Hawkesmoor

by Anne Merino

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

Three things attracted me to this book, the cover, the title and the synopsis. I went into it with a great deal of expectations based on these attributes, seeing that I had no experience with the author’s work.

The story centres around a three hundred-year-old vampire content with his life in New York as a history professor and dating a beautiful young actress. However, after learning that the assets from his family estate, Hawkesmoor was being auctioned, nostalgia swept in bringing back old memories prior to him becoming a vampire. Then he meets the current owner of the estate, Lady Caroline Barry, and he definitely unprepared for his reaction towards her. While he is getting to know Caroline, he discovered a dark mystery surrounding the death of his fiancée and his transformation into a vampire three hundred years ago. To uncover the truth, he returned to England to get the answers he needed. What he encountered went beyond his wildest imaginings.

I found the world the author created fascinating. The story introduced the reader to a world where powerful vampires wanted control of both the mortal and immortal realm and were willing to make slaves of their own kind. Then there were those who longed for peace. This resulted in rivalries amongst these beings. Robin found himself caught up in this world, fighting a battle he did not want, but one he was destined for.

I thought most of the characters were intriguing except Caroline. Somehow, I couldn’t connect with her. I found her to be dull and not what one would expect from a leading lady, especially who found herself plunged into the world of the supernatural.

I had a hard time getting into the story during the initial stages as it moved at a painfully slow pace. It took some time to get to the meat of the matter and I had to put it aside several times. However, when it did, I found my interest renewed. The story became more cohesive and yielded non-stop action and nail-biting moments. I am not sure if this was because this was an ARC, but sometimes there was no break between change of scenes which made following the story difficult.
The story moved between the past and the present. I enjoyed the scenes depicting the past as these provided insight into Robin’s character. I also liked how the author incorporated information from both the eighteenth and twenty-first century allowing for one to gain insight into Robin’s character pre and post vampire.

The ending took me by surprise. I honestly never saw it coming. Although, this was not a cliff hanger it indicated that the adventure was far from over.

Conclusion/Recommendation
Overall, although the story didn’t deliver as I had hoped, I found some aspects interesting and I would love to explore this world further.


This review was originally posted on Totally Addicted to Reading