An enjoyable, laudable addition to an increasingly complicated vampire saga with no end in sight.
A woman and her vampire boyfriend face rogue vamps and a looming evil darkness in this third installment of an erotic thriller series.
New Orleans emergency room nurse Erin Hamilton has come to terms with the fact that her lover, Dante Gabriel, is a vampire. But that’s just one of a handful of surprises: Erin learns that her best friend, Lucy, is a wolf shifter while Dante’s father, Julian, who’d been missing, has returned as a ghost. Dante searches for his father’s body so he can file a death certificate and claim Julian’s estate, using the money to fund a translation of the Vampyre Texts. He believes the ancient tome will have answers to his and Erin’s enigmatic blood bond as well as the inexplicable disappearances of patients (with the same blood type) at the hospital where she works. Unfortunately, his grandfather Bill is reluctant to let Dante have the book, certain that it will lead his grandson to “darkness.” As for Erin, her worries start to mount: Lucy mysteriously vanishes and a gang of rogue vampires pursues the nurse, whose scent is evidently “irresistible.” She’s also been experiencing vivid dreams, including the vampire gang cornering her for an obvious assault. Dante, meanwhile, who spent a decade in still-unexplained captivity, hones his unrefined vampiric glamouring skill but may be more powerful than he thinks. The voice of his former captor, the unknown “queen,” occasionally forces its way into Dante’s head, and it’s clear she has a sinister plan brewing. Hardt’s (Unhinged, 2018, etc.) ongoing saga shows no signs of slowing down. Series-long questions, like the queen’s identity, persistently linger, and the story adds a few mysteries to the mix. Erin discovers a doctor who’d disappeared along with the missing patients, but he remembers very little about the person who beat him and held him hostage. This volume, however, does allot time for supporting characters to take the spotlight. Voodoo priestess and medium Bea, who first appeared in the preceding installment, proves a formidable ally for Erin and Dante. Her spells offer some protection, such as masking Erin’s scent from the rogue vampires. Other characters are forming couples, precipitating engaging subplots (Dante’s sister, Emilia, is pregnant, and childbirth is difficult, sometimes fatal, for female vampires). But the continuing romance between Erin and Dante is the most appealing relationship while the copious sex scenes are erotic and healthy. For example, though Dante becomes gradually more aggressive in bed and Erin is typically submissive, it’s apparent that both partners are willing and content. Many of the mysteries, whether new or carry-overs, are unresolved by this novel’s end, which may frustrate some readers. Nevertheless, suspense remains high throughout, as characters are in all sorts of peril, including the indistinct but unnerving darkness. The author defines this abstract evil simply and persuasively: “An electric bolt jarred me back to normal. The darkness. It was here.”
An enjoyable, laudable addition to an increasingly complicated vampire saga with no end in sight.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64263-048-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Waterhouse Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.
After 1,000 years of peace, whispers that “the Nameless One will return” ignite the spark that sets the world order aflame.
No, the Nameless One is not a new nickname for Voldemort. Here, evil takes the shape of fire-breathing dragons—beasts that feed off chaos and imbalance—set on destroying humankind. The leader of these creatures, the Nameless One, has been trapped in the Abyss for ages after having been severely wounded by the sword Ascalon wielded by Galian Berethnet. These events brought about the current order: Virtudom, the kingdom set up by Berethnet, is a pious society that considers all dragons evil. In the East, dragons are worshiped as gods—but not the fire-breathing type. These dragons channel the power of water and are said to be born of stars. They forge a connection with humans by taking riders. In the South, an entirely different way of thinking exists. There, a society of female mages called the Priory worships the Mother. They don’t believe that the Berethnet line, continued by generations of queens, is the sacred key to keeping the Nameless One at bay. This means he could return—and soon. “Do you not see? It is a cycle.” The one thing uniting all corners of the world is fear. Representatives of each belief system—Queen Sabran the Ninth of Virtudom, hopeful dragon rider Tané of the East, and Ead Duryan, mage of the Priory from the South—are linked by the common goal of keeping the Nameless One trapped at any cost. This world of female warriors and leaders feels natural, and while there is a “chosen one” aspect to the tale, it’s far from the main point. Shannon’s depth of imagination and worldbuilding are impressive, as this 800-pager is filled not only with legend, but also with satisfying twists that turn legend on its head. Shannon isn’t new to this game of complex storytelling. Her Bone Season novels (The Song Rising, 2017, etc.) navigate a multilayered society of clairvoyants. Here, Shannon chooses a more traditional view of magic, where light fights against dark, earth against sky, and fire against water. Through these classic pairings, an entirely fresh and addicting tale is born. Shannon may favor detailed explication over keeping a steady pace, but the epic converging of plotlines at the end is enough to forgive.
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63557-029-8
Page Count: 848
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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