Lawson’s Review of Taken by the Night by Kathryn Smith
Historical/Paranormal Romance by Avon released on October 30, 2007

This is the third in Smith’s Brotherhood of Blood series about a group of Victorian vampires. The first book in the series is Be Mine Tonight released June 27, 2006 and the second is Night of the Huntress released January 30, 2007. 

Saint has returned to London and the safe house of the Brotherhood at a bad time. Though only intending to stay one night as he travels elsewhere, Saint knows he has to help those of the Maison Rouge. Two of their own have been brutally murdered and Scotland Yard is not getting on the case due to the type of people the two victims were. Maison Rouge is a safe house for the Brotherhood, but it is also an upscale brothel run by Madeline Dearing. Madeline’s daughter Ivy helps her run the house and see to their “special” guests from time to time.

Saint wants to keep moving, but his sense of duty to the house and the safety of its residents keep him in London to solve the crimes. Saint doesn’t count on his attraction to Ivy Dearing, even though she doesn’t trust him or how desperate Ivy is for vengeance to find the killer of her two friends. Using his talents as a vampire Saint searches London by night for clues to the case, but the girls continue to be targeted.

Ivy knows that Saint is the one person that can give her the justice she craves. But she also wants to be part of the investigation and she’s frustrated when Saint doesn’t let her go with him. Even worse is she begins to want Saint for more than his ability to protect those that she cares about. Ivy knows what she wants, and knows how to get it, but as the killer continues his terror Ivy and Saint begin to fall in love and become embroiled in more danger than their love can survive.

This is my first Kathryn Smith (though she signed one of her backlist for me and Syb brought it from RWA) and I have to say that I loved Saint. He was witty, flirtatious, charming, sexy and. . .probably lots of things a hero should be. Though he claims to want to be alone and not lead people, he’s very loyal and has leadership qualities that are needed in the murder investigations.

Ivy is a different story. I didn’t get her for much of the book. She says she’s honest to a fault, but she’s not honest with herself about what she feels for Saint, as well as the other people in her life. She’s a photographer, but she really doesn’t seem to see people. As she begins to trust Saint, she stops trusting herself and doesn’t understand her own feelings. Why Saint sticks around is a bit of a mystery to me because Ivy seemed more a woman of the 1990s rather than the 1890s. Her independent streak was vastly out of historical place.

Even though Ivy wasn’t very likeable (at least to me), she and Saint had some marvelous chemistry. I suppose their personalities complimented each other enough to lead to lots of sparks in the bedroom. There were a couple of times those sparks may have caught Saint on fire, and that would be a bad thing for a vampire. Smith’s dialogue and connection during “the act” for these to characters was spot on.

Smith also uses lots of fun little details to put one in the period very well. I had fun fact checking, (yes, I’m a history nerd and like to fact check and learn new things) and seeing how life progressed in the 1890s with some of the technology we take for granted today. The use of things such as the telephone and photography worked well in the story not only has historical detail, but as plot devices.

One aspect that could have used work was the murder plot line. It was mixed with some of the vague conspiracy theories of Jack the Ripper, which were oversimplified and played up a little too much, though they are interesting historical tidbits. It made some things in the plot a little too convenient. And made the villain easy to spot and overly contemptible because even Saint says something along the lines of “Anyone that agreeable must be up to no good”. Yep, I would have to agree.

The secondary characters, Ivy’s mother, Ezekiel (Saint’s source of information) and some of the Maison Rouge girls gave some good depth and helped give dimension to Saint, and though Ivy is too independent, she’s kept in line by Saint, even if she does a couple of things that are TSTL. I wonder though what the Brotherhood’s real names are, since they go by Bishop, Chapel, Saint, Temple and Reign. . .has that been explained before, or will it be discussed in later books? I suppose some more research is in order and going back and reading the first two books which I have been remiss and not read yet.

Grade: B-