Cloak of the Vampire by. Sapir A. Englard | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Cloak of the Vampire (#1)

Author: Sapir A. Englard

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 349

Publication Date: 6/18/24

Categories: New Adult, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

From the author of The Millennium Wolves series comes the hauntingly romantic story of a young woman’s descent into a League of vampires, and the Lord who means to keep her there.

Aileen Henderson’s unassuming life conceals a dark past. Outside of work, she hides behind her larger-than-life best friend, Cassidy, whose constant need for attention suits Aileen—and her secrets—just fine.

Until the night Aileen dies.

Awakening to a new world of brutality, bloodlust, and betrayal, Aileen plots revenge against Ragnor Rayne, the monster who cursed her with the Imprint. The demon who turned her into a vampire. The man whose eyes haunt her dreams.

She is going to make this vampire Lord regret the day he kissed her with the curse of immortality and made her his. If she can survive the Auction, and resist temptations of the flesh…

Content Warning: violence, death, mentions of rape and child abuse, trafficking

I needed a palate cleanser book and thought to read this one about vampires. I really enjoyed the world-building about Vampires and their different Leagues around USA. Instead of vampires going around changing people, there is an exclusive list that humans can try to get on to be changed into a vampire. I like the choice in that! Of course then comes along Aileen. There are other things in this world that will probably be more explained in book two.

Aileen is a very mysterious character – someone playing a role to erase whatever is in her past. And her past is DARK. Super dark because her dad was a convicted rapist and child abuser – and those topics made this one at times a bit too dark to read. But because she’s keeping her past secret, we get bits and pieces here and there and still not even the full story by the end of this book.

Ragnor is her Lord – the vampire that changed her. And of course right away there is an attraction between them which I really enjoyed since I was looking for an easy, smutty read filled with tension. But then Aileen’s messed up feelings about attachment started to test my patience and honestly I do not blame her much because she comes from a very MESSED up childhood. Like…it’s bad. I wanted to put her back into therapy – she needs therapy more than falling for a vampire! Ragnor also got his own issues about falling in love.

The leagues are like academies (I love academies) but a lot of the academic parts are weak. Like their fighting classes kind of sucked – did anyone improve? And the friendships in Aileen’s life are SO bad. It made me angry for her but also…that’s what she did choose on purpose which also made me angry AT her. LOL. Yeah it was messy but I was there for the drama. At times it felt young adult – but the spiciness definitely makes it new adult.

Final Thoughts:

This one is spicy with very dark topics. I like the world building a lot with the different vampire leagues. I think Aileen is a very interesting character and we shall see what develops for her story – she has a scary past but I kind of want her strong and cold like she claims. Ragnor has definitely brought out her needy, attachment side and I don’t love it. Lots of people will love the romance between Aileen and Ragnor – it’s spicy, full of some angst on her part but they are definitely a work in progress. I was definitely entertained. I’m reading book two now because I am so curious about the other creatures in this world building.