Review: The Vampire Voss

Author: Colleen Gleason {site}
Genre: Supernatural, Dark Fantasy, Historical Romance
Format: Kindle (.mobi)
Published: March 2011
Disclosure: Received via e-ARC through NetGalley

Synopsis: {via amazon}

Voss, also known as Viscount Dewhurst, relishes the sensual pleasures immortality affords. A member of the Dracule—a cabal of powerful, secretive noblemen marked with a talisman that reveals their bartered souls—the mercenary Voss has remained carefully neutral…until Angelica.

Angelica Woodmore possesses the Sight, an ability invaluable to both sides of a looming war among the Dracule. Her very scent envelops Voss in a scarlet fog of hunger—for her body and her blood. But he is utterly unprepared for the new desire that overcomes him—to protect her.

Now Voss must battle his very nature to be with Angelica…but this vampire never backs down from a fight.

Review:

I've read a ton of vampire novels. You might say that I'm a vampire novel junkie. I love the Gothic, and vampires are a natural extension of the gothic -- heck, I'm doing my Master's thesis over the Gothic. So when I started this book, with a terrible feeling, I nearly put it down again.  The problem?  I didn't like it from the start. I didn't like Voss, at all, which made bearing him difficult. I didn't particularly like the Woodmore sisters, or Voss's vampire buddies, Brickbank and Eddersley, I didn't like any of them... except Dimitri. I loved him from the word go, which is what kept me reading.  It certainly wasn't Voss.

At least that's the way it began. I grumpily picked up my Kindle and kept reading, I made it my bedtime task to read a few "pages" (percent?) and try to get it read. That's when something happened... I actually started to like the book.  Somewhere along the line, Voss's character grew on me, Angelica grew on me, they all grew on me. Don't get me wrong, I still love Dimitri above all else, he's an amazing character and I cannot wait for The Vampire Dimitri to hit shelves.  Voss started, along the way, to become a sympathetic character, I began to connect with his emotional journey and the darkness under his rake-like shell. He became something more than a completely self-interested monster, he became a man I actually rooted for!  I wanted him to succeed, I wanted Angelica to want him.  I, quite frankly, couldn't stop turning the pages.

Of course, this is a review, so I'm not going to spill the ending. I'll just say this, I was very satisfied with how the novel ended.

Okay, now that I've spoken about my likes, I must say that there are things I didn't like, too. Mostly, those things go to formatting. Since the book's not out yet, and I'm not sure it'll be available for Kindle at all, I'm certain they'll fix the formatting. One thing I hope they make certain to fix is how the book goes from one point of view to another without warning.  No space, no astrisks, nothing... it just hops from one to the next and you're left trying to shift back and forth, it's almost dizzying.  Also, I found that the character names were quite distracting.  I never want to feel like the names in a supernatural novel are silly, it breaks suspension of disbelief in a major way.  I shouldn't be rolling my eyes at the names.

All in all, I really ended up enjoying this novel. I've already said that I love the Gothic, and vampires, but as a huge fan of historical romance, this book really pulled me in. Not from the start, but it did eventually keep me turning the page because I had to find out what happened next, and no so much because I was determined to finish the novel. Ultimately, I do recommend it to anyone who enjoys it's genres. It turns out to be a pretty good novel, well worth the read.  Definitely a good start to a new series.

Rating:






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