Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: The Vampire’s Angel
SERIES: The Realm of The Vampire Council #1
AUTHOR: Damien Serbu
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 334 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2018
BLURB:
As Paris devolves into chaos amidst the French Revolution, three lives intertwine.
Xavier, a devout priest, struggles to hold on to his trust in humanity only to find his own faith threatened with the longing he finds for a mysterious American visitor. Thomas fights against the Catholic Church to win Xavier’s heart, but hiding his undead nature will threaten the love he longs to find with this abbé. Xavier’s sister, Catherine, works with Thomas to bring them together while protecting the family fortune but falls prey herself to evil forces.
The death, peril, and catastrophes of a revolution collide with a world of magic, vampires, and personal demons as Xavier, Thomas, and Catherine fight to find peace and love amidst the destruction.
REVIEW:
A priest, Xavier, and a vampire, Thomas, falling in love, with the backdrop of France during the revolution. What’s not to like?
Told in the third person, this was a story that I willfully immersed myself in and whenever I had to leave it, I quickly returned.
There was much to keep me turning the pages. There was the sister that would not be told what to do by a man. The danger of a volatile France, beheadings, love and hate for the church at every turn. Unrequited love, and acknowledged yet complicated love, and two totally adorable lead men. Add into this, vampires with feelings and some black magic, and we have the makings of a book that should sell well.
I was glad to see that the author added some originality to the vampires, and, didn’t hold back on the brutality of mob rule. Similarly, there were some traditional aspects too, like how tortuous a vampire could be and sleeping in a coffin.
That’s not to say that this story was perfect. Everyone reading it will have parts they love and not. For me, the story was a little too long, and there was a lot of sobbing. While I appreciate the story was set in emotional times, by the end, I became a little hardened to waterworks, and in some cases bloodworks. I also found that I wanted to hug Catherine one minute and put tape over her mouth the next. Likewise, the same arguments kept reiterating albeit with a different twist each time. In my version, I also found the odd minor grammatical error.
Overall though this story is a good one that I greatly enjoyed. The cast was strong and Xavier’s wars with his conscience was one that pulled at my heart. So was the anguish of Thomas. The story is definitely a page turner, requiring a few hours of uninterrupted reading at a time. By doing this, I was able to immerse myself in historical France and enjoy, as this powerful drama unfolded.
This story deserves its high rating because, even though I had my issues with it. The frustrations made me buy into the characters and live their journey with them. As one film character said, “there are only perfect intentions,” reality is often not as black and white. Believe me, there are perfect intentions and a lot of not so perfect intentions in this novel. If I had to use one word to sum up my reading experience I would say – juicy.
RATING:
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