Genre: Adult Paranormal Fantasy
Strigoi Series, Book 1
|
Description (taken from Goodreads):
When Aleron accepts the gift of immortality from queen vampire Mynea, a blasphemy is born—to mankind and vampires alike. Having gone against the ancient creed forbidding the creation of male vampires, Mynea must hide Aleron for centuries, concealing him from the reigning vampire, Vlad, and his clan.
As Aleron adapts to his unusual limitations, astonishing new abilities, and an insatiable lust for blood—the sweetest nectar of all—he and Mynea bring others into their fold, creating a coven. But when Mynea suddenly disappears, Aleron’s blissful ever after begins to crumble. In his search for Mynea, he begins to piece together his own vampiric origins through the blood memories of others—and both trails lead to Vlad. Suddenly, Aleron’s own immortality is threatened.
Aleron's world is set in the1700s/1800s in African, west-Asian, and Eastern European cities. So, we're right in the heart of vampire lore which would seem obvious since Vlad's involved. But you never really feel like you're in the past throughout this novel. We're just in a world of vampirism set from a male perspective (which I don't get to see a whole lot of).
Mynea is a mysterious queen. And she creates an interesting male vampire called Aleron. I thought the dynamic between the two at the beginning of the book was kind of slow. But when another vampire, Pandora, comes into play, the book suddenly becomes more interesting. Because she explains Vlad's past as well as her own.
What was really interesting was seeing the transformation from human to vampire. Apparently, all non-essential organs leave the body in a disgusting scene. But this is just a side note.
What starts off as love and passion for vampires quickly turns into deceit, betrayal, and vengeance. I liked seeing hearts break in this book while seeing lots of blood feasting. Vampires aren't meant for the faint of heart and neither is this book. It's kind of like Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire but different.
I enjoyed this world and the vampires in it, however the ending wasn't a really good ending. It's definitely set up to continue the story in the next book.
Thanks goes to Greenleaf Book Group and Netgalley for providing me a review copy.
Good world-building is awesome, but it's just not the most important thing in a book for me. Thanks for reviewing this- I will probably be moving this down my TBR queue.
ReplyDeleteOoh I haven't heard of this before. The previous book with Vlad that I've read was from Jeaniene Frost's Once Burned.
ReplyDeleteThe male POV is certainly interesting but I'm not too fond of Anne Rice's books. But I'll add this to my list. Thanks for the review!