Review: Delicious horror combined with humor and romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 1, 2012
This book became quite the delightful addiction for me, causing me to neglect almost everything else! I loved how the author fleshed out every character. I came to feel I knew them all quite well, and they all had their own unique personalities. The story is one of the wittiest I've ever read, and flows quickly from one event to the next. There is no tedium here. The dialogue, especially, is crisp and natural and often made me laugh out loud. Beneath the fun and laughter, though, there is a darker element: a mysterious premonition that bodes ill for our heroes & heroines. I was moved, for instance, by Sophie's distress as her beloved husband falls further and further away from being human into being a monster, and begins to want her in ways that terrify and disgust her. Yet her love never fails, no matter how cruel he becomes.Even Kenrick, the bad guy, becomes more sympathetic through his unquenchable need to be reunited with the one he loves. One can understand such obsessions if one has ever loved and lost.I would personally label "That Scoundrel Émile Dubois" as SATIRE, not a mere vampire or time travel story. It's far too witty, cunning, and subtle to be an ordinary "adventure story."One thing I will complain about: if a man did that much "Chin Chucking" to me I would divorce him. I quite felt for Sophie in this regard, and was envious of her patience.I would recommend this book for anyone who likes vampire stories, the kind which seems, somehow, to combine the sexy vampire (à la Twilight) with the evil vampire (à la Dracula). And time traveling. And high adventure, and rascally scoundrels, and Victorian literature, and Welsh scenery. I do look forward to More Work by This Talented Author!