There were two reasons I requested this book and Sons of Devils: Alex Beecroft, who is really excellent, and this book's cover. So I chuckled when one of the first things I saw in this one was "All person(s) depicted on the cover are model(s) used for illustrative purposes only." I'm not sure what other purpose the depiction would serve, but … okie dokie. It served a big purpose in getting my attention. Very pretty.

This book had a different flavor than Beecroft’s usual novels, of course; everything else I’ve read by her has been set in England or the US, and at least partly present day and urban. This was extremely enjoyable, and a very satisfying wrap up to the story.

Speaking of flavor: in case you're wondering, like I was, a chimney cake is "an enriched yeast bread that’s wound onto a thick wooden spit, then roasted over a charcoal fire." They look kind of like large empty cannoli.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

Radu and Frank are forced to travel to appease Radu's undead parents--and to keep the vampires from killing Frank. They know the evil they're bringing into the city, but neither Radu nor Frank understand just how deadly a poison the vampires really are until it's far too late.

I know I said this in my review for the first book in this series, but it's worth saying again. The world building is amazing. Beecroft took true history and true historical myth and weaved it together with an extra touch of magic to create something truly wonderful. Every tidbit about the world that was revealed kept me hanging on the edge for more.

That said, the world building was also this story's greatest weakness. The amount of detail that went into each and every page also slowed down the pace of the story. There were times when it dragged, when I was waiting page after page after page for any sort of plot to pick up. That made it difficult to read at times and it took me forever to get through this book. This book honestly reminded me of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which was a very well-written book based on similar vampire histories and myths, and which was also incredibly slow to read.