Book: A Lady's Guide to Vampire Hunting by Michelle Maxstoke
Reviewed by Michelles_Cosy_Booknook
A Lady's Guide to Vampire Hunting is filled with vampires, ghosts, hidden identity, Victorian asylum treatment, yearning, romance, and vampire hunting, all set within the clash between the 'upper' class aristocracy and the 'lower' class circus world.
Lady Euphemia 'Effie' Butterworth is the daughter of the incredibly wealthy Earl and is faced with her father's arranged marriage to a much older Duke, who has a track history of his young wives mysteriously dying. He's lost three so far.
On the night of the ball announcing the engagement, Effie escapes to her favourite cave and loses herself in her hobby of Geology. That is until something utterly devastating happens that changes the course of her future.
Liam, a member of the visiting circus, is recovering from a vampire hunt that cost the life of his friend and caused him to be detained in the notorious Bellview asylum.
Through a chance meeting with Liam's twin sister, Nora, Effie joins the circus, keeping her true identity hidden. In exchange for helping out, Liam teaches Effie how to defend herself against vampires and agrees to help her hunt the one that changed her life.
This is a fast-paced read, full of action, mystery, gothic bleakness, and class divide. There buckets of yearning between our main characters, which is emotional and gut-wrenching at times.
There is a twist to this story, which I had worked out quite early on, but when I reached it in the story, it was written in such a way, it still delivered the level of shock that I would have expected had I been completely unaware.
This is a gritty, atmospheric, emotional and a refreshing return to the vampires of old. You know, the ones that resemble Bram Stoker's Dracula, as opposed to the Cullen's and Salvatore's.
I would like to extend a very big Thank You to Michelle Maxstoke, HarperCollins UK, and Netgalley for an early read of A Lady's Guide to Vampire Hunting.
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