Review: In the Heat of the Bite by Lydia Dare

Chivalry is far from undead...

Matthew Halkett, Earl of Blodswell, is one of the few men in the ton who can claim to be a knight in shining armor- because that's precisely what he was before being turned into a vampyre. When he spies a damsel in distress in the midst of a storm in Hyde Park, his natural instinct is to rush to her aid...

But not every woman needs to be rescued...

Weather-controlling witch Rhiannon Sinclair isn't caught in a storm-she's the cause of it. She's mortified to have been caught making trouble by the imposing earl, but she doesn't need any man-never has, and is sure she never will...

But when Rhiannon encounters Matthew again, her powers go awry and his supernatural abilities run amok. Between the two of them, the ton is thrown into an uproar. There's never been a more tempestuous scandal...

I was a little disappointed in this book.  Given "clues" in the previous book of the series, It Happened One Bite, I assumed the heroine for the next novel would be Sorcha, the youngest witch in the coven.  When I learned the heroine would be Rhiannon, I was quite surprised, simply because we the reader don't know much about her, other than her magical abilities concerning the weather.   Turns out, she had a lot to deal with: neglectful father, younger sister, hateful aunt.

Matthew, the Earl of Blodswell, also has problems: he's a vampire who's started having chest pains when he spies Rhiannon having a temper tantrum in the park.  Then his fangs won't distend, except for Rhiannon.

(Sing it with me now -- "Rhiannnnnon...")

There didn't seem to be much conflict between Rhiannon and Matthew, or perhaps I didn't believe it.  All reasoning for why they shouldn't be together is the same as that in It Happened One Bite with Blaire and James, except any sexual tension that might be present because Blaire fights her attraction to James isn't because Rhiannon gives into hers.

No one was turned; no one got into a fight.  In the Heat of the Bite felt like a "filler" book, and I almost believe Rhiannon and Matthew would have been better served as a secondary romance over the course of these last three books.  But I plan to read the final book in the series, Never Been Bit, to see Sorcha get her man and hopefully witness Elspeth give birth.       

(A very special thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca who provided me with an ARC of In the Heat of the Bite.)