Romance in the Vampire: The Requiem universe was something that needed its own sourcebook. Unfortunately, "Strange, Dead Love" ends up middling in mediocrity. The first two chapters are essentially story seeds with the romance theme tucked in (similar to White Wolf's other recent supplement, "Glimpses", which I enjoyed). These seeds are strong, as is typical with the publisher. Where the book falls flat is the third chapter, which details Storytelling paranormal romance. This was the chapter which made me want to buy the book in the first place, so it is unfortunate that it only receives ten pages.

The size of the chapter might have been alright, if more of it had been useful. The first page discusses the social contract involved in playing the game, and goes exactly as one would expect. The second page dives into character creation, but fails to bring forth notable differences from the standard gothic horror genre we are already used to from Vampire (it could be a great summary for people brand new to WoD, but they aren't the target market). Page 3 is a series of tips and tricks for NPC creation and pacing, all of which could apply to WoD games that don't involve romance (and can also be found in other sourcebooks). Page 4, 5, and 6 involve two-player games of V:tR, with an emphasis on playing with a significant other. Before buying the book, I had run two one-on-one campaigns (one with an SO, the other without), so I was interested what their take on this was. There isn't a lot here that was especially new to me, largely due to my previous experience, but those new to one-on-one gaming might just find this to be the most valuable part of the book.

If you are flipping through this sourcebook without reading everything, it will be easy to miss that Page 7 suddenly gets back into standard gameplay and roleplaying considerations. It is here that the authours put the fruits of their inspiration and offer up questions that can really shape a game featuring paranormal romance (or to supplement the roleplaying in -any- game). The chapter concludes by offering up mechanics for "Heroic Mortals", which, in the context of this book, seem to be a way of making mortal lovers of vampires (think Sookie Stackhouse) interesting to play.

If you are looking for another collection of story seeds, "Strange, Dead Love" is a good value for the price as a collection of romance-themed seeds - you get nearly 50 pages of interesting ideas and shards. In fact, if it was billed as such, I would have given it a higher rating. White Wolf has advertised it as being a sourcebook for implementing romance in your campaign, or centreing a campaign around it, however, and in that aspect it falls short. If you aren't interested in the seeds, give this one a pass - The three or four pages of real, valuable content is not worth the price tag.