The action and romance continue as the Drakes face a new vampire with a 200-year-old grudge. It’s been centuries since Isabeau St. Croix barely survived the French Revolution. Now she’s made her way back to the living and she must face the ultimate test by confronting the evil British lord who left her for dead the day she turned into a vampire. That’s if she can control her affection for Logan Drake, a vampire whose bite is as sweet as the revenge she seeks.
The clans are gathering for Helena’s royal coronation as the next vampire queen, and new alliances are beginning to form now that the old rifts of Lady Natasha’s reign have started to heal. But with a new common enemy, Leander Montmarte—a vicious leader who hopes to force Solange to marry him and usurp the power of the throne for himself—the clans must stand together to preserve the peace he threatens to destroy.
Review:
This is book 2 in the Drake Chronicles series by Alyxandra Harvey. I haven't read the first book, 'My Love Lies Bleeding', but it didn't take me long to pick up the thread of the story or get acquainted with the characters. I think this could easily be read as a stand-alone story, although it probably would have helped to have known some of the additional background information. I found that there were quite a bewildering array of names, groups and families mentioned at the start, which I had to concentrate on so I didn't get them all mixed-up.
Isabeau St. Croix is a vampire but not just any vampire. She was changed back in the days of the French Revolution and buried underground for several centuries before she was revived and became a Hound 'Princess'. She becomes entangled in the affairs of the Drake family and in particular that of Logan Drake, but she also has to face being confronted with the vampire who made her and then left her for dead. I loved Isabeau - she was a really fiesty and strong female character and I particularly enjoyed the chapters that were told from her perspective. She shares the narrative with Logan, although I felt that he could have been a little more developed. A fair number of chapters are also dedicated to flashbacks of Isabeau's former life before she became a vampire and I thought these's were great, because they gave the reader a lot of insight into her strength of character and strong will. I also loved her faithful Hound Charlemagne.
There's an enormous amount of action going on in the book which means that the pace of the story fairly whips along. However, although I enjoyed the good versus evil battle that was ongoing throughout, I would have liked just a little more romance between Logan and Isabeau! Their attraction is so palpable that I would have liked to have seen more of it, although the fact that they don't instantly act on their attraction does mean that the tension between them fairly smoulders!
Book 3 in the series, 'Out For Blood' has just been published and focuses on Quinn Drake. Although I'm looking forward to reading this and I would like to find out more about the Drake family, I also feel that Logan and Isabeau's story has only just got started and I want to be there to find out what happens to them next. I hope Alyxandra Harvey revisits these two characters at some point in future installments.
It sounds like a very bloody book, very timely.
ReplyDeleteI would like to invite you to Book Lover’s Blog Hop@Story Time Under the Stars. At the Book Lovers’ Blog Hop you can link up a book review and connect with other book reviewers.