I'm not far enough into the book to really comment on it as a romance yet, but I'm definitely enjoying the worldbuilding. It's set at the court of King Henry VIII, and I'm guessing the series will continue through most of his reign. The main characters aren't vampires, but humans who either hunt or protect them. The vampires are Druids gone bad. Or perhaps merely wild. I suspect we will learn more of them in time.
In this world, the first Henry Tudor agreed to help the Druids kill vampires in exchange for victory over Richard III; he also agreed to ally with the Druid vampire hunters. When the book begins, we're up to Henry VIII. The current hunter, Rosalind, is from a Druid family; she's only nineteen, but since her father was killed by vampires, she's it. She has the help of another hunter, who's posing as her groom and giving her regular training, but he doesn't have access to the king and queen (Katherine of Aragon).
Rosalind soon meets Christopher Ellis. His family, members of a Mithras cult, protect vampires, often by killing Druids, so there's instant conflict with Rosalind, as well as instant attraction before he knows her name. Christopher has an overwhelming need to prove himself, which hints at some issue in his background; I'm really curious how that will work out with Rosalind's issues of always being underestimated.
Historical background at the author's website.
The vampire appears to be hiding among the Queen's court, so I'm looking forward to all the details of what her life was like; I'm already getting a feel for the period, which I confess is much more important to me than the paranormal worldbuilding.
If anybody else reads this, let me know!
B & N | Powell’s | Indiebound | Borders | Amazon
