Come to Me is a wonderfully dark and tantalizing fantasy romance that introduces readers to some truly fascinating characters.

Samira is a succubus. At night she enters into men’s bedrooms and invades their dreams, making their deepest carnal longings come true in their sleep (for those unaware, the succubus of myth is a female demon who has sex with sleeping men, often draining them of their life and energy in the process). She knows all about men, all their secret urges and hidden fantasies. For centuries, she’s made those fantasies come true. The fantasies haven’t changed much. If there’s one thing Samira knows, it’s that the hearts of men are pretty much all the same. She finds herself growing more restless and dissatisfied, wanting more than her shadowy existence living as a spirit of the night.

Then she meets Nicolae. A scarred prince who lost everything in a war with a neighboring nation, he was banished from his home and now lives in an abandoned monastery. There he became obsessed with the books on the occult he found hidden inside its walls. He is desperate to find a way to use magic to help his people. One night Samira is drawn to him, but they are both stunned when he is able to see and hear her. No man has ever been able to do either. Nicolae is the first, and Samira isn’t sure how to feel.

From his story, Samira learns that she unwittingly played a role in his misfortune. Wanting to make things right, she is sent back to earth to help him. But she is sent back as a mortal woman, stripped of her powers. Nicolae wanted to summon a demon to help him take vengeance on his enemies. He has no use for a temporary woman who is a demon at heart. But they may prove to be each other’s salvations.

This really is a wonderful story, effectively blending great characters, compelling drama, humorous moments and sizzling sensuality. Samira is a fascinating heroine. She may be a creature of the night, but she’s not evil, playing a necessary role in the world. She’s strong and pragmatic, but for someone who supposedly has no soul, she does have feelings and is capable of compassion and other “human” emotions. Nicolae is a good tortured hero, full of anger and guilt about what happened to his family and his people and his own role in it. They’re both multi-faceted characters and their chemistry is palpable.

The story has an intriguing darkness that’s quite effective. The character drama and complicated relationships are all juicy stuff. Cach does a strong job creating this complicated world and populating it with a large cast of distinct personalities. This isn’t a long book, only 300 pages, but those are 300 meaty pages full of character and story.

The grade would be higher if it wasn’t for a middle section where the heroine’s brain falls out of her head. When Samira first becomes human, she begins to react to everything with a childlike innocence, naïve about everything. When her stomach starts growling from hunger, she becomes convinced there’s a monster in her belly and wants to cut it out. After she eats, she later has to defecate, and the experience is so horrifying she decides she’s never going to eat again. For someone who’s been monitoring humans for centuries, her lack of knowledge is beyond extreme. It was disappointing to see a strong, intriguing heroine turn into a dingbat. While it does provide for some humorous moments, it also verged on the annoying.

Come to Me is the first in a two-book series that will continue next month with Dream of Me. The nice thing is that it works on its own as a fully-contained, satisfying read in its own right. These 300 pages tell a complete story. Even so, I’m glad there’s another book coming out so soon. The author sets up such an interesting premise and mythology that it deserves to be used more. I can’t wait.