Review: Great beginning to the series.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2013
The Impaler's Revenge is a little bit different from much of what I have been reading lately. When I say "different", I mean that in a good way. It has no romance, well, maybe a teensy bit, which I am totally cool with. This is more of a political thriller with vampires I think.There are secrets and tons of questions that the reader gets to try to figure out. The reader is given a glimpse into the political life and relationships within the walls of a vampire free country, where the policy on vampires is, shoot first, ask questions later. Romania, ironically enough, is the only vampire free country in the world. It's been that way for five hundred years thanks to strict border laws and the large numbers of trained soldiers that would have no problem killing a vampire on sight.Liana Cantacuzino is a member of the "Little Council" who inherited her position, as has been done since the council was founded by select noble families in order to keep the vampire population under control. Liana takes her position very seriously and keeps most people she interacts with at arm's length. She obviously has intimacy issues. She is something of a complicated woman who has a trauma in her past that still affects her and her personality.Liana is given the task of insuring the safety of Maximilien Hess,, a thousand year old Vampire whose presence has been requested by the President of Romania. It is a no questions asked type of situation and Maximilien won't reveal his secrets as to why he is in Romania. Max (which is NOT his preferred nickname!) is kept under constant surveillance and tight security to make sure he not only behaves, but also that no one kills him on sight. What is the President hiding from the council? The truth can endanger the entire country.I enjoyed this book. It had an interesting storyline, and realistic characters. I think my favorite character in this story was actually Maximilien. He had a sense of humor despite the fact that the people he was dealing with had an obvious dislike and distrust for him. I think there is a lot more to this character that Visan's readers would like to learn about. I think he probably has a cool history that would make a great story.The story line itself was a good idea. I enjoyed the aspect of trying to figure out what Max and the President were hiding. I didn't figure it out until the end, which is cool. I did feel like I would have liked to have more of the story a little bit sooner than it was presented. It seemed like the first  of the book was just the characters hanging out and we weren't given an idea that there was something nefarious was afoot until later. For all we knew, Max was there to help the President pick out some new suits or something (everyone knows Vampires have impeccable taste). All of the best action really didn't start until that last bit of the book.I would have liked more back story on Liana as well as Max. They were both very interesting characters to me, and I was just itching to find out more about them and why they were who they were.The Impaler's Revenge is the first novella in The Impaler Legacy Series. I look forward to reading the rest of this series. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a more "grown up" type of Vampire book. Anyone who enjoys a good book with political twist and the added benefit of having Vampires involved would enjoy this book. It's a solid 4 stars in my opinion.I received a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.