"A dark, sensual, spellbinding start to a series......."
Dawn Thompson is the Queen of the "Hook" -- a term writers
use to say the opening sentence grabs the reader and
immediately jerks them into a story. The instant the
reader reads the line "Jon stripped naked in the woad
field', they're hooked! You just have to find out why Jon
is naked in a field of woad! Once Thompson has you, she
won't let go. I won't go too much into the plot of this historical
romance; this is a book you need to experience from that
hook of an opening line. I will, however, touch on the
theme and style of this very talented writer. Jon Hyde-
White has been infected by taint of the vampire and now
can shapeshift into the form of a black wolf. This gives
you eerie echoes of both Dracula and the Wolfman tales,
evoking old vampire lore and the dark and sinister
Universal monster movies of the Silver Screen. Evokes,
yes, but from those faint familiar cords of Vamp and
Werewolf lore, Dawn Thompson takes it all and makes it new
again, giving you a powerful story that kept me utterly
spellbound from start to finish. Just when you think you
know where she is going, she turns the screw, upping the
whole game. Not only is Jon infected but so is his beloved Cassandra
Thorpe. There is a thread of hope. They are not doom; a
ritual performed under the Blood Moon can save them.
However, there are those who would seek to destroy them.
They are running for their lives and against the time of
the passing moon, stalked by the evil Sebastian, on a
journey that carries them at breakneck speed from England
to Moldovia, hoping that the rumours of the ancient spell
to break their curse is more than just fireside tales.
The doomed couple comes under the protection of Milosh, a
mysterious Gypsy, who saves them and helps them understand
what they are becoming. (Milosh is an amazing character
who will get his own story in The Ravening, Dorchester
March 2008, and that is too long for me!). People familiar with Thompson's historical paranormals,
who love her beautiful prose, her true feel for period
romances, will find this one dark, breathtaking, sensual.
The start of a series (The Brotherhood, the second in the
series comes out September 2007 from Dorchester), this is
something readers of historical paranormals will flock to,
and rightly so. It's a frightening, breathtaking, erotic
romance that declares it's Thompson's best work yet, while
promising you ain't seen nothing yet and preparing you for
the other books in the series.
Reviewed by Deborah Macgillivray
Posted January 20, 2007
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THEIR DARK CURSE Jon Hyde-White was changed. Neither his horse nor his dog trusted him any longer, and with good cause; the transformation was almost complete. Soon he would cease to be an earl's second son and become a ravening monster. Already lust grew, begging him to drink, to devour, to swallow in great gulps hot blood from every opalescent neck--and the blood of his fiancé, Cassandra Thorpe, would be sweetest of all. Was that not why they were chosen? Was that not why the blasphemous creature Sebastian burst upon them from the London shadows? But Sebastian's evil task remained incomplete, and neither Jon not Cassandra was beyond hope. Still she smelled of meadowsweet and lilies, and he still believed in Heaven. One chance remained--in faraway Moldovia, in a secret brotherhood, in an ancient ritual and the power of love and the...BLOOD MOON
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