Review: Convergence by Talya Andor

Reviewed by Fehu
Convergence (Proud to be a Vampire) by Talya Andor
Less Than 3 Press
Novella
4 Pants Off

Blurb:
Chris and Ling travel the world in search of rare, exquisite curiosities, but treasure hunting is rife with danger and comes with a price. In order to retrieve a lost treasure deep within a perilous mountain, Chris hires on a vampire. But traveling with a predator comes with its own risks, and their venture may collapse into absolute loss unless they can each find the opportunity in one another.



Review
Charming characters and a nice action/adventure plot, a la Indiana Jones just with a vampire and gay blokes.
Chris works for his father on paper, but follows up his private interest in archaeological artifacts and treasures, with his partner and childhood friend Ling. A new treasure hunt in China brings with it a need for a special being. Chris can only succeed in recovering the old artefact, with the help of a dead or in this case undead person - a vampire.

Since it's not exactly easy to find a vampire per announcement in the paper, at least you cannot request one; Chris devises a plan and publishes a poem instead. The only one to answer is the mysterious, but quite charming Dorran. Dorran proves to be more interesting than Chris anticipated and soon he finds himself fighting his growing fascination with the vampire, whose interest and loyalties, Chris is still unsure of. They travel together to China and have to survive a more than one test, to get to the artefact and the last challenge might prove to be quite deadly to Chris.
I've read other book from this author, but so far no paranormal story and I hope to see more of Chris and Dorran, since their relationship just begins after they get back, at the very end.

The characters were interesting, but of course had their faults, which made them quite charming. I was a bit disappointed in how easy the guys solved the challenges and that they didn't need all that much time to do it. Action/adventure stories do need time, at least in my opinion. Thankfully the recovering of the artefact was not the end of this story and I was glad to see that Chris and Dorran did not just rush in a relationship. The slow build in the relationship was a bit of a contrast to the quick progress of the plot. Still for a story of this length, it was a pretty good in terms of plot and characters.

It's a story that leaves you wanting to read more!

Should You Read It? I very much enjoy this story and liked the characters, so I would recommend it. After said that, I'd love to see another story with these characters and where the adventure part is a bit more drawn out!

4 Pants Off