Couldn’t put it down!

An unusual story, from a German soldiers point of view. Well written and well told. I was rooting for the vampires.

An unusual story, from a German soldiers point of view. Well written and well told. I was rooting for the vampires.

I love books about vampires. This title is a portrayal of the classic vampires and thankfully not ridiculous like the Twilight Saga. It was very well written. The author knows what they are talking about. I really liked the lecture on the mythology of vampires, very detailed. There was beautiful prose.

Heilman and Henry present to the reader a unique fantasy/thriller/horror vampire story. I write "unique" because the story strays away from the traditional 20th century notions of vampirism to give a more realistic depiction. The uniqueness of the story combined with the many twists and surprises, that seem to come when you least expect, keep the reader's attention throughout and to the very end. I was engaged from start to finish and the writing naturally provoked my imagination to vividly conjure the different characters and the different settings.To add, the characters and the story are round and dynamic. The plot and subplots are developed. And the writing is pro. This book would make a great flick.

First, a disclaimer. I've known the author for 21 years exactly. Our friendship started over our mutual admiration for vampire literature, and we played the White Wolf Vampire RPG several times.That being said, this book is a great addition to traditional vampire lore. Vampire books don't always start with the rules, but the rules are in place from the beginning, so let's go over those first. Vampires are undead and not truly physical beings in this book, so they don't have sex, though they seem to like the idea. They are highly sensitive to sunlight and burn in light. They abhor Christian/religious imagery and relics and holy water can burn them, but they aren't stopped by anything symbolic other than silver. They have consciences and something resembling a soul, but the hunger rules every time. They only eat people and if they feast on the dead, they get deformed. They have to have permission to enter a dwelling and permission to turn someone. They only turn by puking blood back into the victim's mouth (not Dracula style by having Mina nurse from a flesh wound). They can go in water, but there may be some weak association with running water being dangerous, it's not really explored. They don't turn into animals. They can fly but only when powerful. Those who are turned when younger (say very young teens) seem to have less frontal lobe development and impulse control in their undead existence, and haunt their victims several times.While the vampires in this book are important and their stories matter, they are not the principal villianous force. That role is left to Dr. Edison Raymer, a college professor with a bloodlust for vampires. See whether you have any kind of sympathy for him by the end of the book.I don't want to provide too many spoilers, so I'll just say that the book is relatively quickly paced and picks up in the second half when basically everyone goes hunting, and there is some sexy material if you are looking for that in a vampire book, but in general this is a PG book until the end, when it crosses over into some serious R territory for the final battle.I particularly enjoyed the references to rural Virginia and the Chesapeake (my old stomping grounds with Ryan back in the day), as well as the keen descriptions of vehicles (especially the gunmetal classic Mustang GT), the references to classical music and literature, the descriptions of history/anthro/English professors from the "Williamsport College"-- a mirror of the College of William and Mary placed in Surry across the James, and the hilarious dialogue. This book has something for every vampire afficionado, while it is a bit light on the romance, the romance is there, it's just subtle, and tender.Yours cruelly, Desiree