Once lover, the hero and heroine parted ways when the hero began to have changes in his personality and even calls out another woman's name in bed. Now, the heroine takes a position as director to an improve group in Italy hoping for a fresh start. Imagine her surprise when her ex boyfriend, whom she's never stopped loving or even thinking about, shows up at her hotel. He actually had the same plan she had, to escape for a time to Italy in a archeology dig site to put some distance between him and the woman he stills love more than the world. Immediately strange things start happening. One girl from the group goes awal before a local girl is found at the dig site torn up by what looks like animals. Then there's the dreams and the nightmares than begin to plague all members of their group as well as shadow figures seen in the heroine's bedroom. The whole vibe throughout the story was very gothic and dark and on pins and needles. There are some pretty disturbing scenes in this book, one in particular is having the mother of the dead girl hack off the dead girls head at the funeral. It was certainly a suspense if not even a horror genre book with just a dash of romance. This is not the type of book I like to read because the romance is so limited and defiantly not the focus of the story. Such some parts were nice but most of the book, the hero and heroine are just in the thick of the mystery and in leaves no room for developing feelings or any real passion. The main characters never developed past their already existing love for one another. It's just apparent that there's nowhere for them to go and I don't like that, I want to be taken on a journey which brings two people together. Overall I did not care for this story, mostly because it's not within the genre I prefer but also because it was a little boring at times and pretty much the same general mystery of all the other book in her series. A girl goes to a foreign country and is drawn into a paranormal murder mystery. It's been done before and better. I did, however, like the hero and the heroine. Especially the heroine with her love for the hero all the while worrying about his mental health and the hero trying to cope with the fact that it was him that drove a wedge between them. But, it wasn't enough to make me like this book. ( )

Drake is one of my fave paranorm authors but this book was so-so. americans in a Bella Vista village to put on a comedy at a new inn. close to an archeo. dig of a great battle of good-evil. former lovers, vamps, sorceresses, deaths & dreams of past-lives ( )

From BackCover:
The rustic oceanfront village of Bella Vista seems like something from an Italian postcard—until young women start disappearing, only to be found horribly mutilated. The police fear a sexual serial killer is at work—something to be hushed up to keep the tourists calm. But the fear in the eyes of the locals says it all: the murders are starting again…
For American Stephanie Cahill, Bella Vista is a new beginning—a chance to put her painful past behind her. Yet, from the moment the first body is discovered at the site of an archeological dig, Stephanie feels as if she’s being watched, followed, studied…hunted.

Archeologist Grant Peterson senses something odd about this dig, something that has him locking his door at night. And now, the echoes of a burial site’s ancient legend can be found in the chilling signature of a killer on the loose.

The powerful attraction between Stephanie and Grant is a complication neither can afford as they are pulled into a desperate race against time to keep Stephanie from joining the ranks of the missing. For nothing in Bella Vista is what it seems. No one can be trusted. And those closest to Stephanie may prove the most dangerous of all… ( )

The 6th in a series of romantic vampire books. This is the worst of them all. Not horrible but not good either. An extremely dumb ending. Totally disappointing. ( )

Readable vampire fiction. ( )