REVIEW: Flesh Fantasy | Maya DeLeina | Siren Publishing | EPR

The game begins: Rain pulls the short straw, so it’s her turn to play the game. A game they made up between them to have some no-strings-attached fun with the men they meet during game play.

The heat is on: Lead character Rain Calisto is an ordinary woman with a bunch of friends and a lust for life. Oh, and she has diabetes but manages to keep that under control – unlike her lust for two gorgeous men who both seem to have the hots for her. All a sign the game’s going well. Besides, after tonight they’re not meant to meet each other ever again. Game rules, you see. Life is for living, right? Of course, she doesn’t tell them it’s only a game, but does get more than she’s bargained for.

Rhys Mathews and his equally sexy friend, Armand Anastasio both have secrets of their own. Whilst Rain is giving herself shots of insulin, the men are giving themselves shots of Defender serum and swallowing Consumption pills to help them walk in the sunlight and consume food and drink, instead of depending on blood alone. No wonder they are so competitive. They’re just two regular vampires looking for some fun. No need to look for a mate match yet, which is just the way they like it. Hell, they’ve got enough on their plate, working on the case of the missing girls and dealing with vampire blood thieves. 

From the moment I read the intriguing prologue and it left me gasping for more, I knew I was going to enjoy the mysterious antics of the Ambrose Heights’ vampires. This is the diary of Rain Calisto and Rhys Mathews; a documentation of their transformation from a flesh fantasy to eternal love written in the first person from both points of view. I liked the danger element of Rain becoming a vampire without being given a choice of what she wanted, because Rhys couldn’t hold himself back from the day they first met. Add to that some very HOT, seductive, breathtaking moments and the heat is on. In addition, the fact that Rain, runs a vampire book club, yet didn’t see vampires as anything but romantic fictional characters, and her realisation of the truth is pretty fitting to how I’d react if this really happened.

All in all, Maya DeLeina deftly weaves humour, hot loving with some hidden horrors all wrapped up in one erotic, lusty bite. The stage is set. The game begins. And the stakes are higher than ever at Ambrose Heights. A book to get your teeth into before the sun comes up.