whelan, who’s wanted (dead) by the mob. The two are an unlikely pairing to say the least but I quickly found myself rooting for them as their chemistry is evident from early on in the story, which kicks off with Roman biting into a sex toy created to look like a human and filled with synthetic blood. Not gonna lie, I found much about the premise to be corny and just plain weird, but I could feel the tension between hero and heroine and so I kept reading, waiting to see when they’d get together and how it would happen. I enjoyed Shana fixing Roman’s tooth, the flirting that goes on around it. Then, the long break that follows…not so much. There are several chapters in the middle of the book where the two don’t even see one another at all, which got me pretty bored. But, when they finally reunite, things pick up again. There’s a ball – ball’s are always fun! And I enjoyed learning Roman’s backstory – I could tell he was one of the good guys from the start but to learn just how well intentioned and innocent this man really is deepened my sympathy for and understanding of the character. As for the sex scene, well, I guess it would depend on whether we’re talking about the first time, where Roman comes to Shana in her mind and the two have “Vampire Sex,” the second, where they are interrupted…by Roman, who winds up giving into temptation on a greater level than he intended to and actually biting Shana, or the third time, where they finally go all the way, except, we’ve already been there a couple of times at this point and a fair amount of the anticipation has passed. We wait until almost the end of the book for one fully consummated sex scene. Fortunately, the tension remains thereafter as we soon discover that Shana’s father is hunting vampires. Exciting, but I found this kind of an odd twist in the eleventh hour – Ivan Petrovsky, evil vampire who, in direct contrast to Roman, has no qualms about biting humans, is the major villain in this story, yet, in the final pages, Shana’s father essentially takes his place. And it all gets way too political for me when everything comes full circle and Shana’s father’s mission to kill vampires is dubbed a “hate crime.” I guess nothing is safe ground from politics anymore, not even a romance novel published in 2005. Overall, I enjoyed this well-written story and wanted to keep reading it in spite of my gripes. I was impressed by Ms. Sparks’ knowledge of vampires and her unique twists on what was clearly a great deal of research. Fun story! Well done!