Kate Pearce continues her amazingly vibrant and sensual Tudor Vampire Chronicles with the sequel to Kiss of the Rose. This time, in Blood of the Rose, a year has elapsed since the turmoil at Richmond Palace, and reluctantly Lady Rosalind Llewellyn and Sir Christopher Ellis have parted ways though not without heartfelt sacrifice. Can they ever be together, being who they are? Who their families are? And can they survive an uncertain future?
Kate Pearce gives new meaning to "pining" between her star-crossed lovers Rosalind and Christopher who must overcome the hardest obstacles of all...their hearts. In Blood of the Rose, Rosalind and Rhys are summoned once again to Court, this time to the newly acquired Hampton Court. Queen Catherine has been dismissed, and in her place upstart Anne Boleyn has secured the King's favors. The betrothal between Rosalind and Christopher still stands unchallenged, and the Court seethes with new dangers at every turn.
Pearce has magnified the conflicts in Blood, providing an even greater challenge than her characters have ever faced. This time, Rosalind, Christopher, Rhys, Elias, and Olivia are outnumbered, outmaneuvered and have little to bargain with. Each exist in a precarious state, their status at Court uncertain. Welcomed in certain circles, and excluded from others, together they must find any means of leverage to free the King of Anne Boleyn.
But this time, there is no easy solution, and Pearce makes this case over and over again that retreat sometimes is the only option. Sometimes it is the only solution. Besides Hampton Court being overrun by the political aspirations of the Vampire Council, the greater threat is the Boleyn family and their entourage-Vampires....every single one of them. And with one gaze, and a dash of vampire magic, Anne holds the most powerful man in her sway.
Blood of the Rose is very much a coming together of Pearce's characters and a sort of reckoning. It is where they evolve, turn the corner. Just like the insurmountable obstacles that Pearce has placed in her characters path, the conflicts of the heart run that same parallel route. Rosalind and Christopher cannot continue apart, yet they also cannot decide how to move forward. Elias cannot continue blindly following the dictates of the Vampire Council, Rhys must accept that Rosalind is lost to him romantically and must move on, and Anne Boleyn has managed to place a wedge between Christopher and Rosalind. Christopher must face down his Uncle Edward and extricate himself from certain death by the Cult of Mithras.
All of Pearces' actors must walk a tightrope as the plots thicken, and the conflicts become inflamed, all the while maintaining a delicate balance of the Kings favor. But most of all, each and every one of them must have faith that the maelstrom that is Anne Boleyn and the danger that will be unleashed at Court will inevitably be her downfall. Will they let the fates decide her path rather than defensive or offensive strategies?
Blood of the Rose has a way anchoring into the heart and the mind on so many levels...through the tenderness of its connections; Rosalind and Christopher, the bonds that are forged between Elias and Christopher, and the truce between Rhys, once enemies, now friends united. It is a grand romance infused with steamy sensuality, steeped in suspense, danger, and the lustre of Pearce's words that brings her settings and characters to life.
August ushers in the next novel in the series, Mark of the Rose which looks to be Rhys' and Verity's story.
A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)
