The Stuart Vampire by Andrea Zuvich

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Kindle Library

Read: August 9, 2014

Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, is the youngest brother of King Charles II and James, Duke of York. A handsome, good man, his life ends in 1660 with smallpox... or does it? Obsessed with Henry, Contessa Griselda di Cuorenero - one of the Devil's concubines - turns him into a vampire and plunges him into the world of night. Pacts with the Devil, massacres, plague, fire, witch trials, and the love of a lonely outcast from the sleepy village of Coffin's Bishop have an irrevocable impact on the young vampire. Henry must choose between his humanity and his monstrous, insatiable desire for human blood. From the author of "His Last Mistress," The Stuart Vampire is a gothic tale incorporating the real horrors of mankind in the Early Modern period, natural disaster, and the supernatural world.

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Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester

Andrea Zuvich's The Stuart Vampire was one of those titles. When I first stumbled across it, I wasn't convinced it was something I'd enjoy, but the idea stuck with me. I'd circle back to the book from time to time, but it wasn't until last week that I finally threw caution to the wind and picked it up. 

For those who aren't familiar with Zuvich, understand she is a professional historian who specializes in the Late Stuarts of the Seventeenth Century. Why is this important? Well, I hate to point fingers, but few paranormal writers put the same emphasis on historic detail when blending these genres and ultimately, I feel the balance Zuvich created is what sets The Stuart Vampire above similar crossovers.

Is the book perfect? No. I noted the odd typo here and there and I wont deny wanting more from the story in terms of character development, but neither proved a significant deterrent in my overall enjoyment of the story. In point of fact, there is only one aspect of the piece that truly bothered me and that is the artwork. 

Readers really do judge books by their covers and I mean no offense in admitting this, but if I hadn't read this author before, I wouldn't have risked buying the book. The current imagery simply doesn't pique my interest and after finishing the story, I don't think it does justice to the content either. It sounds ridiculous, but I actually spent a lot of time thinking something akin to the promotional material for 2004's The Libertine would make a more accurate and striking impression on potential readers.

An intriguing historical with a darkly gothic twist, I enjoyed The Stuart Vampire and would recommend it to anyone with a taste for period horror. 

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"Oh, I do not know about that! My mother once said I was damned because I was a Protestant and not a Catholic as she. If only she knew what I've become! Then she would truly despair!"

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Unhallowed Ground by Daniel Mills

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: November 8, 2012

In the summer of 1891, Henry Feathering travels to Bittersweet Lodge at the invitation of his reclusive widower uncle. Under the shadow of the dilapidated old mansion, Henry falls in love with the enigmatic Clemency St. James and proposes to her in the shelter of a locust grove. As the newlyweds settle into the lodge, they soon learn of the house’s sordid past—ghostly visitations, unexplained illnesses, and madness—which now plagues Henry and Clemency, creating an irreparable rift between them. Can they salvage what is left of their marriage? Or will the unbridgeable distances dividing men from women, the past from the present, and the living from the dead doom them to the fate of what lies beneath the grave of a young girl buried on these unhallowed grounds...

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Victorian Bride Detail by Stacy Hill
Used with Permission of the Photographer

Daniel Mills' Unhallowed Ground is definitely a noteworthy piece, but that being said, I have mixed feelings about the story. 

To Mills' credit, he really captured the style and flow that characterizes gothic literature. The voice he crafted for narrator Henry Feathering would do Poe proud. Mills' wording strikes the same cords and in that respect I really have to applaud this piece. 

Still, I can't bring myself to go higher than three stars. While I enjoyed the dark, haunting beauty of Unhallowed Ground, the book did not speak to me. I want to stress this is strictly a matter of personal preference and not a comment on the author or quality of his work. I simply like stories to pack a little more of a punch than what I found here. This is a good book, just not one for my bookshelf.

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"No doubt you are like me when I was your age. Secure in youth, you have the luxury of skepticism. But she is not at peace. Lily Stark's presence pervades this house..."

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That Scoundrel Emile Dubois by Lucinda Elliot

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Author

Read: September 11, 2012

When young Sophie de Courcy, bored but patient companion to the Countess of Ruthin, agrees to marry her long-time hero, dashing French rogue Émile Dubois, she is catapulted into a dangerous world of Man Vampires and Time Warps. With the help of Agnes, her no nonsense, tarot-reading Welsh maid, she must come to terms with his scandalous past, help him defeat the evil Vampire neighbours and help Émile escape from the machinations of time which threaten to destroy their new found love. All this in just one book!'Scoundrel' is an entertaining, over-the-top Gothic adventure, alive with colourful character comedy as it flits between Revolutionary France and misty Wales.

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How to describe Lucinda Elliot's That Scoundrel Emile Dubois? I've been pondering the question for some time, but nothing I put together quite seems to do the book justice. 

I am somewhat hesitate to make the comparison because so many have such strong feelings in regards to the classics, but  reading Scoundrel took me straight back to A Tale of Two Cities and Dracula, both of which are ranked among my personal all time favorites. Elliot replicated the spirit and feel of these books in a most creative and original manner, seamlessly blending historic fiction and paranormal with good old fashioned story telling and strikingly characters in one memorable volume.

One aspect of particular note was the integration of French and Welsh into the dialogue. It is one thing to set a story against the French Revolution and the mysterious Welsh hills but Elliot's use of language adds an appealing touch of authenticity that setting and description could not manage alone. 

Of course Elliot doesn't stop there. She also incorporates several recognizable items of note from Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Uldolpho to Samuel Richardson's Pamela. I personally appreciated the reference to the Marquis de Sade and the appearance of a famous line from Thomas More, but that's the historian in me talking. 

Don't make the mistake of thinking That Scoundrel Emile Dubois is yet another vampire novel for it is anything but typical. Elliot's is a richly imagined, original story, that is guaranteed to sweep you off your feet.    

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"I cannot endure to lose you, leave alone what must follow. I have never been a vengeful man before, but that monster shall pay for this..."

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