Monday, April 8, 2013

SCREAMING SPIRES (THE CAVALIERS #2) by Georgiana Derwent_Review


Review of Screaming Spires by Georgiana Derwent
The Cavaliers #2
5 stars

The War between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads—Royalist supporters of English King Charles I vs. the Puritan followers of Oliver Cromwell who opposed Charles—began in 1642, but in this series it’s still raging, with the difference being that where British humans have primarily left the War behind (except for historians), among Vampires there are still two diametrically opposed groups, and they’re still named “Cavaliers” and “Roundheads.” It’s still a matter of who can get over on whom, and right now the focus is on Harriet, a young Oxford student from Yorkshire, whose family connections are far more involved with both sides of the War than she could ever have a reason to suspect.

I love this series because Georgiana Derwent simply doesn’t settle for routine, two-dimensional characters, neither vampire or human. Sure, we get the sexy, sensually appealing vampires; we also get the “scaries.” But these individuals are just as fully fleshed out as are the humans, and reading these novels is like peeking in through a one-way window into the lives of our characters (both mortal and eternal). Additionally, Ms. Derwent has an excellent background in the history of the English Civil War Era, and of her settings, and she elaborates both so that even readers who have never been to England, or know nothing of the history, can be just as fully involved in these stories as readers who are acquainted with locale and history.

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