The answer is simple: she basically wrote an historical novel, with all the accuracy of such genre, with a paranormal twist, the vampire aristocratic family. Probably there is even a strange parallelism, I have not yet grasped it fully, but I think that the concept is that vampire are the pureblood, the real aristocracy, and humans are like the newly arrived, clever, more down to earth in comparison to vampire and as such, more likely to survive in the new world that is approaching. The year is 1815, right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, and the new-men are coming, men like Garrick Mortimer, a scientist; for these men logic and experiment are the only way to prove something, and in the name of science you can even die. This is the reason why Garrick, who has always refused to accept a job as a tutor, this time has made an exception: the Hathaway family are vampires, and teaching to their young son, Desmond and Lavinia, is the good chance to learn something about the vampirism.
First of all, if someone is worrying about Garrick, the tutor, falling in love for Desmond, the pupil, or viceversa, don’t worry at all; in this novel Desmond has his mind, and heart, on other subject, like his unrequited love for same-age fellow student Phillip, or enigmatic, but mostly inaccessible, poet Leigh Blaise Sherbourne. If, and when, a love story will happen between Desmond and Garrick, as the title suggest, it will be maybe in following books in the series. And yes, with plenty of warning from the author, who also put a big 1 on the cover, this is a book in a series, and it almost impossible to read it standalone, above all since many treads will be still loose at the end.
The book targets a teenager reader and I think that it’s right to the point: there is enough bitchery in Desmond to appeal a boy his same age, there is even just that touch of romance that maybe even a girl, or a romantic boy, would be pleased, but there is also the weaving of a setting that capture the reader. Did it happen to you to read some tome when you were young (like those novels that even when they came out the first time were diluted into different magazine, and for such reason stretched to the max) and years later trying to pick them up again and realize they are too much for your adult mind? A young reader is like sponge, they absorb and digest everything, their mind is open and mostly free (and it’s with envy that I’m saying it, not at all a criticism).
Amazon: Desmond and Garrick: Book One
Amazon Kindle: Desmond and Garrick: Book One
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 246 pages
Publisher: Prizm (December 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1610401174
ISBN-13: 978-1610401173
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Ms. Rosek
