Midnight's Secret : A Paranormal Romance Vampire Werewolf Hybrid Series Prequel The Cynn Cruors Bloodline Series
Paranormal Romance/Victorian/Gothic
Independently Published
March 22, 2021
302
This is not your ordinary love story.
The happy ever after will come later...one hundred sixty-nine years after.
Arabella Strachan and Herod D'Argyle.
Star crossed lovers from the start.
Love was given to them only for a moment.
Before loyalty tore them apart.
Then the gods took pity and allowed them to find each other again.
Warning: For mature audiences only due to mature and sexual themes.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
This is a story of a forbidden love between the youngest daughter of Earl of Strathairn and Herod D’Argyle a Scatha Cruor and second in command to Dac Valerian. If you are familiar with this series then you are well aware of the evil perpetrated by the Scatha Cruor and the war between them and the Cynn Cruor. Love is something the Scatha Cruor are incapable of so when Herod found himself finding his mate and falling head over heels in love, he knew nothing good would come of it but he was not going to turn his back on a chance for happiness.
Herod attended a ball at the Strathairns Palace with the intention of kidnapping women to be sold as slaves only when he set eyes on Arabella Strachan the only thing on his mind is being with her and protecting her. Herod is going by the name Roderick Ayr and he recognizes Arabella as a Cruor mate and his. Unfortunately, Roderick can’t reveal that he is actually the Viscount of Malmaith and titled, as Roderick he is just a businessman who wants to court Arabella and using his ability to read and control minds, he gets what he wants.
Keeping his relationship with Arabella a secret while performing his duties as a Scatha Cruor gathering women for the auctions is filled with danger. If Dac learns about Arabella she and her family would be in danger, something he will do anything to avoid. How Herod went from a Cynn Cruor Warrior to a Scatha Cruor is not something I will reveal but it was done with the goal toward destroying Dac Valerian but after centuries as a Scatha Cruor he has embraced the evil and learned to enjoy it now all he wants is a life with Arabella who keeps the evil controlled and makes him want to embrace who he used to be.
Things take a turn for the worst when on their wedding day Arabella’s father dies and his last words were for Arabella to marry Roderick which she does going against Ton tradition of waiting a year. Trying to keep his secret and convincing Arabella to use her last name to protect her he makes plans for them to leave for America but everything goes wrong and his secret threatens to put Arabella in danger leaving him no choice but to leave her.
The life he dreamed of is falling apart but leaving the love of his life is far better than risking Dac learning about her.
This love and the HEA will not happen for over 100 years and although Herod continued his evil ways his heart always belonged to Arabella. Betrayal, violence, sex was ever present and although hating Herod would be easy to do after learning everything about him his story just brought tears to my eyes.