A familiar but nevertheless engaging tale of love and war in the vampire world.
A love story unfolds amid a war between vampire clans in this first book in Rago’s Enchanted Bloodline series.
The story opens with French Revolution–era vampire Christian Du Mauré getting the shock of a long lifetime: His doomed human lover, Josette Delacore, has left him a note informing him that her daughter, Solange, is not the child of her human husband—she’s Christian’s daughter, an almost unprecedented successful union of vampire and human. Centuries pass, and Christian and his friend Michel are part of an ongoing international clash between warring vampire factions, opposed by Gaétan and Gabrielle.An encounter between vampire Lucien and young drug addict Ryan Perretti (in which Lucien partially drains Ryan's blood to sustain himself) gives Lucien a vision of his victim’s beautiful green-eyed sister Amanda, who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The French Revolution was her passion,” readers are told, and she learned a lot while working on a recent exhibition of French Revolution–era jewelry. Unbeknownst to her, she has a deeper connection to the period that fascinates her so much—indeed, a deep blood relationship. After she witnesses her brother’s murder in Central Park, she investigates his strange claims of associating with vampires, and her world and Christian’s collide. Throughout this book, Rago hues fairly closely to the Anne Rice pattern of modern vampire fiction, with vamps that are sexy and alluring rather than outwardly monstrous as well as factional infighting, moments of homoeroticism, and bodice-ripping romance. The characters are dramatic, if sometimes underdeveloped, and the dialogue is often arch. The author also indulges in Rice-style purple prose at times: “She relished drinking their blood, just as the new Regime gorged themselves on the aged champagne of the French aristocrats.” That said, the story’s fast pace will keep fans of the genre intrigued to the last page.
A familiar but nevertheless engaging tale of love and war in the vampire world.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4528-7753-2
Page Count: 279
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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