Published: 22nd March 2011
Publisher: MIRA
Goodreads description:
Regency London – a dizzying whirl of balls and young ladies pursued by charming men.
But the Woodmore sisters are hunted by a more sinister breed: Lucifer's own.
Voss, also known as Viscount Dewhurst, relishes the sensual pleasures immortality affords. A member the Dracule – a cabal of powerful, secretive noblemen marked with a talisman that reveals their bartered souls – the mercenary Voss has remained carefully neutral ... until Angelica.
Angelica Woodmore possess the Sight, an ability invaluable to both sides of a looming war among the Dracule. Her very scent envelops Voss in a scarlet fog of hunger – for her body and her blood. But he is utterly unprepared for the new desire that overcomes him – to protect her.
Now Voss must battle his very nature to be with Angelica ... but this vampire never backs down from a fight
My thoughts:
This book started a little slow for me; I've never been a huge fan of historical fiction. The concept of vampires in this series is very different from any other. The draculia are personally chosen by Lucifer himself; and each bears his mark upon his shoulder which twinges painfully when he's not being naughty enough. This seemed more reminiscent of incubi than vampires; but I went with it.
Character wise; I felt Dimitri and Voss were a bit too stereotypical. They were like Angel and Spike; only in pantaloons and neckcloths. I'm looking forward to hearing more about Dimitri's story (which I assume will be in the second book as it is named after him)-it'd be nice to see why he's so moody. I liked the two Woodmore sisters we met; though again they were slightly cliche. I liked the fact that as it was set in the Regency the sight of an ungloved hand or the offer to waltz was so scandalous and arousing.
The plot was a bit slow to get going and many of the secondary characters were clearly just there for plot development purposes. I enjoyed that Angelica had the sight; a gift which allowed her to see the moment of death for a person when touching a personal object of theirs: and I enjoyed that she used this for such shallow purposes. Being a young girl in Regency England definitely wouldn't have led to her being some kind of superhero. Parts of the plot annoyed me though I'm not sure I can point out exactly why. It felt a bit like it was caught in a stasis...not much seemed to happen aside from a lot of sexual tension and Angelica being kidnapped several times. The ending was fairly predictable and a bit too nicely wrapped up for my liking.
The descriptions were for me the worst part of the book. I honestly got fed up of the cryptic allusions to "what happened in Vienna" without being told what actually happened in Vienna. I know it's an adult book but I really got fed up of reading about male genitalia as well. The descriptions of the sexual tension/bloodlust/sex were all very repetitive. It was a though the author found a metaphor she liked and stuck with it...a lot. I also got fed up of hearing about Lucifer. Yes, okay, he's your eternal demon master, but do you have to say "for Lucifer's sake" etc SO much?? Plus I'm pretty sure referring to him as 'Luce' is rather disrespectful. You don't hear priests referring to God as "Big G" do you??
Aside from my...many criticisms the book was an enjoyable read; just nothing special. I probably would read the sequels eventually but I'm not clamouring to do so.
This book definitely isn't suitable for younger readers; but if you enjoy historical and paranormal fiction this will definitely be up your street.
I give it 3/5
It sounds like you had a lot of mixed feelings on this book. I do think I am going to add it to my never ending list of books to read!
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of what you are saying. This was the weakest of the three books in the series. Voss was the worst male lead and I just couldn't connect with him. Dimitri's book was much better and Narcise was excellent.
ReplyDeleteI liked it, but of the three books "Dimitri" was my favourite....as you read the remaining two books, they will illuminate some of the backstory that is alluded to in "Voss"
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