Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Kiss of the Rose by Kate Pearce


Book Description:
Desperate to defeat King Richard III and gain the crown, Henry Tudor made a pact with the Druids binding him and his heirs to the Druids' struggle against vampires. Ever since, the Llewellyns, a vampire-slaying family, have been in the king's employ. Now Henry VIII reigns, and his father's bargain has been almost forgotten - until bloodless corpses turn up in the king's bedchamber. To save the king, Vampire hunter Rosalind Llewellyn must form an uneasy alliance with Druid slayer Sir Christopher Ellis. But soon, Rosalind must face an unthinkable truth: that her sworn enemy may be her soulmate ... 

Why, oh why do I subject myself to these lack lusty lacklustre vampire tales?  Because, I am on a never ending quest to find another series that thrilled me as much as the Gardella Vampire Chronicles - and nothing just seems to match up!  *pout*  As soon as I see the words: historical, paranormal, vampire slayers - I think, "maybe... maybe this time..."  Alas, not this time.  Instead, another disappointment and another wasted kindle purchase.  Is it just me or does the cover look like it's piggy back riding on the success of the The Tudors miniseries?

The premise sounded interesting, think Buffy in the Court of Henry VIII.  Except our Buffy, whose name is Rosalind was born and raised to be a vampire slayer.  Newly arrived at Henry's court, she has been summoned to investigate the murders that are taking place near the King and Queen.  Something is threatening them and Rosalind is the vampire slayer sent to kill off the rogue vampire who is creating all this havoc amidst the court (even though no one really seems to know about the deaths, they've been kept very hush hush).  Rosalind's partner arrives with her and he is posing as a groom in the stables.  He has trained her for the past several years and would one day like to marry her.  She is oblivious to his feelings for the most part.  She is a Druid on a mission to wipe out vampires everywhere - she has no time for romance and love and talk of marriage!

Until she meets Sir Christopher Ellis.  A sworn enemy to Druids, he belongs to a sect that has vowed to protect vampires, plus he may or may not have a little vampire blood in him as well.  His mother was turned into one while she was giving birth to him (I can't even imagine how that can happen!) and then she ran off with her vampire lover.  Ellis, now a handsome grown man is a courtier in the Spanish Queen's good graces.  As soon as he meets Rosalind he is instantly smitten.  He wants her, but their families are sworn enemies, there can be no relationship between the two of them.  It is impossible, even if they wanted one.  Rosalind hates him at first, but soon fights an attraction to him that increases more and more each time she sees him.  She must resist it so they can pair up to find the evil female vampire that is getting closer and closer to the King and Queen.  But, during the Spring Solstice they pair up together in a different way in a pagan ritual as old as time... uurgh. 

I kept with this book even though I was bored silly with it.  Some sex, but no chemistry between Rosalind and Ellis.  The love triangle that developed was lop sided, and frankly I just didn't care, nothing moved me about this book.  Most of the action was hard to follow and the evil characters were caricatures of what they seemingly should be like.  Nothing very memorable, unfortunately, although it wasn't really bad, it just didn't capture me.  The ending was unsatisfactory as well, although there is no doubt in my mind the next book is going to have Anne Boleyn as a vampire.  And how do you kill a vampire?  Cut off it's head, of course!  Ta-da!

2.5/5

4 comments:

Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...

Uhoh!! i had high hopes for this one! i'm glad i haven't bought it yet!

Julie at Outlandish Dreaming said...

Yes, I'd skip it if I were you, really not worth the time, there are too many other books out there that are more worth while.

Blodeuedd said...

I might just skip this one. Nothing says buy me.

But lol on book 2 ;)

Julie at Outlandish Dreaming said...

Bloddeuedd - yes, skip it. As far as Book 2, I'm not going to read it, although I'll have to check out the review of it to see if I'm right *grin*

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