"Dorina Basarab is a dhampir- half human, half vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. So far Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing.
Now Dory's vampire father has come back into her life. Her uncle Dracula (yes, the Dracula), infamous even among vampires for his cruelty and murderous ways, has escaped his prison. And her father wants Dory to work with the gorgeous master vampire Louis-Cesare to put him back there.
Vampires and dhampirs are mortal ennemies, and Dory prefers to work alone. But Dracula is the only thing on earth that truly scares her, so when Dory has to go up against him, she'll take all the help she can get... " - Book Cover
The book cover provides a pretty good resume of the story so I won't go down that path, instead I'm gonna tell you what I liked and what I didn't about this book =)
First of all, I've read other books about dhampir and it's the first time I've seen them with such a violent temper. I think it's a very original idea to provide this unique race a background and a good explanation for their low population, combine with the fact that vampires kills them on sight. On the other hand, I felt bad for the poor Dory, she got beat up pretty bad all the time, I don't think there was a chapter without her having an injury. Yes she is a bad ass, but sometimes I felt it was a bit to much.
At some points I had a hard time to follow the story, specifically when there were descriptions of past events or story backgrounds of other races (fae, trolls etc). Maybe it's just that my English isn't good enough? I don't know. It didn't stop me from enjoying the book but it was a bend in the road if I may say.
And a totally insignificant thing that bothered me is the name of one of the main characters. Louis-Cesare. I just don't like his name, and he have doesn't have a nickname in the book either. I guess the author wanted a very french-like name for the French vampire, but honestly? I'm french and I've never seen anyone with that name. A simple François or Antoine would have been just as good. But hey, that's just me =P
While I'm talking about french, I'd like to point out that unlike many other books, the french lines of the book were correctly written, so kudos for that!
Now that I am done complaining, I can say that overall I liked that book, the action was good, the tension between the main characters interesting and believable, and it was an interesting story in a book world full of vampire stories.
I have Death's Mistress sitting on my TBR shelf, so stay tuned for a review of the next instalment.
Read an excerpt
Dorina Basarab series:
Midnight's Daughter
Death's Mistress
Books Stats:
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Onyx (MM) (Oct 7 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451412621
ISBN-13: 978-0451412621
Book Source: Personnal Shelf
I've been meaning to try this one for a while now. I'm glad you liked it.
ReplyDeletehey tynga....this sounds great. I haven't read any books bout vampires yet... thanks for sharing..have a nice day...
ReplyDeletemy update: http://coffeecrackers.blogspot.com/2010/02/3rd-on-my-wishlist.html
Have you read Karen Chance's Cassandra Palmer series (first book is Touch the Dark)? Since this series is a spinoff of a smaller character from the Casie Palmer series, there's a chance that the parts you found confusing were events from the first series.
ReplyDeleteSara- No I haven't read it yet, they ar eall sitting on my TBR shelf thought ^^
ReplyDelete