High Five Low Five Review of Her Vampire Husband by Michele Hauf

Michele Hauf
Her Vampire Husband
HQN Books - April 1, 2010 - 368 pages - ISBN 9780373774999 - $ 7.99

Genre & Keywords: Paranormal, Vampires, Werewolves, War, Violence

Rating: êêê½ - êêêê
Heat level: ¹¹


I’ve received this romance from the publisher, through Netgalley. It’s a full length novel and I’ve read it as an ebook.

This is one of my High 5, Low 5 reviews. The High Five are five things that have impressed me or that I really enjoyed, and the Low Five are five things that had me shaking my head or raise my brows in a less admiring way.

We have a colorful, sassy werewolf princess and a sexy, refined, old vampire, we put them together in a big luxurious house where they have to live together because of an arranged marriage, we throw a little physical attraction in the mix, add a lot of ancient hate and prejudices for the other sort and we have a wonderful premise for a lovely romance! Her Vampire Husband is altogether a fun read. Sexual tension, love, action, a sexy vampire and a kick-ass heroine, what more does a romantic story need? Well, maybe a slower build-up from mortal enemies to true loves? Or less conversation during sex scenes? So, there were a few things I really liked about this novel and a few that made me frown a little. I tried to cut them down to my five highs and five lows.

First the Back Blurb:

She may resist his bite, but she can't resist his charms…
Werewolf princess Blu Masterson won't allow her seductive vampire husband to consummate their marriage with his bite, marking her forever. Alone in a secluded estate with her sworn enemy, Blu curses the marriage arranged to bring their rival nations together, especially since Creed Saint-Pierre calls out to her most feral desires.

When Blu uncovers her pack's secret plot to destroy the vampire nation—and Creed—she is forced to confront her growing feelings for her sexy undead husband. Will she choose the only life she's ever known or accept his vampire bite?

High 5

• Vibrant heroine
Blu is a refreshing, witty character. I especially enjoyed her in the first half of the story when she gave off some attitude. She seemed strong and vibrant and yet had this deeply hidden vulnerability that she showed Creed more and more. Creed’s honesty and noble attitude got to her and made her fall for him.

• Good sexual tension
Although the love scenes were not too earth shattering, even a bit predictable, the sexual tension between the two characters was palpable and made this a very erotic read altogether. Their attraction for each other was made very believable.

• Nice character development
The two main characters were not only loveable, they also seemed to have a positive influence on each other and went through some kind of growth. I really liked that they sometimes were unpredictable, and I don’t mean acting out of character. For example the matter of Creed biting Blu which would make her his, was handled a little bit differently than I’d expected.

• Mix of love story and action
We get it all in this book, love and action and the both are nicely related to each other too. I really like romances that can deliver both in one package, it makes the romance so much more intense. I have to admit that the love and action could’ve been balanced slightly better. Now it was almost like the first half of the book was a love story and the second half an action story. I would’ve appreciated the book even more if this was dosed differently.

• Surprising magical world
I’m not an experienced paranormal romance reader, so I don’t have much comparison. But I liked how the paranormal and magical world in this story worked. There were vamps, wolves and witches and although they tried to work together the differences were too big for a happily living with and accepting the other sorts. At first it annoyed me that the witches were so harsh towards Creed and couldn’t see him as a person, only as one of the vampires. But I have to admit that it made the story stronger. Especially in the end when all is not solved with an easy way out (a magical spell), the plot surprised me more than when the author had chosen for the power of the magic. Now it was the hero’s goodness, his mental (and physical) strength, which brought the solution.


Low 5

• Falling in love happened fast
It was rather hard to grasp how fast Blu and Creed turned from being mortal enemies to each other’s true love. It felt as if the protags were still in the phase of getting to know each other and learning to like each other when suddenly the big L-word was brought into the game. For me, the build-up to that should’ve taken much longer, especially given their history.

• Lukewarm smexing
The love scenes were nice and explicit but what turned me off was the extensive talk (about non-sexual things from Creed’s history) at one point during the smexing. Really?… bad timing.

• Where’s Bree?
At the first page we get introduced to Blu’s best friend, Bree, who seems to be important for Blu. And when she’s at Creed’s house she’s constantly phoning with Bree until Creed takes her phone away for a while (which had nothing to do with Bree but with Blu’s ex boyfriend). Funny thing is that Bree doesn’t play any role in the story from then on. She gets mentioned once or twice again but without it being meaningful. That strikes me as odd, especially since Blu could need a friend at some points in the story. Besides, I like it when the heroine (or hero) has some sort of social life with important people in it. Blu seemed very isolated in that aspect. It’s a missed chance to let Bree evaporate like that.

• Continuity mistake
Without wanting to give away something of the plot, there was a discontinuity near the ending. Before Creed could’ve told Blu what role the wolf Ridge had played during Creed’s important scene, which I try to keep spoiler free here, Blu knew about that while she couldn’t have known. This threw me off a little bit at that point, but it wasn’t a big deal.

• Cruelty of Blu’s father/wolves
The role and character of Amandus Masterson, Blu’s father, came across as rather one-dimensional. His cruelty and that of most wolves in this book seemed a wee bit oversimplified and therefore less believable to me. It did make for some good suspense though.


Those were my five highs and five lows. Overall, I most certainly enjoyed Her Vampire Husband! It was a refreshing and sexy love story with some nice action. I loved the heroine and hero and their chemistry. I would definitely recommend Her Vampire Husband to those who like their heroines to be kick-ass and their love stories to be action filled with a little vamp vs wolf drama mixed in.

Link luvin'

Michele Hauf's weblog and website
Michele Hauf on Twitter
Buy the book here
Read an excerpt here

Her Vampire Husband on Goodreads
Fiction Vixen's review: 4/5 stars
Smexybooks Mandi's review: 3.5/5 stars
Larrisa's review: 4/5 stars

(Leave me a link if you want your review added)