The Impaler’s Revenge by Ioana Visan Review

 Review!!!!

 

The Impaler’s Revenge
(The Impaler Legacy #1)
 by Ioana Visan
4 stars  

 

In a world crawling with vampires, Romania is the safest place left on earth. Thanks to the Little Council, there hasn’t been a vampire on Romanian ground in over five centuries. But one day, Liana Cantacuzino, also a member of the Little Council and a descendant of one of the old noble families, is ordered to bring one in, covertly. Enter Maximilien Hess, a thousand years old vampire determined to ruin the existing order of things.

Suddenly, Liana finds herself forced to protect Hess, instead of having the pandurs kill him. With the help from her trustful friends, Rodica Ghica and Ştefan Sturdza, and that of an innocent bystander, Dr. Jesse Carver, Liana has to find out what is going on and what the President is hiding from her. When all is revealed, Hess’s secret changes everything.

The first novella in The Impaler Legacy series, a vampire saga like no other

 

 

My Review

 

 

The Impaler’s Revenge is a little bit different from much of what I have been reading lately. When I say “different”, I mean that in a good way. It has no romance, well, maybe a teensy bit, which I am totally cool with. This is more of a political thriller with vampires I think.  

 

There are secrets and tons of questions that the reader gets to try to figure out. The reader is given a glimpse into the political life and relationships within the walls of a vampire free country, where the policy on vampires is, shoot first, ask questions later. Romania, ironically enough, is the only vampire free country in the world. It’s been that way for five hundred years thanks to strict border laws and the large numbers of trained soldiers that would have no problem killing a vampire on sight.

 

Liana Cantacuzino is a member of the “Little Council” who inherited her position, as has been done since the council was founded by select noble families in order to keep the vampire population under control. Liana takes her position very seriously and keeps most people she interacts with at arm’s length. She obviously has intimacy issues. She is something of a complicated woman who has a trauma in her past that still affects her and her personality.

 

Liana is given the task of insuring the safety of Maximilien Hess,, a thousand year old Vampire whose presence has been requested by the President of Romania. It is a no questions asked type of situation and Maximilien won’t reveal his secrets as to why he is in Romania. Max (which is NOT his preferred nickname!) is kept under constant surveillance and tight security to make sure he not only behaves, but also that no one kills him on sight. What is the President hiding from the council? The truth can endanger the entire country.

 

I enjoyed this book. It had an interesting storyline, and realistic characters. I think my favorite character in this story was actually Maximilien. He had a sense of humor despite the fact that the people he was dealing with had an obvious dislike and distrust for him. I think there is a lot more to this character that Visan’s readers would like to learn about. I think he probably has a cool history that would make a great story.

 

The storyline itself was a good idea. I enjoyed the aspect of trying to figure out what Max and the President were hiding. I didn’t figure it out until the end, which is cool. I did feel like I would have liked to have more of the story a little bit sooner than it was presented. It seemed like the first ¾ of the book was just the characters hanging out and we weren’t given an idea that there was something nefarious was afoot until later. For all we knew, Max was there to help the President pick out some new suits or something (everyone knows Vampires have impeccable taste). All of the best action really didn’t start until that last bit of the book.

 

I would have liked more back story on Liana as well as Max. They were both very interesting characters to me, and I was just itching to find out more about them and why they were who they were.

 

The Impaler’s Revenge is the first novella in The Impaler Legacy Series. I look forward to reading the rest of this series. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a more “grown up” type of Vampire book. Anyone who enjoys a good book with political twist and the added benefit of having Vampires involved would enjoy this book. It’s a solid 4 stars in my opinion.

 

 

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About the Author

 

Award-winning writer Ioana Visan has always dreamed about reaching the stars, but since she can’t, she writes about it.

Her stories have been published in on-line magazines like Argos, Nautilus, Gazeta SF, SRSFF, Revista de Suspans, Suspans, SFera Online, EgoPhobia, Every Day Fiction, and they have also been featured in several Romanian anthologies, “Dansând pe Marte şi alte povestiri fantastice” (2009), ”Steampunk: A doua revoluţie” (2011), ”Venus – Povestiri erotice science fiction” (2011), “Cele 1001 de scorneli ale Moşului SF” (2012), “Zombii: Cartea morţilor vii” (2013), “Călătorii în timp. Antologie de povestiri SF” (2013), “Ferestrele timpului. Antologie de ficţiuni speculative” (2013).

So far, the highlights of her writing career have been having her Romanian short story collection “Efectul de nautil” published by Millennium Books in March, 2013, and being awarded the Encouragement Award by The European Science Fiction Society at Eurocon 2013.

She made her debut in English with a short story published by Every Day Fiction, and also has one included in Evolved Publishing’s “Evolution: Vol. 2” short story collection. After fighting the apocalypse aftermath in “Human Instincts”, she played with shapeshifters in “Blue Moon Café Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks”, and then she dealt with vampires in “The Impaler’s Revenge”, before tackling longer works like a fantasy trilogy and a science fiction series.

 

 

Contact Ioana

 

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**DISCLAIMER** In full compliance with FTC Guidelines, I received a copy of this book from the publisher via the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was in no way compensated for this opinion, and the thoughts are my own. Links above will take you to a site where you can PURCHASE a copy. Using those links will take you through an affiliate link and I will receive a small percentage of the purchase cost. You are in no way obligated to use affiliate links and there is no additional cost to do so. By purchasing through the affiliate links on this site, you can help me continue to offer giveaways and cover the expenses associated with running this blog.