Rec'd via the publisher for review.
PAPERBACK ARC.

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Product Description
Sovereign Power. Eternal Pleasure.

Revealed at last in this new vampire saga for the ages: the true, untold story of the “Virgin Queen” and her secret war against the Vampire King of England. . . .

On the eve of her coronation, Elizabeth Tudor is summoned to the tomb of her mother, Anne Boleyn, to learn the truth about her bloodline—and her destiny as a Slayer. Born to battle the bloodsucking fiends who ravage the night, and sworn to defend her beloved realm against all enemies, Elizabeth soon finds herself stalked by the most dangerous and seductive vampire of all.

He is Mordred, bastard son of King Arthur, who sold his soul to destroy his father. After centuries in hiding, he has arisen determined to claim the young Elizabeth as his Queen. Luring her into his world of eternal night, Mordred tempts Elizabeth with the promise of everlasting youth and beauty, and vows to protect her from all enemies. Together, they will rule over a golden age for vampires in which humans will exist only to be fed upon. Horrified by his intentions, Elizabeth embraces her powers as a Slayer even as she realizes that the greatest danger comes from her own secret desire to yield to Mordred . . . to bare her throat in ecstasy and allow the vampire king to drink deeply of her royal blood.

As told by Lucy Weston, the vampire prey immortalized in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this spellbinding account will capture your heart and soul—forever.

Started reading today.

Finished today.

“Lucy Weston?” I said when I first received a copy of this book, “Isn’t that the chick from Dracula?” (Dracula – now with Twilight-inspired cover!) Turns out I wasn’t remembering things quite right – in the novel, the character’s name is Lucy Westenra, but in some of the TV/film adaptations of the book she goes by Lucy Weston. At any rate, look! Vampire nom de plumme! Oh, I’m so smart.

Elizabeth I has just ascended to the throne, becoming queen over the merry realm of England. The coronation celebrations have just started, but she’s already deeply immersed in intrigue. A long dormant foe has risen to reclaim England for his own – Mordred, the bastard son of King Arthur. Lord of the vampires, Mordred is as handsome as he is arrogant, as mysterious as he is determined to rule. He approaches Elizabeth with a tantalizing offer – eternal youth and beauty in exchange for her hand in marriage. But Elizabeth cannot allow her people to become mere pawns and fodder for the Mordred’s vampire court, and resolves to destroy Mordred and his kind forever with her newly-awakened vampire slaying abilities.

I was thinking this would be a humorous revision along the lines of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter; instead, it’s a rather earnest bodice ripper focusing on the love triangle between Elizabeth, Robert Dudley and Mordred. Were it not for the vampires, it’d be a pretty standard historical romance, with decent writing, lush descriptions of court life and plenty heaving bosoms and nervous hand-wringing. It’s just familiar enough that it makes me wonder if ‘Lucy Weston’ is an author I’ve read before under a different name.

The supernatural elements of the book come off pretty weak. Somehow, visiting Anne Boleyn’s grave triggers Elizabeth’s slayer powers, which are extremely vague. She is able to shoot ‘bolts of power’ that destroy vampires. I don’t know why, or what exactly this power entails. When she defeats a vampire, she absorbs their life force, becoming stronger. As her slayer power grows, she acts more and more like a vampire, although whether this is the effect of the vampire force she’s absorbing or simply the manifestation of her slayer’s killer instinct is never made clear.

Mordred is a total narcissist, making him a good match for the equally self-absorbed Elizabeth. He splits the narrative with her, with them telling the story in the first person through alternating chapters. I felt like he was the more interesting character, largely because he had a thousand year long history to draw on, but he’s seriously underused. During his chapters, he’s largely obsessing over what Elizabeth did or will do during her parts of the book, so his past is largely glossed over. Elizabeth, meanwhile, spends a lot of time mooning over Mordred and flirting with Robert Dudley. Although she’s surrounded by men eager to protect her – William Cecil, John Dee, and Francis Walsingham – they come across as bumbling fools that are totally useless. I imagine their real-life counterparts would be furious at such a portrayal.

Early on, it’s revealed that Mordred told this story to Weston centuries later, so we know he isn’t going to be soundly defeated, and the final battle is decidedly anti-climatic. In spite of this, I thought that overall this was a fun book to read, and it would make an even better movie. I hope someone in Hollywood runs across this novel and decides to run with it.

adding to my Medieval & Renaissance Bookbox!

Surprise, surprise: I'm taking this from the Medieval/Renaissance bookbox {grin}. While I admit to mixed feelings about the literary-mashup fad, some of the results have been surprisingly successful, so I'm going to give this one a shot!

Later: I agree with k00kaburra's comments - the story could have done more with the supernatural elements, and most of it seemed to center around some rather soap-opera-esque romantic complications. And the final scenes felt more like Tudor X-Men, as Elizabeth started firing bolts of power and swooping around the sky. (I also found Mordred rather tedious; why mix Arthurian legend with Elizabeth I when you've already got vampires? And if you're going to bring Mordred in, he'd better be devilishly charming, and - for me - he wasn't.)

My favorite bit (something of a spoiler, though given the way the story unfolds it shouldn't surprise anyone):

When Elizabeth rescues Dudley, she comments to herself about how some men might take a while to recover from such shocking experiences. "Not so my dear love, who within minutes is expressing far more concern for my welfare than his own, if in the petulant way that men have when they feel put upon." Snark!

Lots of inconsistencies (in plot and in character), and way too many words {wry grin}, but some entertainment value.

I'm adding this book to emmejo's Vampire bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Hope someone enjoys the book!

Selecting from the book box. I think there will be enough of the romance and not too much gore for mom. If not, I plan to read it just to see if I agree with the previous readers. Thanks for including it.

Mom is finished with this one and my pile is too high to save , so I'm adding it to Emmejo's Otherworldly Bookbox.

I received this as part of emmejo's Otherworldly book box. Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait to read!

On the eve of her coronation, Elizabeth I learns of a greater evil threatening England than the leaders of the France, Spain, etc. At first she doesn’t believe her advisors, but reality sets in very quickly.

During the time of Authur, his bastard son Mordred sacrificed his humanity to save England. However in doing so, it cost him everything, including his greatest love.

Morgaine, a vampire slayer from her time, did not succeed in slaying Mordred. However, Elizabeth is a descendant of her line. Her advisors believe she is to become the next slayer.

The story is told mostly from Elizabeth’s point of view, with Mordred’s periodically thrown in. It was easy to follow the train of thought. However, the story itself (even through scifi) was quite unbelievable. I definitely won’t pick it back up.

We're participated in several otherworldly book exchanges over the last two years. It's time to pass along some of the books that we've read so that they can continue the journey.

Thank you for the box of books!