3.5 stars. This teeters on the edge of being a really good book, but then I'm a sucker for a lonely, brooding, good-guy vampire. It has elements of romance and the supernatural, but mostly it's historical fiction. Saint-Germain's supernatural characteristics are very low-key.This is the second of these books I've read; one of the earlier ones. There are more than two dozen of them, set in various places and times throughout history. Saint-Germain is ancient (more than 3000 years old in this book) and apparently spends his long life wandering all over the world trying (and mostly failing) to live in peace and avoid being hunted down as a vampire.In this book he is living in early 13th century China, which is in the process of being overrun by the Mongol horde. (I think next I will read the one where he's in Nazi Germany.) The historical setting was very interesting, although I don't know enough about Chinese history to be able to gauge the accuracy of the details.The writing is admittedly melodramatic but I enjoyed everything except the interminable letters. Every single chapter begins with the text of a letter from or about our characters, often intended to show the passage of time. Many of the letters are long and tedious, and they're printed in italicized text which is annoying to read in large chunks.
This series is about St. Germain, who is a vampire who has lived for centuries, and witnessed many historic events. In this, the 4th book in the series, he falls in love with a warrior princess in 12th Century China, flees heartbreak and Ghengis Khan's Mongol hordes, befriends a child god in the mountain kingdom of Tu Bo Te, and may finally lose his life at the hands of a bloodthirsty Maharani who is a devotee of the goddess of Kali, the goddess of both fertility and destruction.I loved this book! I admit, that when I first was offered this book from Bookcrossing, I accepted with some trepidation, since I am so not into the current vampire craze. However, it was so well-written, and the historical aspect blew me away! The vampirism didn't get in the way of a great story at all, and was only one aspect of a character that was also really well-written. One of my favorite historical subjects is that of the exploration of the Silk Road, which is what caught my interest in the first place. That aspect of the book was extremely satisfying, but there was so much more I enjoyed as well, that I definitely plan to read more in this series! This book was so terrific, that it pulled my out of a New Year's reading slump!
