Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness

Time’s Convert. Deborah Harkness. Penguin Publishing Group. September 2018. 448 pp. ISBN#: 9780399564512.

What is it like to be adopted and become a vampire?  What is it like to become a vampire and then be married to another vampire.  In this prequel to the author’s previous All Souls Trilogy about the de Clermont family, we discover the background of Marcus Whitmore and the 23-year-old bride to be, Phoebe Taylor.  She becomes a vampire but like a baby must undergo a 90-day period of change from a human to vampire, with all the physical, mental and spiritual changes accompanying such a huge and formidable transformation.  During that period of time, Marcus has agreed to remain separated from her and endure all the frustrations of that change.  They are well-suited to each other with their independent, fiercely demanding and intemperate desires.  They are also a thorn in the flesh of those around them which provides many amusing and almost catastrophic scenes that elicit a range of erratic emotions in the reader as well as the characters.  “Becoming” is mysterious and exciting as well, to say the least!

Another plot line centers around two twins, Philip and Becca, born to a couple who are vampire and witch respectively.  It turns out that these twins have magical powers parallel to witches which must be softened, monitored and disciplined into permissible behavior so that disaster does not strike, as it almost does several times.  Their parents have a huge adjustment to manage as well as they never expected babies to satisfy their own desires immediately, including one making friends with a familiar, a griffin whom Philip names Apollo. The latter is also in dire need of control and discipline, proven by the humorous and frightening scenes that demonstrate just how deeply bonded Philip and Apollo are!

A third and fascinating subplot shows what it was like to live in the times of the American and French Revolution.  Marcus originally lived in that time in the 1700s.  Growing up with an abusive father and negligent family certainly did not bode well for the future and it was his father Matthew de Clermont who adopted Marcus and made him a vampire.  Learning about the extended family of vampires is awesome by itself. Vying for power and satisfying one’s own desires make for familial scenes that are more like a civil war.

Although this novel is connected to the earlier series, it works just as well as a stand-alone story.  Constant action, conflicts, funny takes, and the solving of some mysteries about the de Clermont history enable the reader to fly through these pages and engage with these endearing yet formidable characters.  Deborah Harkness has clearly done her research and has more than ample talent to craft a richly complex story, with just enough complexity in character depiction to satisfy every reader.

Well-done, again, Deborah Harkness!  Looking forward to more of immediate and extended family evolution and progress!  

Thoreau on Wolf Hill: A Henry David Thoreau Mystery by B. B. Oak.

 Thoreau on Wolf Hill: A Henry David Thoreau Mystery. B. B. Oak. Kensington Publishing Corporation. October 2014.. 320 pp.  ISBN#: 9780758290250.

Vampyres, as they are spelled in this novel, or vampires are very, very real, according to believers like Solomon Whitty; and the key to ridding society of these terrifying creatures lies in chopping out their hearts and more separation of parts of their dead or living bodies, along with some other noxious deeds that are considered mandatory action to end the cycle of murder and violence.

Henry David Thoreau and Dr. Adam Walker are the voices of sanity attempting to discover the murderer of several members of this small Massachusetts town.  But the superstition, driven by irrational fear, looms larger than reason.  The ensuing solutions to this dilemma, exacerbated by the scourge of an epidemic of “galloping consumption, include more violence. 

Add to the mix the fact that Dr. Adam Walker and Julia are doing everything to avoid each other and to be with each other.  For there’s a mystery as to why Julia ran away to France years ago, believing she could never marry the love of her life, Adam.  Here is another mystery waiting to unfold for the reader, along with the unknown reason of why she abandoned her husband in France to resettle in Plumford.  Add another mystery about a small boy with a harelip and a woman who agrees to be Julia’s housekeeper but has some devious ways involving the young boy, Noah to the mix!

B. B. Oak crafts a multilayered mystery that is unpredictable and intriguing, as well as rather ghoulish in several scenes.  The plot thickens without any break and the reader will be enthralled in this story with complex conflicts paralleling the ancient Indian stories of vampires and supernatural powers.  It’s almost ironic that so much horror can riddle this area of New England known for its charming beauty.

 Highly recommended mystery that makes the reader want to read the other Thoreau mysteries!

Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

Queen of Kings: The Immortal Story of Cleopatra. Maria Dahvana Headley. May 2011. Dutton: A Member of Penguin Group U.S.A. Inc. 416 pp. hb. ISBN #: 9780525952176.

"Everything is true. Once a story is told, it becomes true. Every unlikely tale, every tale of wonders, has something real at its core." This quote in the "Historical Note" section after the novel serves to properly introduce an amazing, wondrous tale. For when one begins this novel about the famous Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, one is not expecting this story of love and war conducted on human, mythological, and supernatural multi-levels. The love of Antony and Cleopatra is well-known, but the devastation that follows Rome's defeat of Egypt sets loose days and nights of terror that will make the reader shiver many, many times in the following pages.

For Octavius, the Roman leader, sends a messenger to Cleopatra, telling her that Antony has committed suicide. Cleopatra does not discover the truth until much later, as she is busy creating an incomplete spell in which she attempts to invoke the powers of Sekhmet. Her goal is to defeat Roman power but what she unleashes are the powers of death, destruction, chaos, plague, and every form of evil one could possibly conceive. It's as if Pandora's box has opened to unleash the fury of darkness and chaos upon every corner of the world.

Cleopatra becomes Sekhmet's furious tool of evil, fueled by the blood of her hapless victims of both high and low birth. But the neatness of this story becomes even more complex when the powers of the mythological underworld,a priestess, sorceress, historian, serpents, gods, and goddesses take sides in a war between Cleopatra and those who support Octavius. Plague, war, thefts, battles, vicious murders, and ritual sacrifices fill these pages with a story that defies imagination yet seems all too real and horrific!

Maria Dahvana Headley has written a timeless, literate, and wonder-filled story that is an absolute must read. The list of sources and historical references after the story are quite impressive and provide a long list of material to be read for those who are as gripped by this story as this reviewer was and is. Superb story that was obviously fueled by the creative Muses - don't miss this gem!

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel. Deborah Harkness. Viking: A Penguin Group. February 2011. 592 pp. ISBN #: 97806700022410.

THIS AMAZING NOVEL IS NOW IN PAPERBACK!!!

This is not your ordinary story about witches, vampires and daemons!

Diana Bishop’s famous ancestor was executed for being a witch. As a heart-rending consequence of Diana’s parents’ mysterious deaths, Diana has vowed she will live totally as a human, denying her identity as a witch with both usual and unusual powers. Dedicating her life to logic and ordinary living, she is now a history scholar doing research on alchemy texts in the Bodleian library at Oxford. Upon receiving a requested text called Ashmole 782, she realizes either the book is spellbound or there is something about this book that connects with her hidden witch powers. Add to that the reactions of suddenly appearing witches, vampires, and daemons whose animosity and threatening looks and words make Diana’s wish for normalcy an illusion she can no longer ignore.

Into the midst of this reality arrives a handsome, extremely intelligent and old vampire, Matthew Clairmont, who is supposedly pursuing his own research as a geneticist. Initially disliking and avoiding his presence, Diana finally begins to realize he is protecting her from direct attack by the hordes of persons appearing daily in the library who are insisting she recall the text they are desperate to obtain. Then he begins to appear during her running and rowing exercises which seem to be the only way she can stop her natural abilities from emerging with perilous effects on herself as well as others.

Why is Matthew so attracted to Diana and what is behind the interest so many have in this mysterious text lost for centuries which has appeared and again disappeared after Diana’s innocent unbinding of its pages? Finally, when several close calls with death frighten Diana into realizing her lack of control, she accepts shelter first with Matthew’s vampire family in France and then with her own witch family in America.

A Discovery of Witches is so much more than just a supernatural story! Yes there are adventurous thrills for those who love the proverbial accounts of such creatures. But here is an intelligent consideration of the essence of origins, differences, genetic mating and consequences, shared powers defying definition and classification, versions of history holding secret and amazing phenomena, relationships of enmity forced to unite under common needs – both good and evil, the quintessential realities behind the search for the Philosopher’s stone or alchemy, and so much more.

Add to that a sweet, dangerous romance all the more real because of what seems to be its doomed end, and herein is the perfect combination, preciously difficult to adequately encompass in any brief review. This tale is a smart, tense, provocative, and enchanting read you will not want to end and will be relishing long after the last page is turned. This reviewer is so looking forward to the sequel to this amazing novel which will be a best seller!!! Absolutely delightful and impossible to put down!