Review: A Story with Bite
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 21, 2013
The author provided me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review."A Victory That Counts" by Ioana Visan is the second installment of "The Impaler Legacy" series. It is every bit as enthralling and suspenseful as the first installment, "The Impaler's Revenge". I expect installment #3, "Order Restored", to continue in that vein... no pun intended.I have had the privilege of reviewing three previous books by this extremely talented author, Ioana Visan. "Human Instincts" came first, followed by "Blue Moon Café: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks", then "The Impaler's Revenge" which preceded this volume. All of these have been very, very good, well-written stories.Ioana Visan has done it again with "A Victory That Counts", picking up right where "The Impaler's Revenge" left off. Battling a global onslaught of a new breed of vampires, originating in New Zealand, Liana leads a small army of "regular" vampires and pandurs, otherwise known as Vampire Killers, who agreed to work together for their mutual benefit to destroy the "new breed" of vampires.At the same time, they hope to stop whomever or whatever is so quickly making more of the "new breed" vampires. With a backup army of 10,000 pandur soldiers standing ready in nearby Australia, Liana hopes to win this battle with just 600 of her combined troops."A Victory That Counts" is chock-full of action, betrayal, surprise attacks, wholesale slaughter, and great loss of life... temporarily. Ioana Visan has carved a niche for herself in the world of Vampire fiction, and she stands alone within that niche. Her graphic depiction of every element of her stories is superb, creating an enchanting movie in the reader's head.Anyone who enjoys reading Vampire stories must read Ioana Visan's "The Impaler Legacy" series. Start with book #1, "The Impaler's Revenge", followed by "A Victory That Counts". Then wait patiently with me until "Order Restored" comes out. There is also a minor installment immediately following "A Victory That Counts", which is labeled "Casualties of War" (The Impaler Legacy #2.5). It is my intention to procure a copy of that to help bide my time until "Casualties of War" is available. I have no doubt that installment will be well worth the wait.As an aside, I need to mention that Ioana's vampire stories are not like so many of today's "erotica disguised as a vampire story". Other than a few vampires getting blown apart, this series is suitable for anyone old enough to read it.