Dark Paths The Rhythm of His Blood
Paranormal, Vampire, Gay Romance
Pride Publishing
May 14, 2024
Kindle
371
Amazon
Review By Ulysses Dietz
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Quinn and Bermingham write a really good book. The characters are complex and stand out in high relief, and the action of the book keeps it a page-turner from start to finish. The internal logic for the world the authors have created holds up under the weight of a complicated plot.
Now, the world created by the authors is one in which vampires exist. At first, all we are aware of is one of the book’s protagonists, Rayne Wylde, a 1990s British rock star, who inadvertently falls for an exotic dancer named Xavier Gavrilov, who is American born in spite of his name. The instant attraction is logical and inevitable: Rayne sees Xavier performing an erotic dance to his biggest, darkest hit, “Dark Paths.” It’s a great set-up both for the plot and for the book’s title. The authors indeed take all of us down some very dark paths in the course of telling the tale.
Xavier comes to assume that Rayne is a vampire, without ever having consciously considered whether such mythical beings are real. It’s the biting and the blood-drinking; and yet, Rayne is always gentle and passionate and seems to really care. After all, it’s only a fling while Rayne is in the USA promoting his legacy. Xavier has no expectations, despite his strong feelings and a connection that won’t go away.
It all goes sideways when Xavier is dragged before a mysterious Spaniard who calls himself Cole. Rayne’s carelessness with rules (anybody’s rules) has triggered something ugly and dark in which the innocent and unsuspecting Xavier is caught. The rest of the book is more or less Rayne dealing with the aftermath of his own carelessness; and having to come to grips with the feelings he has for the young man he had no plans to fall for.
There are good vampires, but apparently there are even more bad vampires. I confess, having invested a lot of my life in thinking about vampires and their place in the world of fiction (and my own two novels), I am never completely happy when vampires are the bad guys.
Rayne is a good guy, but he (along with his sire) seemsto be a rarity: a vampire who cares about humans and lives happily among them. Then again, he’s a fairly young vampire, maybe half a century old. This sets up a core premise of the authors’ world: the older the vampire the more powerful, in every way. Most vampires apparently see humans as nothing more than food and sexual amusement, to be used and tossed.
The authors delve deep into this dark world of vampires, revealing a cruel and sadistic culture that I found upsetting. I am not one for triggers, but they abound in this story, for those who might be sensitive. The series books to follow this heart-stopping first installment will clearly be all about the good vampire(s) having to stop the bad ones. It won’t be easy.
The narrative arc of “Dark Paths” is very satisfying. At the end we still have much we don’t know about Rayne and Xavier, although we’ve begun to guess. This alone would keep me coming back for more. We also know that these two men will have to figure out their relationship, and how Xavier will fit into this life—into which he has been dragged without a by-your-leave. The sexual connection between Rayne and Xavier is very well fleshed out (no pun intended). The high heat in this book is clearly aimed at its audience, and I always find that somewhat distracting. I can, however, attest to the fact that the power of the book’s narrative does not depend on the sexual interludes. It’s strong and compelling and left me hungry for more.
Thank you so much for the lovely review <3