August 8, 2011
Susan Lambert, while in Prague for her grandmother’s funeral, encounters a mysterious man inside St. Vitus Cathedral. The man, Raphael, later appears when Susan needs help in finding her cousin Wendy, who has disappeared with another mysterious man, Garridan. Thus begins a tale of a human-vampire alliance in a pitched battle against evil forces led by a vampire version of a figure from history. The premise is provocative: can a vampire be redeemed? The execution, however, is clumsy. Viguié’s writing is littered with clichés (“the icy hand of fear,” “pierce her very soul”); clunkers of improbability (security guards at a Czech hotel who sound like they work at a Best Western in Omaha, a transfusion in a country inn that saves a vampire victim); and a basic failure to show instead of tell (“she saw Raphael fighting the man who had caused the accident”). But maybe none of this matters to the hordes of vampire fans who, after their introduction to the vampire Raphael, will clamor for book two and the movie adaptation that must star Johnny Depp.
September 15, 2011
As a knight during the Crusades, Raphael was vicious, bloodthirsty, and blasphemous. Condemned for his sins, he now wanders the earth as a vampire. When a rival steals an ancient and powerful relic from him, Raphael follows the vampire to Prague for a final confrontation. To defeat his enemy, he enlists the aid of humans David and Susan. VERDICT FaithWords jumps on the vampire bandwagon with this inspirational paranormal romance. Despite the cliched writing, the budding attraction between Raphael and Susan will appeal to CF readers who enjoy supernatural elements in their romances, while Raphael's struggle to reclaim his soul will attract those who want more faith in their fiction.
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.