Author: Kathryn Smith
Publisher: HarperCollins eBooks
Publication Date: June 27, 2006
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Vampire
Format: Kindle, 236 KB
Buy this book: Amazon
Synopsis from Amazon
I am called Chapel . . .
For nearly six centuries I have roamed the night, a mortal man no longer. Would that I could undo the past -- when I entered the sanctuary of the Knights Templar to wrest from them the Holy Grail, only to discover the chalice I raised to my lips was not the sacred relic but a hellish cup of damnation. Now I shun the day and all things human, driven by an ungodly thirst. And yet...
Diving In...Never have I known a maiden the like of Prudence Ryland, whose beauty and spirit awaken a heart I feared long cold and dead. But her young life is slipping away, and she also seeks the deliverance of the Grail -- unaware that the cost of her search could be her soul. I must help Prudence, for in six hundred years, no other woman has stirred my passions so. But dare I tender to my beloved that which she most desires -- the sensuous "gift" of forever that is both rapture and a curse: my immortal kiss?
I think that the author did a really good job setting this series up. This entire series is set in 1899 an most of the books overlap a little until the last book. Chapel is one of the Knights Templars who drinks from what they believe to be the Holy Grail. They soon realize that they have drank from the Blood Grail, this turns them all into vampires. Every vampire story has a different origin and I thing that Kathryn Smith's is very imaginative. She holds to many of the same "conditions" as the popular vampire stories, but she adds in some new ones that are all her own.
This one had potential to be really cool with the whole archaeological aspect, but it falls a little short of fulfilling that. Prudence is a very forward thinking young woman who is suffering from a terminal illness. She is searching for the Holy Grail because she believes if she drinks from it she will be spared death. She is working with a friend Marcus who has his own agenda when it comes to what they may find.
Chapel is a vampire who travels with a priest to oversee the site when it's revealed that they may have found the Grail. All the former Templars turned vampires were given their names by The Church when they returned from their mission and the Church basically names them abominations. Chapel is the only one who seems to still be doing penance for what he believes are his sins.
As they look for the Grail they find an empty chamber that clearly someone had been residing in and in true Indiana Jones style they encounter traps along the way. Pru has issues with her illness and Chapel remains at her side. He doesn't want to watch her die, but he also believes that saving her would damn her soul so he struggles with this throughout the book.
The only thing I really had a problem with in this book is the fact that it's way too easy to figure out how it's going to end. That's kind of the way all of the books are, but this one is pretty obvious from the beginning. There is really no mystery to this one at all. The other books go more in-depth and that's okay since she is really using this book to set up the whole story.
There is a little profanity in this book but not much that I recall. There are some pretty steamy love scenes.
Rating 6/10
Hmm this sounds interesting. I have never read a vampire book set in the 1800s. I might give this one a try.
ReplyDeleteNice review.