At first, this book reads like your typical historical romance but the author, Brooklyn Ann, intelligently included vampires in her story. I usually love reading these two genre separately, but together they form the ultimate guilty pleasure. What's more, is that the author created wonderful and smart characters to tell the story and I especially loved the gutsy and eccentric heroine, Angelica Winthrop.
Fascinated by Gothic tales and literature, Angelica Winthrop hopes to become the next great authoress. However, limited by her sex, she vows to try everything in order to get published. Including visiting the Duke of Burnrath's mansion, which is presumed haunted. But when things go wrong and Angelica is found by the Duke, Ian Ashton himself, Angelica and Ian become prime gossip material because of their unseemly encounter which a servant became aware of. Gossip by the haute ton is the worse kind of attention one can get, especially when you're a vampire trying to hide in the middle of high society. Ian Ashton has always been careful, but there's just something about Angelica that makes getting exposed worth it. Ian figures that the only way out of the unwanted situation is to propose and marry Angelica. However, Angelica has other plans since she doesn't want to get married.
I love the way Angelica and Ian interact with one another. Their romantic story may have been predictable at times, but it was still highly entertaining to listen to their banter and to see them fall in love. As an early feminist, Angelica is the type of 19th century woman I admire, but in hindsight, probably never existed. Her stance on woman's rights is very progressive (maybe a little bit too progressive for that time) but I still love how the author created such a wonderful and strong leading lady. Ian is pretty great too and his vampire status is definitely an advantage. I don't know if I would have liked him as much if he weren't a vampire because otherwise, I fear he would have been a little bit too boring.
I thought it was pretty great that the author named quite a few real historical figures. Angelica is a great admirer of Mary Shelley and even though I'm not a really big fan of Frankenstein, I can see how Angelica might be fascinated by her and her writing. Along with Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori are also mentioned. The later actually has a pretty important role in the novel and despite the fact that the other three are never actually present in the story, they have a major influence on some of the characters.
Bite Me, Your Grace reads like your typical historical romance novel but the paranormal elements makes it original and a lot more interesting. This fusion of genre was a definite success and I'm definitely checking out the rest of the series.
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Monday, August 17, 2015
Bite Me, Your Grace by Brooklyn Ann
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Ooh, historical romance with vampires. That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteMajanka @ I Heart Reading
I got a little tired of vampires, but this one sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteI love wonderful and smart characters as I've read my fair share of annoying and helpless characters. :)
ReplyDelete@dino0726 from
FictionZeal - Impartial, Straightforward Fiction Book Reviews
I added this to my Amazon wish list!! Thanks!!
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