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 Cleopatra is a legend. Her name is synonymous with sex appeal, with beauty, with Egyptian history. But we know so little about who she was and what she was like – the only verifiable image we have of her is on coins. So much of Egyptian history has been overlaid with Roman interpretations, with medieval interpretations, and even with Victorian and twentieth century interpretations that it’s nearly impossible to tell how things might actually have happened. With her new biography of this historical icon, Stacy Schiff attempts to peel back the layers – not to pass judgement or say decisively how things may have been, but to give us an idea of what Cleopatra’s world was like without our many different lenses of bias.
Like many people, I’ve known for my entire life it seems who Cleopatra was and who she slept with. I’ve read books about her, about Julius Caesar, and even one about her children, who never attained her level of incredible fame and renown. But Schiff is right in that all of those have layers upon layers of bias stacked on top of them. It is nearly an impossible task for a modern person to separate out who Cleopatra genuinely was from who we believe her to be. There are so many alternate stories and, as with all history, nothing is set in stone anyway. Schiff uses contemporary sources to tease out the truth in many cases and to explain where we don’t actually know the truth (quite a frequent occurrence) in others. We don’t know what she looks like. We have virtually nothing she wrote. As a person, Cleopatra is all smoke and mirrors, especially when you consider that many of the people who wrote about her were judgemental Romans.
What I’d have to say I most liked was that Schiff confidently dispelled the notion that Cleopatra got all of her power, wealth, and fame from pure sex appeal. It’s common to dismiss Cleopatra; we are far too quick to assume that she was simply a phenomenal lover, to ignore her own deeds in favor of those of the men she associated with. It’s true that she seems to have been charismatic and people were drawn to her; Julius Caesar and Mark Antony are only the two most famous examples. But she was powerful and she did rule over a largely peaceful kingdom. She may well have had feminine appeal, but just because she used that to her advantage in many cases didn’t mean she cold-heartedly seduced men. She killed her brothers, but virtually all of the Egyptian pharaohs before her killed parents, siblings, and even children. Why is it different for a woman, particularly such a famous one?
I also genuinely loved the historical background that Schiff included. In order to elucidate parts of Cleopatra’s life that are undocumented, she inserts historical facts to provide incredibly descriptive pictures that brought Rome, Egypt, and particularly Alexandria to vivid, brilliant life. I’ve never been the world’s biggest fan of ancient history, but Schiff made me doubt myself and wonder why I didn’t like it before. More than anything I was amazed by how much was the same then as now; we tend to think that people in history lacked so much that we presently have but this book proves that it just isn’t true.
For those who aren’t quite as excited by history as I am, I think this book may move quite slowly. I read it for an online book club and I don’t think many of the other members were loving it as much as I was while I was reading it (we haven’t discussed it yet, so I may be wrong). Since Cleopatra has left so few remnants of herself, it’s hard to empathize with her and feel for the woman she was, which may make this a difficult choice for those who are used to biographies full of quotes and intimate details. However, as someone who simply can’t get enough of history, I can say that Cleopatra was a wonderful book and I devoured it. If you’re at all interested in Cleopatra, I highly recommend this book to you.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free to review from Amazon Vine.
 After the showdown with the Master, in which they failed to kill him, Ephraim Goodweather and Abraham Setrakian are left clutching at straws in their attempt to vanquish the vampires and save the human race. Worse, Eph is now discredited from his organization and must hide at all times, his ex-wife has now been turned and is trying to capture his son, and in all respects it’s clear that the good guys are running out of time. Abraham is left racing to get his hands on a book that will help them, a book that the Master wants, and must use all of the abilities he has left to get it before the vampires do.
This is going to be a difficult review to write, simply because I did not like this book. I did like The Strain, which I think set me up for disappointment here. Like many second books in trilogies, this one just falls flat, limp with a total lack of plot, too many unnecessary plot strands, and for me at least, a complete and total lack of suspense and fear. Mainly, I read my way through the book feeling bored, disgusted, and uncaring, which means that I at least will not be reading the third installment of this trilogy, even if it lands on my doorstep for free.
If I found any part of the book interesting, it had to be Abraham Setrakian’s backstory. I quite enjoyed reading about his past, horrific as it was, because I felt it cast some much-needed light on the main story. In fact, I could quite easily have stripped out everything else and solely had a book about how the vampires rose from World War II to the present; unfortunately, that isn’t what I got. Perhaps it’s just personal preference talking, but I have no real desire for a book that seems solely about killing, without a plot to hang on, that relies on disgust for its shock factor and leaves character relationships and development to the wayside as a result. And no, it’s not just because I like my vampires sparkly, because I don’t. I just grow tired of fight after fight with gushy white blood for what felt, to me, no purpose. It read more like a horror movie than a book exploring the takeover of vampires.
I’m not sure I can still recommend this series. I know quite a few other people enjoyed The Fall, my own husband among them. For me, however, I’m drawing the line here, and will not be reading the next book.
If your opinion differs, I’d love to hear about it.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for review through Amazon Vine.
 Louis Auchincloss’s family wasn’t among the very richest in New York City at the start of the twentieth century, but they certainly did well enough for themselves. As a result, his family was astonishingly well connected and rubbed shoulders with many of the most privileged figures of the twentieth century world; he is related to quite a few people and he drops names like Vanderbilt and Kennedy on a fairly consistent basis. Since New York society has changed drastically over the course of his life, he takes us back to the beginning and explores his life as a child of privilege and takes us through his quest to find his life’s goal, which turned out to be writing, and the way he got there.
I’d never heard of Louis Auchincloss before but I absolutely could not resist a memoir set amongst New York City’s highest levels of society. My maternal grandparents both grew up in New York City (they are both slightly younger than Auchincloss, although also very much poorer and from immigrant stock) and I’ve spent quite a few happy times looking at their old photographs, imagining what it might have been like. What better way than to hear it from someone who lived it? I wasn’t disappointed; in fact, I could sort of imagine an Auchincloss character, especially when young, acquainting himself with a few of the characters from the Luxe series, especially when he describes debutante balls. Even when he was heading to college, women from the highest classes still didn’t always choose to go, but instead had that money spent on elaborate coming out balls to catch a wealthy, handsome husband.
What really comes through brilliantly in this memoir is the character of the writer himself. I felt like I was having a chat with him from beyond the grave, as he’s now regrettably passed on. His voice comes through so strongly and I began to regret that I hadn’t read any of his novels – something I’d like to rectify ASAP. He seems like he was quite a character; I at times felt that he was looking at the world from a position of too much privilege, but when he acknowledges that readily himself it’s hard to blame him for something so beyond his control. He does say society wasn’t as exciting as everyone must have thought, but I thought that was only something an experienced socialite could say! Many of his friends are wealthy, but for me that was all a bit of the excitement as I felt I was getting a peek into a lost world. There isn’t much of the dissipation that exists among the current day wealthy; rather he’s surprisingly tame, and after he marries ceases going out at night or even meeting up with other famous writers.
I found A Voice from Old New York to be an endlessly fascinating memoir. I loved Auchincloss’s descriptions of society, colleagues, and contemporary schools. His experience is so outside mine that I just couldn’t get enough of it and I ended up only wishing the memoir were longer. It’s humorous, interesting, and above all very distinctive. Highly recommended.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from Netgalley for review.
 Andi’s life hasn’t been right for two years, ever since her little brother Truman lost his life on a Brooklyn street. She’s convinced it’s her fault, and in the wake of his death, her family has fallen apart. Her father has moved to Boston and begun a new life; her mother spends her days painting portraits of her dead son. Meanwhile, Andi is failing out of school and can only take refuge in one thing: her music. Unexpectedly, Andi’s father decides she must graduate from high school. He sends her mother to a mental hospital and whisks Andi off to Paris, insisting she write her senior thesis outline under his watch. In Paris, Andi discovers a diary inside an old guitar case, and a surprising connection to a girl from the French Revolution who watched over Louis-Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
When I finished this book, there was just one word in my head. Wow. Jennifer Donnelly has some talent going on and it’s in full force with Revolution. I can say I was uncertain for about the first hundred pages, but by the time Andi discovers the diary, I was completely rapt and managed to finish the rest of the book in less than half a day. I just couldn’t put it down. I knew the outcome but I still felt like I had to know what happened, to Andi, to Alex, even to Louis-Charles. Donnelly melds history, music, and the pains of growing up amidst tragedy in ways that are almost indescribably beautiful and moving.
What most stood out to me was Andi’s character. Faced with incredible difficulties, she’s on the verge of falling apart. Unfortunately the death of a loved one seems to be a recurring theme in my reading lately – subconscious choices as I get closer to a day like that for me perhaps – and Andi’s struggle is difficult. I could completely feel for her and can’t imagine how much harder it would be if I had a reason to blame myself for a loved one’s death. Resisting the urge to fall apart isn’t easy. Donnelly masterfully sketches out her character in the space of just a few chapters; the first were hard to take and you could argue that the story takes too long to get going, but Andi’s character is one thing she gets perfectly correct.
I also thought the music angle was a very cool line to take and the perfect message for the book’s target audience. So many teens and young adults use music to express themselves in a way – the rest of us do too, but it’s difficult to recapture that frenzy and desperate energy that teenagers seem to have (I know, I speak like I’m way older than I am here, but this is long gone for me). Andi’s discoveries and musical passion make her interesting for all age ranges, in my opinion, and I loved the fact that her historical experiences and her academic experiences tied in so awesomely by the end.
All in all, Revolution was a pretty amazing book. I don’t think it matters if you’re a teen or an adult, this is truly excellent reading. I know it’ll stick in my memory for quite some time to come.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 Eleanor of Aquitaine’s life is turbulent almost from the start. At age fifteen she comes into her inheritance as Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitiers; while she holds both of these titles in her own right, her husband will still be the one who rules them, and as such she’s the most eligible bride in Europe. For three months, anyway, until the French king Louis VII marries her and makes her Queen of France. Eleanor’s adventures don’t stop there, however; her marriage with Louis is annulled after her failure to give him sons (and after a crusade), after which she promptly marries the future Henry II of England, and gives birth to a proper devil’s brood of sons who later change the face of Europe.
Older historical fiction, in my mind, has one big problem; it romanticizes everything. This book was written in the fifties and it’s glaringly obvious to any reader of historical fiction (or student of history). Everyone is, naturally, noble and kind and beautiful, loyal to the king, and even the merest of peasants can spout long sentences of astonishing fealty when prompted. Eleanor, despite being lauded, rarely shows any example of her will here. She seems afloat on the seas of fate; about the only thing she decides to do herself, and which she actually controls, is her decision to go on crusade. Otherwise, it’s always the men. I wanted to go back in history and tell Norah Lofts that it’s okay for women to take initiative; pointing out the influence that women may have had, which is almost never recorded, is what historical fiction is for.
Anyway, that doesn’t erase all the problems with the story either. Most of the book reads like a listing of facts, especially in the beginning. The few times that Eleanor speaks up, we’re mostly told she does, like when she explains things out to Louis about her lands. We don’t know what they are, we’re just told that she makes all things clear to him, and that later he’s persuaded otherwise. The whole book is a lesson in how to write a story by telling and not showing. Eleanor’s life was long and it’s compressed so much that there’s not space for anything else for most of the book.
Surprisingly enough, the book did pick up towards the end. I still noticed irritating things, like the fact that Geoffrey is mostly ignored until he dies. I’m pretty sure that, in real life, Eleanor and Henry wouldn’t ignore one of their children so flagrantly, though I guess I could be wrong. Richard and John are the bad kids that grew to manhood and kinghood, so I guess when you have only 300 pages, you talk about them. But the story did get interesting, Eleanor started to stand up for herself a bit more after she got out of prison.
Eleanor of Aquitaine was a fascinating woman and she deserves all the attention she’s getting these days. Unfortunately, Eleanor the Queen is definitely not the first book I’d recommend reading on her. Choose Sharon Kay Penman’s books, starting with When Christ and His Saints Slept, or for non-fiction, Alison Weir’s Eleanor Of Aquitaine is both interesting and accessible. Word on the street is to avoid her fiction title about Eleanor, which I have managed so far!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Luis de Santangel has risen far as a converso. He’s the Chancellor of Aragon and an advisor to King Ferdinand; he has power, influence, and money, all anyone would need to succeed in the Middle Ages. That’s until the Inquisition comes to town, and with it Thomas Torquemada, a priest who very much has it in for Santangel. That’s because after years of Christianity, Santangel finds himself longing to learn about his Jewish past, about the secret rituals his parents kept, despite the danger he knows it brings to him and his family. The threat is not an idle one, and as Santangel begins to lose those close to him, so he begins to lose the trappings of power and influence that shaped his life so clearly.
I really liked this book, and for so many reasons that I’m not sure I’m even capable of spelling them out in a review! I haven’t read much fiction set around the Inquisition, at least not that I can think of right now; it’s a dark time, and those facing the consequences of the church’s zeal for reform faced that darkness full on. Santangel is one such unfortunate soul; a man who simply wants to learn more about the faith of his family is destroyed piece by piece. This is not a light-hearted, frothy novel; this is a close look at what such torture actually did to people. It’s also a very thoughtful perspective on the need some people have for faith and spirituality; Christianity isn’t what calls to Santangel’s heart, it seems, as Judaism is at the very core of his history.
Of course, Kaplan doesn’t miss out on the suffering which practicing Jews themselves suffered. The story’s alternate narrator is Judith, a Jewish woman who never married but now cares for her nephew and his aging grandfather, Baba Shlomo. Grieving for the loss of her brother, Judith becomes determined to be a silversmith, the craft which Baba Shlomo and her brother both practiced. After much persuasion, she finally attains the knowledge, only to be faced with incredible difficulties selling her ware. Her work and travels bring her into contact with Luis de Santangel, encounters which flesh out the plot and make these two characters seem even more human.
Through Judith’s eyes, we see the intense difficulties of life for Jews under the Inquisition. Judith and her family live in Muslim Granada, where Jews were permitted to live. Though they’re not tortured and killed as they were under the Christians, their lives still aren’t easy, and when Ferdinand and Isabella come with their Reconquista, the Jews are left to fend for themselves. I had actually learned about this previously in studying medieval Spain, but never had we covered so closely how it must have felt for the Jews, thrust from the land in which generations of their ancestors had lived, robbed of all their possessions, and sent away to somehow live. Judith’s choices are many and difficult, but I sympathized with her throughout and believed what she did was the right thing.
And then, finally, there was the interesting perspective on Christopher Columbus. My own opinion of the man is not very rosy. I can’t forgive him the crimes he committed. But it was nevertheless very interesting to read a depiction of him before all of that happened on his quest for funding. I think many American children retain a bit of a fascination with Columbus; even after knowing that he was quite terrible in actuality, all the little bits about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria that I learned in second grade still sticks in my head. I liked how he fit in the story; I thought using such a well-known figure firmly landed the story in its historical period, for those who know little about Spain’s past, and widened it beyond a single country.
I found By Fire, By Water to be an incredibly satisfying historical novel. It was dark, but it held me spellbound as the tale of Santangel unravelled. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction set in the late Middle Ages.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the author for review.
 The Passport, Herta Muller
This short novella revolves around the quest for a passport out of Romania for a miller, his wife, and daughter. I can’t summarize it more than that because this book and I really just didn’t get along at all. I found it to be far too vague, one of those books where every word means something and you have to spend time puzzling it out before you can properly appreciate the story. As such, I might have liked it if I’d read it in a class and had a chance to dissect it, but as I did read it I just wasn’t in the mood for that sort of thing. I finished it, but I doubt I will read anything else by Herta Muller. I’ve seen elsewhere that this was a poor translation from the German, but despite that I just don’t normally want to read anything that literary.
 A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby
New Year’s Eve is a very popular time to kill yourself. Four people from entirely different walks of life in London discover that as they meet atop a tower. They manage to talk themselves out of suicide and spend an evening wandering around the town. Afterwards, they struggle to find a place for one another in their lives, even though they recognize that few other people will understand their unique experiences.
I didn’t really know what to make of this book. I liked that it highlighted the differences yet similarities between people of all different backgrounds, how their problems seemed more or less severe but all were in despair. I didn’t think the book really had a point, though, unless it was that people are different from the way they think about themselves – butI’m not sure it was meant to. I can’t decide if I like that or not. I read this one during the Read-a-thon so it’s gone sadly fuzzy now, but I do intend to read more of Hornby in the future.
 The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
This is a hard book to write about, so I’m chickening out with a mini review. Basically, Didion’s husband passed away suddenly at her dinner table, just days before Christmas, and while their daughter was severely ill in hospital. The book is about the year after she lost her husband, how she behaved irrationally because of her grief, and the profound effect that losing someone can have.
This was a difficult book for me; ever since I lost my brother, I’ve been incredibly worried that I’ll lose someone else. I don’t grieve in this way any longer, but it’s still such a tough subject to cope with. I read the book mainly because I thought it was worthwhile to see how other people felt, to try and learn about emotions that aren’t mine. The loss of a husband and a brother are different, but I could recognize much of myself in this book. Ultimately, it’s difficult to take, but it does give you a real insight into how a grieving widow will feel – and it may make you stop and think when you or someone you love loses someone.
 Dead in the Family, Charlaine Harris
This tenth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series deals with the aftermath of the catastrophic events in Dead and Gone. Sookie’s changed quite a bit over the course of the series and now has her own grief and hard feelings towards others to deal with. Things never stand still, though, so she’s not left alone to recover. Instead, her friend Amelia moves away and her fairy cousin Claude moves in. She has a visit from Hunter, her little cousin who shares her powers, and she has to deal with some unexpected visitors from Eric’s surprising side of the family.
I love getting my hand on another installment of this series; it’s a nice return to a familiar world, even if it’s changed somewhat since the first books. I think Sookie herself has probably undergone the most changes. So I definitely liked the book, but the plot was very loose if at all existent. This is another book where some things happen, but most of them don’t actually lead to much. The climax of the book is quite speedy, but we lose much of the build-up to it. Mainly, it’s Sookie going about her life; I don’t mind this, but as a book I don’t think it held together all that well. Still, always looking forward to the next!
I am an Amazon Associate. The first of these books was sent to me for review; the rest I acquired on my own.
 By all outward appearances, and in their own minds, Simon and Emily Bear lead a happy life. Simon is a successful doctor, beloved by his patients and staff. Emily is a star in the PR world, effortlessly smoothing over crises as she gives talks and inspires young people to pursue her career path. Perhaps the only outward dark spot in their life is their daughter, Jamie, but as she’s a teenager, she’s expected to be rebellious. As the book continues, however, we learn about the cracks in their marriage, like the baby boy who died just weeks after his birth, the man that Emily left because he wasn’t suiting her direction in life, the problems that Simon has with his parents. As the book continues, we learn that appearances aren’t everything, and perhaps the most successful of all of us could be the most broken on the inside.
This was a book that’s grown on me since I finished it. I’m not really a fan of stories about modern relationships, as I’ve mentioned in depth on this blog in the past. I live my own life in the real world, so it takes a special something to capture me in a story that’s about the same world. In fact, I only read this one because my mom requested it from Amazon Vine but left the review too long, and because it’s published by Amy Einhorn Books, of which I’m a fan.
As expected, it took me a while to get into the book. I really wasn’t interested in the fate of this particular family at first; they felt too normal, too much a suburban couple thinking more of themselves than what they are. Interestingly, I found I related much more to Emily – I vastly preferred her sections to Simon’s. I put down the book once or twice when they switched – I just didn’t want to read from his perspective. Simon felt to me like a very arrogant person. He constantly denies anything that’s slightly wrong in his life, glossing over it, inserting himself awkwardly into situations, trying to take control when he’s clearly not wanted. The way he dismisses the intern at the start put me against him right away – he just couldn’t deal with the fact that she didn’t adore him like everyone else. As the book progressed, I could see where he came from. I found his attempt to find a cure for chronic pain almost ironic; he’s trying to cure physical pain when the pain that really impacts his life is the emotional kind, which both he and Emily still suffer from years after their initial loss. Despite understanding, I still couldn’t like him.
Emily, on the other hand, I sympathized with, perhaps because I could see how she made the choices she did when she was young. I felt her pain more clearly; I could understand how she got the way she was but still feel for the woman she’d become. This is so strange, because she commits wrongs over the course of the book that are substantially worse than Simon’s. I was left wondering if I could feel for her, and not him, because her problems were ones I could better relate to as a woman even though I hadn’t experienced them myself. Some sort of instinctive sympathy, perhaps – I really don’t know, but the fact stands.
Remedies would be a great choice for those who really like to peek into the lives of a successful family and see deep into the layers of relationships. For me, however, it fell a bit short, but I’m sticking that firmly in the realm of personal preference and looking forward to seeing if Kate Ledger writes something that’s more to my taste next time.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from Amazon Vine.
 Tacy’s life in Gettysburg is thrown into turmoil by the Civil War. Two of her brothers are off fighting and her father, a doctor, is doing all he can to save soldiers on both sides; at home with her is her brother David, crippled just enough to be ineligible for war service, and her mother. David loves Tacy but is bitter about his inability to fight, meaning that tensions often run high in the family home. Things only get worse when the Confederate army invades the town and Tacy has to hide her free black friend Marvelous and her family from the soldiers. The Battle of Gettysburg, when it occurs, shocks the town and changes Tacy’s life forever.
I’d only ever read one book by Ann Rinaldi before, when I was much younger, but I knew she wrote great historical fiction for young adults. I’m not normally a fan of Civil War fiction, but I knew I liked In My Father’s House, so I thought I’d give this new book a try, which turned out to be a great decision. The Last Full Measure is not a story about a girl who does extraordinary things for the war effort; instead it’s about a girl who just tries to get by, who is affected by the war just as deeply as everyone else, who reacts in perfect human ways to circumstances which could tear some of us apart.
In Tacy, Rinaldi creates a wonderful, real heroine who is forced to question the world around her due to a war. She gets confused and she struggles, but her core values are the same as all of ours. She adores her family and her friends, and even fighting with one of these cherished few makes her desperately unhappy. Her joy when her brothers arrive safely for a visit is transformed into the reader’s joy as we can’t help but feel for her and her pain. She doesn’t go onto the battlefield and save lives, but she does what little she can to protect those who she loves, which is more than others have done in the past. In fact, I think that was what I liked most about it, that Tacy was very ordinary but strong-willed and loving. I could imagine myself in her shoes, both in good and bad ways. This book is written for a younger audience and I do think that Tacy matches that description. In some ways, she is wise, but in others, she is still very much a young girl with a young girl’s thoughts.
I also really liked that, in her mission for the book, Rinaldi tried to aim for something that wasn’t really covered in most fiction books about the Civil War; namely, that Gettysburg had a reasonable population of free blacks and what happened when Confederate soldiers invaded. By making it personal and giving Tacy a close friend whose family was facing these very challenges, Rinaldi made the struggle personal and both educated me about the situation in Gettysburg and moved me as Tacy tried desperately to save her friend from slavery.
The Last Full Measure is an excellent young adult book about the Civil War. It deals with important complex historical situations but its best feature is its heroine, because Tacy is a believable, fully fleshed out young girl that many readers will find easy to relate to.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from Netgalley.
 This review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, Of Saints and Shadows (my review).
Vampires have been recognized world-wide as allies of humans thanks to video footage of the fight against Liam Mulkerrin and demons airing on the television. Their instinctive distrust, however, is not easily set aside, and many humans still not only fear them but desire to place the blame for the world’s ills squarely at the feet of the vampires. Meaghan Gallagher and her partner, Alexandra Nueva, are the two biggest advocates for vampire and human friendliness, but they’re fighting a losing battle as not even all vampires want to cooperate. One such is Hannibal, who still wants to hunt. When Mulkerrin returns and Hannibal attacks, the vampires find themselves fighting a war on all fronts and struggling to maintain their ideology in the face of fierce opposition.
As with the first book in this series, I enjoyed this book – I actually think I enjoyed it even more. The politics of it, particularly in the beginning, were quite interesting, and as I already knew all the main characters, I found it much easier to get into it at the very start. I also knew what to expect in terms of violence, which I found made it a lot easier to take. I knew it was going to get bloody, and probably fast, so when it did, I had no problem with it.
In this part of the series, Meaghan Gallagher really takes the lead. I do cringe a bit every time I see her name – it looks almost like my name, enough to throw me off, but obviously not too many other people out there are going to have this problem! She was one of the main characters in the last book, but here she’s settled into her role as vampire and taken charge as the one who negotiates with the government and appears as the public face of the vampires. With her is her partner and lover, Alexandra, who mainly provides her with support and love. There are a few more couples in this book as well, so again it maintains the same level of graphic descriptions at times, though there was more fighting and less romance in this book.
What I really liked about this book was that it introduced some different and interesting characters. Golden uses a bunch of characters from history in different ways. Sometimes I don’t really like this, but for some reason here it worked. We have Buffalo Bill, we have Charlemagne, and we have another character I won’t name because I don’t want to spoil it. Charlemagne doesn’t pop up until a bit later in the book either, but it was pretty obvious who it was, so I won’t consider that a spoiler. They’re vampires, which means they’ve had an opportunity to change with the times and I can excuse their irregularities to some extent. The new characters added something, I thought.
Overall this was another good, action-packed installment of the series. It’s definitely perfect for those who enjoy fantasy and don’t mind a large number of battles – this series seems like the fantastical equivalent of Bernard Cornwell’s books, with stronger women. So, if you enjoy that sort of book, you shouldn’t miss Angel Souls and Devil Hearts.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
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