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A review by forgottencupoftea
A Duel with the Vampire Lord by Elise Kova
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
• vampires, curse, prophecy
• dark-ish atmosphere
• strong lore and worldbuilding
• found family vibes + enemies to lovers romance
Though I'm not really into vampire books anymore (long gone are the days when Twilight made up most of my personality), I still wanted to read/give this one a shot as I really liked the two previous books in this series/set in this world. The other two were great, this one was not it for me.
The setting, the worldbuilding, the lore at play are great. But, the overall feeling is that the book was too long: there was a lot of "down" time and a lot of unnecessary narration, I don't need to know every single one of the narrator's thoughts nor all the step involved in the forging of weapons. In my opinion, the whole thing dragged and the book would have benefited from being shorter. I'm usually a rather fast reader, yet it took me most of September to finish this one. And I finished it by skimming the last third.
I also struggled forming any sort of attachment to the characters, I ended up not really caring about them. The romance wasn't really cutting it either. There was definitely some sort of passion burning between the two of them but that's it?
Lastly, the plot. It was all set very nicely and in an intricate way, and then the resolution was quick and easy. The solution to the curse was "too" easily guessed by the characters.
• dark-ish atmosphere
• strong lore and worldbuilding
• found family vibes + enemies to lovers romance
Though I'm not really into vampire books anymore (long gone are the days when Twilight made up most of my personality), I still wanted to read/give this one a shot as I really liked the two previous books in this series/set in this world. The other two were great, this one was not it for me.
The setting, the worldbuilding, the lore at play are great. But, the overall feeling is that the book was too long: there was a lot of "down" time and a lot of unnecessary narration, I don't need to know every single one of the narrator's thoughts nor all the step involved in the forging of weapons. In my opinion, the whole thing dragged and the book would have benefited from being shorter. I'm usually a rather fast reader, yet it took me most of September to finish this one. And I finished it by skimming the last third.
I also struggled forming any sort of attachment to the characters, I ended up not really caring about them. The romance wasn't really cutting it either. There was definitely some sort of passion burning between the two of them but that's it?
Lastly, the plot. It was all set very nicely and in an intricate way, and then the resolution was quick and easy. The solution to the curse was "too" easily guessed by the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent