Helpful Score: 6
This book was very similar to Raybourn's other novels that center around Lady Julia Gray. Theodora travels to Transylvania to work on a book and offer support for a former school friend. While there, she meets an enigmatic count (who may or may not have some connection to vampires) and deals with a murder.
Not a bad book and the atmosphere was well done. A little spooky and creepy. The hero, the count, was an interesting and flawed character.
My only complaint was that it followed exactly the same story arc as the writer's previous works. Smart lady, dead body, gorgeous enigmatic man, suspicion, romance, mystery solved, happy ending. (Although in her previous books, you had to wait a while for the happy ending.)
Good to pass the time, but ultimately forgettable.
Not a bad book and the atmosphere was well done. A little spooky and creepy. The hero, the count, was an interesting and flawed character.
My only complaint was that it followed exactly the same story arc as the writer's previous works. Smart lady, dead body, gorgeous enigmatic man, suspicion, romance, mystery solved, happy ending. (Although in her previous books, you had to wait a while for the happy ending.)
Good to pass the time, but ultimately forgettable.
Helpful Score: 3
The dead may travel fast...but this books storyline did not. When you try, over a three day period, to read a book and it's better than a soporific at putting you to sleep, you know this is not the book for you. If the author was aiming for Gothic, she missed it by a mile. The story needed more suspense and less mundane triviality. When I reached a third into the story, and neither knew NOR cared what the mystery was, I knew it was time to quit. I'll try this authors Lady Julia books-this series I'll skip.
2 stars.
2 stars.
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoy the Victorian mysteries this author writes, so when I saw this title I figured I'd give it a try. I didn't like it as much as her Victorian tales. It's an atmospheric Gothic tale set in Rumania. I think part of the genre is for the reader to not completely know what is going on (are the monsters real or just the stuff of legend?) but I found that perspective irritating rather than spooky. With so many books today assuming the monsters are real for the sake of the story, this one that leaves the question open wasn't that much fun.
