Review: Prequel to Cassie Palmer series but can be read alone at  very reasonable pricing
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2014
I have enjoyed the Cassie Palmer series.  They started out just Ok, but as the author has gained experience or perhaps as I have become more engaged with the  characters the series has improved.  This book provides background on Mircia,finally making him a well rounded character.  Up to now he has comes across as an arrogant, rich, handsome  and very powerful suitor for Cassie, and frankly has run a distant second in my sympathy to Pritkin (aka Merlin).  This book provides background on when he was a young vampire, powerless, penniless and slightly clueless.  Now that Mircia has become a much more sympathetic character I am unsure which suitor to root for.  It also provides some history on vampire politics and the Consul's rise to power.  Since it focuses on Mircia's life as a gigolo in a brothel in medieval Venice there is some sex; but it does not overwhelm the reader and is probably Ok for young (but not prepubescent) adults.If you are already a fan I highly recommend this book and if not already a fan this book may make you one.  The author has also avoided the price inflation to which many greedy authors seemed to have succumbed lately.  This reasonable pricing slides a book wavering between five and four stars clearly into five star range.