Review: Beautifully written...an Irish Vampire story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2012
Lady Languish is the story of a young girl, Evangeline Languish. Her privileged upbringing and doting parents have kept her away from all forms of society, even denying her the pleasures of shopping or visiting the local village except once, which caused a family uproar.She lives in a castle on a huge estate and has yet to make any friends. Sad? Not really. At no time do you get the impression that Eva is lonely, or pining for an escape. She's content and happy with her life and truly loves her parents. An incident on her 16th birthday throwing everything into the open. An uncle, Malachy, arrives. An uncle she has never met before and one that makes her queasy when he's near. He seeks an opportunity to get her on her own and then makes her drink a red liquid that she's never drunk and almost instantly she feels awakened. The uncle gets sent from the castle immediately but shortly after, and without any explanation, Eva is sent to St Rita's boarding school.Sooner after she hears about the death of her parents and after arriving back at her family castle strange events start to occur. The mysterious Lorcan shows up, injured beyond measure and she takes taking him back to the castle to get proper care. Soon she realises that he's not normal and he in turn predicts that her life is in incredible danger. A vampire hierarchy going back to the first vampires is now under the leadership of Slane, a young power-hungry woman whose second in command is none other than her uncle Malachy. And Slane wants Eva dead.This isn't a story that has been rushed in any way. The pace doesn't canter along losing your perspective and instead you get to savour the different characters, all well thought out and that spring to life in the story at opportune moments. Especially Eva's friend from school, Sive. I have a soft spot for her. Sive's father was a close friend of Eva's parents but little did Eva know this until their terrible death. Sive doesn't shirk at the sound of danger; she helps Eva unravel the conspiracies occurring with the aid of Ann, the housekeeper who enlightens Eva to her past.Another great character was Lorcan that I loved. His history is undeniably horrid, and he's tortured by his past life. But slowly he begins to open up a little with Eva and there's a connection that neither of them expected.And the bad guys? They are really bad and nasty. I even felt scared just reading about them!The book is set in Ireland which helped create such a stunning, almost Gothic, backdrop inviting in the beautiful descriptions that take you to another place entirely, and Eva has to be one of the loveliest heroines I've ever read. And if you think she's had her fair share of heartache then just wait till you get to the end. An ending that will lead you to desperately wanting the second book!It isn't often that I gush about a book but there aren't enough good words to say about Lady Languish. This is definitely one of my books of the year so far.