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Nicola Claire
Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband, two teenage boys and a Miniature Schnauzer named Rudy.
A bit of a romance junkie, she can be known to devour as many as half a dozen books a week if she drinks too much coffee. But her real passion is writing sexy, romantic suspense stories with strong female leads and alpha male protagonists who know how to love them.
So far, she’s written well over 60 books. She might have caught the writing bug; here’s hoping there’s no cure!
Popular Answered Questions
I’m thrilled you enjoyed Fearless. There will certainly be a book two in the series. I’ve already started it! Yay! But as to when it will …more Hi Michelle,
I’m thrilled you enjoyed Fearless. There will certainly be a book two in the series. I’ve already started it! Yay! But as to when it will be ready for release, I can’t be sure.
I expect some time next year, because, like you, I am super keen to see what happens for Anna & her Inspector Kelly.
You can keep up to date with what’s happening in my writer’s cave over on Facebook. Hope to catch you there!
Nicola Claire There’s so much to pick from, but I’d have to say the best thing about being a writer is spending all day inside my head. Getting to play with my imag…more There’s so much to pick from, but I’d have to say the best thing about being a writer is spending all day inside my head. Getting to play with my imagination – mould it, nurture it, see where it leads – and then finding out that there’s actually readers out there who can’t wait for me to delve right back into my head for the next instalment!
Does that make me a headcase?
Series by Nicola Claire
“There is so much going on and so many enemies facing our heroes that you just see no way out for them. This book has a lot of heart and action and everything that makes up a story that sucks you in its world so deeply it makes you go “Wait, what?” wh” Read more of this review »
I was temporarily bereft at what I suspected was the end of the series. So delighted you are giving us more. Stellar writing as always. Excellent editing. Loved the worldbuilding and all of the storylines. “
“I absolutely love this series! I know when I pick up a book by Nicola Claire it’s going to be a great read. Loving Summer was even better than it’s predecessor!
A wedding gone wrong? What writer hasn’t used the premise at some time or another? This re” Read more of this review »
“I didn’t want it to end.
What can I say only I absolutely loved this book. I could read about Summer O’Dare and Detective Douche all day long. The murder on the beach and the mystery man with amnesia will have you guessing to the very end. And I love ” Read more of this review »
“You may not be aware, ma douce, but not all vampyre have a kindred, some will live out their existence without such beauty in their lives. I have waited five hundred years for you.”
― Nicola Claire
“She is the sun that shines on my path, chasing away any shadows. She is the laughter that fills up the gaping holes, without which I would be a basket case. She is the reason why I love my job. The best part of my day is drinking a coffee, eating a chocolate treat and listening to great music, while sitting with Genevieve Cain. She appreciates life, she grasps it and makes it what she wants. Sure, she’s hit a few bumps recently, what with her loser ex, but Gen’s a survivor. And not just any survivor, she’s a survivor with dignity and pride.”
― Nicola Claire, Sweet Seduction Sacrifice
“I’d need either really high heeled shoes to avoid tripping over, or I was just expected to shuffle along like a slug. ”
― Nicola Claire, Kindred
Kindred
From Amazon Romantic Suspense, Mystery Romance and Fantasy Bestselling Author Nicola Claire comes a seductive and thrilling tale of vampires and vampire hunters, in a world where love and trust are as dangerous and addictive as a Nosferatu’s bite.
“You may not be aware, ma douce, but not all vampyre have a kindred, some will live out their existence without such beauty in their lives. I have waited five hundred years for you.”
Vampires, shapeshifters, ghouls and magic-users abound in a world where the Norms, (those humans without paranormal abilities), are ignorant of the creatures of the night and the supernatural species that live alongside them.
Lucinda Monk is a bank teller by day and a vampire hunter by night, but she wasn’t always a part of this world. Thrown into a heady mix of powerful people and sensual beings, she’s had to find her way practically blindfolded in amongst the creatures of the night.
Lucinda, though, is a capable and realistic kind of girl. Her motto: Never Show Fear.
But there’s something different about Luce. Something those creatures she hunts want. So, in order to stay one step ahead of the enemy, she has to let the enemy in. In all his compelling, seductive and delicious ways.
Sleeping with the enemy has never meant so much before. But can she trust him?
From the urban streets of the city to the dark alleys and sinful bars that promise a wickedness a girl from the farm has never before been exposed to, Lucinda gets drawn irreversibly into the dark side of life.
And if the Master of the City has his way, she will always be his. For eternity.
First published May 7, 2012
Nicola Claire
Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband, two teenage boys and a Miniature Schnauzer named Rudy.
A bit of a romance junkie, she can be known to devour as many as half a dozen books a week if she drinks too much coffee. But her real passion is writing sexy, romantic suspense stories with strong female leads and alpha male protagonists who know how to love them.
So far, she’s written well over 60 books. She might have caught the writing bug; here’s hoping there’s no cure!
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3.5 Well, this book was a disappointment.
When I read the other book by Nicola Claire, Blood Enchanted, I said I must try everything by this author, I absolutely loved that one.
And well, I had really high hopes for this series, I heard great stuff about it. And boy, did it disappoint!
What I hated: the main female character, Luce, was chopped. She felt like she had different personalities, she was either nice or a bitch or sarcastic or absolutely lovely. Yeah, a person can be all that, but you can’t say how much you love your friends and how great they are and then forget about them when they die or are badly hurt . I mean, that doesn’t add up! Plus, she’s suppose to be a great fighter but she wears tight mini skirts when she goes out hunting vampires? Really? How comfortable can that be?
Also, I didn’t like that she was all-powerful, she ends up being able to kill 30 vampires ’cause she has a new power, she can glow and all the ones who surround her die . Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love a kickass chick, but I like to feel the “reality” in that.
The good parts? The plot, it was pretty interesting. Also, even though I hated Luce a few times, most of the time I liked her attitude (not her assassin skills but hey, at least she had an attitude).
This series had so much potential! I want my hopes back!
This is the best vampire book I’ve read in a long time and if you like the paranormal world of vampires, shape shifters, ghouls and magic this book is a must read! The writing was seamless and the character development was outstanding.
Lucinda Monk is a bank teller by day and a vampire hunter by night – and she is good at it. Too good – which is why the Master of Auckland summons her for a visit. Michel Durand, the powerful, drop dead, (pardon the pun) gorgeous alpha-vamp, knows there’s something different about Lucinda, something those creatures she hunts, want – including him. Unfortunately, our feisty and strong willed heroine needs to stay one step ahead of the enemy and to do so, she has to let the enemy in; which goes against everything she believes. Vampires are dark, she is light, though she can sense the good in Michel, his 500 years of practice can easily penetrate her, seducing her with his power. Michel is fascinated by his attraction to Lucinda and lets her know it right away, but she has another problem; vampires, at least the purely evil ones, are growing by the numbers and one little vampire hunter isn’t going to cut it. So, Michel offers Lucinda his protection. Luckily, she has developed the unique ability to block a vampire’s affect of seduction and manipulation, but Michel is stronger and more powerful and every day they spend together; their connection becomes more intense, even for her to deny.
As I was reading this book, I kept thinking about a song I’d recently heard by Kelly Clarkson, called, “Dark Side”. It perfectly depicts the relationship between Lucinda and Michel and the song’s lyrics kept haunting me; revealing Michel’s power and also his vulnerability when it came to loving Lucinda. If you’d like to venture further inside their world, here is the link to this incredible song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzvy4f.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It’s first person narrative allowed the reader to enjoy Lucinda’s sarcasm, humor and internal banter; which had me giggling to myself, a lot. Clearly, Claire has a unique ability to pull you in immediately and keep you captivated, which is a reader’s dream and I truly had a hard time putting this one down. There was action, mystery, intrigue, romance and deliciously steamy love scenes that would make any girl swoon for her very own vampire. I was a little sad for this story to end, however am delighted to tell you that this is the first book in a series of eight and I cannot wait to get back to my new favorite vampire series! Well done, Ms. Claire – I am bitten smitten!
I’m always thrilled to find a fresh, unique twist to the done-to-death vampire/shifter theme, and Nicola Claire has given us that. With vamps, ghouls, shifters and magic, the world is complex, the characters engaging, and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series!
Many thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This is feeling like it’s gonna be a long one and may contain mild spoilers.
To start off with, this is very, VERY similar to the Anita Blake series. The heroine, Lucinda, is a vampire hunter instead of a necromancer who hunts vampires (Anita), but she has a very similar attitude. Lucinda’s best friend is a shifter, much like Richard is in the A. B. series and there are hints of a pretty powerful love triangle (One would hope not an actual trifecta. That really would be far too much to chalk up to coincidence), but it’s Michel’s similarities to Jean Claude that really raised my eyebrows.
Jean Claude (from A.B.) is an ill-defined master vampire, whatever that is. Michel (from Kindred) is an ill-defined master vampire, whatever that is. J.C. is the master of his city. Michel is the master of his city. Both are tall. Both have dark, longish hair and blue eyes. Both own/manage nightclubs. J.C. is 400-600 years old and powerful. Michel is 500 years old and powerful. Both are French (both from peasant families). Both are fashion conscious. Both were changed to vampires in their early thirties—J.C. at 30, Michel at 32. Both have voices that are described as having a physical sensory response in the heroine, strokes their skin and such. Both visit their heroines in her dreams. Both use a little French pet name for their romantic interest—J.C. ma petite and/or ma cherie, Michel ma douce and/or ma belle. They’re both arrogant and act/speak in very similar manners. Removed from context and set side by side, I literally wouldn’t be able to tell one from the other.
Given the similarities, I suppose I can say with complete confidence that if you liked Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter you’ll like Kindred. Personally, I found both of them fairly so-so. Not horrible, but I didn’t fall in love either. In the case of Kindred I found that I basically enjoyed it, but had some fairly serious complaints too.
To start with the positive, I like that Lucinda was an unapologeticly sexual woman, without any kind of fuss needing to be made about virginity or lack of experience. It just wasn’t mentioned at all and at 24 year old, it doesn’t need to be. I really appreciated that. So often, PNR heroines are made out to be chaste maidens and the reader has to sit through endless scenes of mental agony over the consequences of having sex. I liked that this book skipped all that. She had sex, but there wasn’t the need to dramatise it.
I also liked that the basic vampire psyche was fairly well thought out and thoroughly explained. It really gave the reader a good understanding of their actions, especially when dealing with instinctual responses to things.
Most of the time, I also liked Lucinda and Michel. Lucinda was fairly sharp and truly brave and Michel could be really sexy sometimes. I didn’t always like them though. Lucinda seemed to constantly be crying over some little thing or another. It made her seem weak. And Michel was a jackass as often as he was a sweetheart.
Lastly, I liked that the book was set in Auckland, New Zealand. The US, followed by the UK are the settings for the vast majority of the genre. It was refreshing to find myself somewhere new, with new terminology, cultural norms, etc.
Next, to move on to things that irritated me; I’ll start with the minor stuff. The whole vampire/vampire hunter partnership made no sense to me. Michel spoke of it as if the vampires and the hunters had come to an agreement, or an ‘accord’ probably, and agreed to it. But the symptoms and consequences are biological. So how does that work then?
What’s more, if it is all based on some past agreement between the species, even one that later somehow became engrained in the biology of hunters and vampires, how can a hunter be forced into it? How, exactly, the bonding takes place was never fully explained. There was a social ceremony but it wasn’t clear which aspect of it actual initiates the binding. I was left confused about one of the most important aspects of the plot.
Similarly, the whole dream walking made little sense either. She could physically, but invisibly, appear elsewhere with tools she didn’t have with her where her physical body was and actually affect physical reality. Seems unlikely, but more importantly how could that happen?
Next, and I can’t believe I’m saying this; it’s completely opposite of what I’m usually harping on about—books that end without conclusions—but IMO this book should have ended at about 45% and the remaining 50% been a separate book. (The last 5% is bonus material.)
There is a fairly dramatic event around that time that then requires the introduction of a whole new threat (plot) and reads as a separate, but related novel. There are even the occasional recap passages one finds in sequels to remind them of what happened in previous books. The shift felt abrupt. I might not even mention it if this was a stand-alone book. I would just assume the author was trying to keep the whole story in one text and appreciate the effort. But there are 7 subsequent books in the Kindred series, so why not just break it up and make it a 9 book series instead?
Lastly, for the small irritants, there are a series of deus ex machina events. These always annoy me. She repeatedly saves the day, or at least the lives in a situation, by pulling some unknown ultra-power out of her back pocket without knowing how or even that she was capable. These powers weren’t supposed to have manifested yet, but the miraculously do whenever she needs them. That always strikes me as weak.
Now, to move on to the (admittedly vague) major thing that made me grind my teeth. Lucinda was demonstrably powerless. Sure she pulled out the superpowers when need be, but I’m speaking of social and interpersonal power, not magic or fighting skill power.
For all the times she went on and on about equality, her wants, needs and desires were walked over repeatedly. Even her own emotions were manipulated by a variety of male characters. Often the reader would be told something along the lines of, Lucinda didn’t want to feel this way or reciprocate the lust, but her hands/mind/mouth/etc had a mind of their own. It was as if she had no defence against the men’s overpowering presence or that as a woman she had no control over her own sexual responses. God, women have been shoved in that box for generations and I still hate it.
And this manipulation wasn’t just done with vampire super mind control (you know glaze, glamour, rolled mind, etc) but by the fact that she was repeatedly distracted from justifiable anger by giving in to sexual desire when angry, or even worse regretted and cried, then apologised for her own feelings or appropriate retaliation for offences. Why should she have to do this? Men in this book were allowed to get angry, stay angry and react in anger. Lucinda was NEVER allowed this response.
Women just aren’t supposed to do that. not good girls anyway. We’ve all heard some version of it, ‘suck it up honey let the men handle it. They obviously know better than you, even if it makes you want to swallow your own teeth.’
The message became obviously one of secondary status. The problem is that it was written as if to suggest she wasn’t, but actions speak louder than words, as they say, and Lucinda was not the one able to cause change in herself or others, she was only the recipient of it and she then wasn’t even allowed to be angry about it.
As an example, Michel denied her demand to see Rick (her best friend). Michel placed his own image, not even his or her wellbeing, but his image, above her very clearly expressed desire. He did not apologise for this and when she briefly became angry at him a mere act of impressive skill on his part caused her to not only lose her anger, but then become the cliché nurturing woman who set aside her own desire to instead support on his moral journey. She never did get to see Rick and he never had to face putting her wants secondary.
A second example (one that showed up more than once), she wanted to join a fight. He locked her away, despite her protest to prevent this. Circumstances always progressed such that she never remained angry at this and he never had to alter his behaviour.
Even a blatant physical and nearly fatal attack (Michel against Lucinda, because she smelled of another) is dismissed because it’s vampire nature. When Lucinda briefly retaliated (it might be better stated as fought back), she stopped when he asked, despite the fact that her similar pleas hadn’t even paused his attack. Then she cried, apologised and felt bad for her actions. Did Michel? Nope, not all. He’s allowed his anger and reactions to it. Lucinda wasn’t. at all.
That’s like asking a woman to apologise for hitting a man back, without asking the man to apologise for hitting her first, because men (and not women) are, by their very nature, violent creatures. Proverbial show of hands, anyone here find that an acceptable scenario? Because all I did was swap the word vampire for man. That’s exactly how it’s presented in the book, more than once even.
We can pretend she was an equal to Michel, but she was shown to be less able to control herself, her emotions, her environment and her mate than he was. I hate to read more into this than is there, and I’m not claiming the author wrote it this way on purpose. Instead, and in a way worse, I think it’s a subconscious mimicking of the basic male hegemony. That’s what makes it so pervasive. It’s either unseen or seen as the natural way of things. Even a female author, who likely thought she was crafting a strong, in control, female lead instead wrote a classically second-class little woman. I hate that!
The writing itself was pretty good. The book could do with a little more editing. There are a few typos, it can occasionally be difficult to tell who is speaking and it’s occasionally repetitive. So, final word. I had some major gripes, which I’ll admit as many people as not will role their eyes at, but it was still an amusing read. There was a decent amount of humour and some pretty good sex scenes.