Rating: 4 1/2 stars (Spotlight Review)

Riley and Rhoan Jensen are twins, and a rare breed indeed. They are dhampire -- half vampire, half werewolf. They both work for the Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to protect the fair human citizens of Melbourne from supernatural predators. Riley has chosen a different employment path than her brother, performing her duties in a position of an office drone. Her brother has a much higher status in the Directorate as a guardian -- an assassin. A missing one at that, when he doesn't check in at his appointed time in the middle of an undercover mission.

For Riley, it couldn't come at a worse time. The weeklong period called "moon heat" is fast approaching, and her desire to mate is eating her alive...and so is the desire to find her brother. If things couldn't get more maddening, a very hot and very sexy naked vampire with amnesia appears on her doorstep looking for Rhoan. Is Quinn a friend, or foe? Riley doesn't have a clue, and neither does the reader until farther into the book.

It takes a hell of a lot to impress me when it comes to the mingling of sex, vampire, and werewolf. I don't miss much in this genre, and I've found most of it well below par. The sex is substandard, the plot is unimaginative, and the characters are cardboard cutouts with fangs. I suppose I've been spoiled by the best authors with a consistently high standard of originality and sizzle.

Keri Arthur pulls in the best qualities and adds a few more in creating her own original, alternate culture. Riley is witty, smart, fiercely loyal, and animalistic in her desire for untempered sex. Quinn is a study in contrasts -- generating heat, yet cold as ice. His motivations are murky, even as he teams up with the Directorate in finding Rhoan. The secondary characters and technology fit right into the landscape of the plot, instead of getting in the way of a good story.

And I love the way the author imbued the story with sex and lust without a social stigma attached to it. Some authors treat sex like it's something to be ashamed of, or never to be discussed without using cheezy euphemisms for the naughty bits. It's refreshing to find an author willing to portray the heroine as sexually free and bold in her enjoyment of multiple partners during the waxing moon.

Some elements of the story may seem to mirror events from other author's books -- the naked vampire with amnesia, for instance -- and I would have immediately jumped on that as a failure had the author not handled the idea in a completely different manner...with a vastly different outcome for the characters.

I have only two complaints: this is the first in series, and it is way too short. I'm not patient, especially when I've enjoyed something enough to buy the hardcover after I've read it. Twice.

Publisher: Spectra (January 31, 2006)

ISBN: 0553804588

Author's Website: http://www.keriarthur.com/