Reviews tagging 'War'

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

121 reviews

jillaay_h's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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adancewithbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

  Thank you to Solaris and Netgalley for the review coy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

Vampires of El Norte is an interesting romance novel, that is mostly interesting because of the backdrop of historical Mexico at war with the United States and the addition of vampires. 

We meet Nena and Nestor as kids. Nena is the ranchors daughter while Nestor is son to indentured workers. In search of the hidden treasure, they are attacked by a monster. Something that they can't quite name. Thinking that Nena is dead, he runs away. When they find each other years later, not only their old feelings resurface but also the monsters. 

I found it really interesting to see the historical setting in Mexico. The rancher life, the social hierarchy and the way the woman are treated, learning about vaquero. A lot of it we kind of know but it is different to see it in text like this. How Nena's fathers word is law and how she was treated by her mother after Nestor saved her. How dare she be in danger and be saved by a vaquero which meant she was alone with him. The author manages to add in a real atmosphere of that time period, added in with a bit of terror because of the vampires. 

The vampires itself aren't on the page that much. I found the idea of them interesting. No face. And the bond at the end. There was no humanizing of them and I think that is also something we need within the vampire fiction. There was some dehumanzing of the united states, but hey, they kind of deserved that. 

As for our characters, Nena was a bit of a wild child but after her attack she became the perfect ranchors daughter. But she wants so much more. Not a marriage for convenience but to become a true asset to the ranch, to people. She is the type of person that would care about those working beneath her if her parents had allowed that more. There wasn't much room for that though. 

Nestor on the other hand remained a wild child. He has become a succesful freeelance vaquero. He does what he wants, for the most part. But he is working towards a goal. Saving money to buy his own ranch. They compliment each other nicely. 
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samanthaleereads's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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cheye13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I think expectations are absolutely key to enjoying this story. It is a dramatic historical romance with some speculative horror atmosphere. I found this to be a beautiful and nearly perfect story. The setting is so skillfully portrayed that it's seemlessly immersive. The emotions of the leads are nearly tangible. Within a single chapter, my heart ached for these two as if I knew them. And while there is technically a typical romance third-act conflict, it was so well executed, I nearly didn't notice it. An absolutely beautiful story.
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crystalisreading's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This was great.  As good as that GORGEOUS cover.  I'm a baby about horror, but I didn't find it really scary,  just very atmospheric. Excellent audio narration. Creative vampires.  Great treatment of violent colonizers and examination of unfair labor practices,  done so smoothly it was a part of the the story,  not a distraction. Has me thinking about the Mexican-American war now.  A book to enjoy but also digest later. Recommended.  
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condls27's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was such a beautifully atmospheric and angsty story. I loved the parallels between the vampires and the white colonizers and the mix of historical fiction and folklore. 
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patriciamadariaga's review

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No

2.5

This turned out to be a romance novel with vampires in it, which is fine. Its fatal flaw is that the author is a chronic overexplainer. There is no emotion, situation or motivation that is not explicitly described. Suggesting, evoking or hinting are out of the question. Add the fact that the characters are rather stereotypical and that the love story follows a familiar course (
rich girl, poor boy, misunderstanding, big fights, happy reunion
), and it should be a wash.

...Buuuut the setting is great: It takes place in North Mexico in the mid 1800s, during the American invasion, and does a pretty good job at it. More historical  fiction from that period, please! I also love that
it presents susto, a folk illness still common all throughout Latin America, as being caused by vampire attacks.
Finally, it is less clumsy than other recent novels in its inclusion of Spanish terms, even though some of it seems gratuitous.
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mmccombs's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

A solid atmospheric read! I loved the setting and the premise, though it ended up being much more of a romance than I anticipated. The romance was still good, but I thought there’d be much more vampires! When the vampires did show up, I thought they were cleverly imagined and integrated into the story, I liked that they were more “creature” than human. Both characters were interesting and I enjoyed the complex social dynamics at play. I will say that I didn’t really enjoy the narration of this one and probably would have been more invested if I had read this physically instead. But all in all I thought this was a perfect fall read with just the right amount of spooky atmosphere and historical romance.
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v_neptune's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

extremely strong start, but from the middle onward it was narratively kind of weak. still enjoyed it though
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max_pink's review

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4.0


Genres: Historical Romance, Horror (Vampires) 
 
Tropes: Class Difference, Second Chance, Forced Proximity 
 
This book started out slow but ramped up to a quite satisfying back half. I appreciated how unsettling the vampires were, and how high the romantic stakes felt, as well. 
 
As I reached the end of this, I realized that this is basically what Pride and Prejudice and Zombies should have been. It’s not impossible to combine these genres and have something successful. 
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