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A review by dozylocal
The Cathedral of Cliffdale by Melissa Delport
3.0
The blurb for this book isn't very gripping. Thankfully I bought the series based entirely on the awesome covers :-)
I wasn't too sure what to expect (especially after reading the blurb). In the end it was a fast-paced and enjoyable tale (with some unfortunate text layout errors along the way - but thankfully those were few and far between and not too distracting).
The story starts with Quinn who is raising the twin children of her dead sister. The children are kidnapped by "The Gaurdians", a group of twelve that Quinn, her father, and the father of the children are all bound too. The children are safe, but Quinn has to promise to return to her Gaurdian duties before she will be allowed to see them again.
A lot of the book is spent explaining the back stories. What is Summerfeld and how did it come to be? What is the role of the Gaurdians? What and who are the creatures that they are protecting? And how did it come to pass that the magical creatures needed to be hidden and protected in the first place?
Turns out, the baddies are vampires. So there's a bit of a "A Discovery of Witches Feel", especially when Quinn ends up in a strange partnership with a vampire called Drake. To complicate matters more, there is also a band of humans trying to find the elusive Summerfeld - a band of humans more commonly known as gypsies.
The story is set between the fantastical city of Summerveld and a modern-day world. I have an inkling that some of the back stories of some of the characters - whether their own, in the case of the long-lived, or their ancestors', in the case of the humans - will end up being intertwined.
I have the full series so will definitely be continuing with book two.
I wasn't too sure what to expect (especially after reading the blurb). In the end it was a fast-paced and enjoyable tale (with some unfortunate text layout errors along the way - but thankfully those were few and far between and not too distracting).
The story starts with Quinn who is raising the twin children of her dead sister. The children are kidnapped by "The Gaurdians", a group of twelve that Quinn, her father, and the father of the children are all bound too. The children are safe, but Quinn has to promise to return to her Gaurdian duties before she will be allowed to see them again.
A lot of the book is spent explaining the back stories. What is Summerfeld and how did it come to be? What is the role of the Gaurdians? What and who are the creatures that they are protecting? And how did it come to pass that the magical creatures needed to be hidden and protected in the first place?
Turns out, the baddies are vampires. So there's a bit of a "A Discovery of Witches Feel", especially when Quinn ends up in a strange partnership with a vampire called Drake. To complicate matters more, there is also a band of humans trying to find the elusive Summerfeld - a band of humans more commonly known as gypsies.
The story is set between the fantastical city of Summerveld and a modern-day world. I have an inkling that some of the back stories of some of the characters - whether their own, in the case of the long-lived, or their ancestors', in the case of the humans - will end up being intertwined.
I have the full series so will definitely be continuing with book two.