Naemi Vieno Kuusela is not the person she appears to be. Much older than her young appearance betrays, she is, above all else, lonely and craving companionship. The companionship is easy enough to come by when the need arises. It’s her other cravings that are another matter, and it’s those cravings that make the loneliness she lives with her forever companion.

Naemi’s current life began after the decimation of her family. She was the lone survivor of the massacre, and remembers little of that day or her previous life --- except for the blood, her blood, that forever transformed her life. In the years to come, her lack of aging becomes noticeable to others around her, which means that the life she hoped to have is now out of her grasp. The reality of her life pressed down on her --- she doesn’t age, and she needs to drink blood, her own blood, to survive.

"I love when a genre I think I know surprises me. Temple Drake does just that in NVK. She gave me a world that’s so much more entrancing, dark and fascinating than that of a typical vampire story."

When she becomes attracted to a businessman while living in Shanghai, Naemi thinks that the one-night stand will be enough to ease her loneliness. In the past, her short-lived affairs have always been enough for her. But this time, it’s the intensity of the attraction that gets to her, and she lets her guard down. When Naemi finds herself becoming more attracted to Zhang Guo Xing, it worries her. She wonders if she will be able to walk away from this affair cleanly. She knows that she has to move on before he becomes curious about her and her past, but she can’t bring herself to leave him.

From the moment that Zhang sees Naemi, he is obsessed. He wants to know who she is, where she lives, what she does for a living, how a woman with pale skin, pale hair and pale eyes has come to be in Shanghai. He wants, more than anything, to be with her. Their mutual attraction brings them together initially, but neither seems willing or able to walk away from what should have been a one-night stand, even when every warning sign tells them that they must end the affair.

Naemi spends her life re-inventing herself and then moving on, knowing that she can’t remain in any place for long or questions will be asked --- questions she doesn’t want to answer. The one constant in the ever-changing life she leads are her initials, NVK, the only tie to her past that she allows herself during each re-invention.

I love when a genre I think I know surprises me. Temple Drake does just that in NVK. She gave me a world that’s so much more entrancing, dark and fascinating than that of a typical vampire story. Here, the vampires are trapped between the folds of the living world, hoping that no one will ask where they came from. It’s intriguing, dangerous and oh so wonderful, and it makes you think of this world as a place where only vampires exist, weaving in and out of human lives as though they were smoke and not real at all. I fell hard for this story and want more of this gritty, dark world.

Supernatural tales that shock are ones that I want to read again and again, which is why I’m happy to see that Drake will be exploring more of NVK’s world. I want more of the people and more of this world. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this new series.