Loved this book! Great story and great characters! Loved the historical context of the book. Easy to read!
When you are an officer in the Ottoman army, you do as you are told by the Sultan and his family. If Esma Sultana, favored sister of Mahmud II commands you to drown her Christian lover in Constantinople’s Bosphoros Strait, you do it. However, performing this gruesome task night after night after ...
amateurish dribble - or perhaps it is just a sophomoric young adult book. I enjoyed this book but the ending seemed lacking. I wanted more and I was sadly disappointed.
I have no idea what led me to buy this book, and wish I had not. I read over half of it and don't know why I continued that long. I think maybe it was because I was a bit familiar with Bohemia in the late 1500's and King Rudolph II from reading the All Souls Trilogy. There is a bit about alche...
This is an interesting book, but I dislike all the jumping around. I think it would be excellent as two separate stories, one following Janos and one following Betsy. Actually, the story with Betsy could just go away and I'd be happy. Also, at times it feels like there are dumps of information ma...
The mix of the horrific times and conditions that were lived in during this time period and that of vampire legends was good and interesting. I thought the author gave great descriptions of the filth, cold and dank conditions that most lived in, even the noble and royal to some degree. The book e...