A mostly engaging blend of alternate history and vampire lore, with compelling characters and kitschy villains.
In the seventh installment of Carpenter’s series, Samuel is sent to Peru to protect an Incan royal on his wedding day.
In a world where the Incan Empire is now a vampire dominion stretching from Colombia to Chile, Samuel finds himself on his “first international assignment in years.” As a seasoned bodyguard, he is tasked with protecting an envoy attending a royal wedding in Peru—an event meant to unite the Incan vampires with those of the Amazon region. Samuel arrives early to join forces with fellow bodyguards from Canada, Brazil, and Argentina, all working together to provide security for the grand event. (Samuel recognizes the Canadian bodyguard from a previous gig that went sideways.) Samuel learns of a scourge overtaking the vampires of Peru: mescaline addiction. The drug induces short-term memory loss, inciting unpredictable and dangerous behavior—vamping out. As the wedding day approaches, a ruthless drug lord and a manipulative priest vie for influence over the Incans. To make matters worse, the pishtacos, a terrifying race that survives by consuming human fat, lurk in the shadows, threatening to derail the wedding and plunge the empire into chaos. Once again, Samuel has his work cut out for him. Despite their cultural ubiquity, Carpenter spends a lot of time explaining how vampires function. Still, readers acquainted with Samuel will welcome back his cocky demeanor and often droll point-of-view. As always, Samuel never misses an opportunity to take shots at the “stupid humans” (or to malign werewolves as an untrustworthy race). The introduction of the villainous pishtacos takes things to a fairly silly level. The pace plods when extensive Incan and vampiric history is explicated, and too many scenes are characterized by constant references to feeding and blood supply: In one case, the food is named Christina—and spoons Samuel in bed—is good for a laugh.
A mostly engaging blend of alternate history and vampire lore, with compelling characters and kitschy villains.Pub Date: June 19, 2024
ISBN: 9798325327889
Page Count: 310
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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