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
Categories: FANTASY | ROMANCE | GENERAL FANTASY | FANTASY & SCI-FI ROMANCE | GENERAL FICTION
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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
Categories: FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY
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SEEN & HEARD
This novel’s magic goes far beyond the dragons.
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As women around the world inexplicably transform into dragons, a young girl struggles to take care of her cousin in 1950s America.
It’s indecent to speak about dragons, just as it would be indecent to talk about, say, menstruation or the burning, building rage that so many women feel day to day. Because it’s such a forbidden topic, to the extent that scientists who study the dragon transformations are silenced by the government, no one really understands why “dragooning” happens or how it works. When Alex’s Aunt Marla is among the thousands of women who all turn into dragons together on the same day in 1955, her beloved cousin, Beatrice, becomes her adopted sister. And when Alex is in high school and her own mother dies of cancer, her father sticks her in a cheap apartment and tells her she’s old enough to raise Beatrice on her own. Alex inherited her mother’s talent for math and science, and she struggles between her own rage at how her abilities are constantly diminished by the men around her and her resentment that her Aunt Marla became a dragon and abandoned her and Beatrice. But the older Beatrice gets, the more she longs to become a dragon herself, and Alex lives in terror that Beatrice will leave her behind. In lesser hands the dragon metaphor would feel simplistic and general, but Barnhill uses it to imagine different ways of living, loving, and caring for each other. The result is a complex, heartfelt story about following your heart and opening your mind to new possibilities.
This novel’s magic goes far beyond the dragons.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-385-54822-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Categories: LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION | FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY
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