The Necromancer's Dance

3.5 stars for a new-to-me author and series that I'm eager to continue. Interesting dynamic between the two MC's. They already know each other and have a cordial but distant relationship. Once the action begins Simeon the vampire is pretty quick to declare his love, and it's a question of whether Angel the necromancer will reciprocate his feelings or not. It's to Himes' credit that Simeon doesn't come across as a creepy stalker; in fact, he is charming, courtly, patient and supportive. Angel's struggle is more internal than anything else - can he accept love after losing almost his entire family? - because Simeon is pretty much irresistible. With the “I love you's” out of the way so early, I wonder how much effort Himes will devote to developing their relationship further in the rest of the series.

I'm here for the romance more than the paranormal elements, but they're intriguing, although there's a little bit too much info-dumping. However these days I prefer that strategy to the other extreme of providing so little background that you have no idea what is going on and have to work really hard to piece it together from contextual clues. I don't want to work that hard when I read romance, I'm trying to relax here!

Himes could use a better editor to fix some of her run-on sentences, dangling modifiers, and mixed tenses, but she gets the point across and her characters carry the day. At the end of the book, our former loner necromancer has himself a mate and the elements of a found family. I'll be back to see where he goes from here.