The Lost Books 1&2 by Evangeline Anderson

Blurb:
Enter the world of The Lost, a tribe of vampires who are sworn to coexist with humans while leaving them strictly alone. However, that isn’t always possible…

The Lost 1: Broken Vows: Daniel’s looking for answers about his sexuality. He’s sure just one night with an older, experienced man will finally answer the questions that have been tormenting him for years. But he doesn’t expect the older man to be a gorgeous vampire named Gabrielle. It’s love at first sight for Daniel but Gabrielle has made a vow not to interfere in human affairs.

The Lost 2: Blood Hustler: James became a vampire almost two hundred years ago and recently lost his only companion. Even though he’s lonely, the grief’s too fresh to be looking for another man to fill the hole in his heart. Then Tad, a young street hustler, offers to sell James the best sex he’s ever had. James knows he shouldn’t bind a human to him, especially one as young as Tad who hasn’t experienced life yet, but the boy’s hungry heart calls to his own.

 

 

Review:

These two stories feature the same world of vampires – The Lost – as well as innocent, young men with which they bond. The stories themselves are very similar in almost all respects yet lack any significant world building. The writing is often truncated and disjointed with flat characters and exaggerated situations. Even the sex scenes, which the author usually excels at, are surprisingly unimaginative and lukewarm. There is more of an emotional connection than anything between both couples, which may entice romance lovers to enjoy these stories. They’re not horrible but definitely routine, bland, and uninteresting.

The first story Broken Vows is the re-published story and it clearly shows. Here a young man coming of age is trying to understand his sexuality against a backdrop of a homophobic family. He mistakenly ventures into the vampire quadrant of the city and is immediately accosted by the stereotypical evil, skeleton, nasty vampire who bites him. Gabrielle swoops in and saves our intrepid Daniel from harm and in the process initiates Daniel to the joys of gay sex. However, in fitting heroine form – Gabrielle forces Daniel to leave and live his life. Daniel has never forgotten Gabrielle and his dominating personality, waiting until the day Gabrielle decides they can finally be together.

This story is flat, unimaginative, and incredibly short. The writing is perfunctory with barely any interest or fresh descriptions. The world building is non-existent and the vampire presence is the only detail added. The location of the city is neither offered nor described; it could be a small town, a large city, or an underground bunker. The entire action is centered on classic stereotypes for the flat, one-note characters as the innocent pines in love for the hero who must send the young man away for his own good. However the sole encounter is supposed to be enough for said innocent to stand up to his homophobic parents and live a good, yet empty life. The story is not horrible per se, merely the same bland, rote story told numerous times without any new twist or fresh narrative.

 

The second story Blood Hustler is not much better. Here a naïve young man coming of age runs away from an abusive, homophobic home only to find himself in trouble when an evil, nasty, skeleton-esque vampire decides to munch on him. Thankfully the good, kindhearted vampire in James swoops in to save Tad and show him gay love can be beautiful. Sound familiar? The basics of the second story are exactly the same as the first right down to James sending Tad away for his own good. The only difference in this offering is that Tad has a horrible, abusive past where he’s been hustling to make ends meet after being raped by his mother’s boyfriend. James as well has not been lucky in love and the two gradually experiment sexually and emotionally.

Besides being twice as long as the first story, the added length offers very little to the story. There is no additional world building and as with the first story, there is no explanation of the vampires, The Lost, other than their souls are gone. There is no additional detail or information included; yet the story goes to great melodramatic lengths to explain in detail Tad’s abusive, horrific past. This abuse has predictably led to an aversion to sex, which is cured by the love of a good vampire and not much needed therapy. Also predictable is Tad’s depression without James and the flat, empty characterizations of stereotypical good and evil vampires. Surprisingly the sex scenes included are not sexy and in fact drag on. I found myself bored by the number of scenes that had little action, overdrawn and melodramatic emotion, and awkward exploits. 

Both stories are incredibly similar with the second expanded to dwell on the emotional and physical abuse of the two men. The lack of solid world building and detail put these stories at an initial disadvantage that was compounded by the lack of imagination and creativity. It’s not as though this is a horrible book – it’s just predictable, bland, and frankly boring for its similarities. While the writing has problems the biggest issue with the book is that it offers nothing engaging or interesting to hold the reader and does nothing to differentiate itself from the overly bland use of vampires in a basic story of older man/innocent boy. If this theme is one you particularly enjoy, these two might appeal for easy, fast reads. Otherwise, there are better stories – even by this author.

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