Name: A Duel with the Vampire Lord (Married to Magic series #3)
Author: Elise Kova
Publisher: Silver Wing Press
Date published: August 2022
Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, romance, retellings, fairy tales
Pages: 421
Rating: 3/5
This review contains mild spoilers.
On the night of the blood moon, the Vampire Lord must die.
Floriane's position as the forge maiden of Hunter's Hamlet is one of reverence, for it is her skill that arms and protects the vampire hunters. She knows her place and is a faithful servant to the Master Hunter and her community... until the night of the blood moon. Until her brother is dying at the hands of the Vampire Lord Ruvan.
Wanting to defend her home at all costs, Floriane fights the vampire lord, ready to give her life if it means taking his. But Ruvan doesn't want to take her life... he wants her.
Kidnapped and brought to the vampire castle, Floriane is now blood sworn to the vampire lord. She is bound in mind and body to her worst enemy. But Ruvan isn't the fiend she thought he was. She learns the truth of the vampires: They are not mindless monsters, but a proud people, twisted and tortured by an ancient curse.
Ruvan believes that Floriane might be the key to ending his people's suffering. All Floriane wants is to defend her home. Loyalties are tested and the lines between truth and lie, hate and passion, are blurred.
When her dagger is at his chest, will she be able to take the heart of the man who has claimed hers?
- From Goodreads.
The way that A Duel with the Vampire Lord expanded the world of the Married to Magic series was interesting. The concept for the vampires in this world was fascinating, how they used blood for magic, each had unique abilities and were also under a curse. It was a different twist on vampires, but I felt it was not always executed smoothly and the explanations could be a little confusing.
The rules for the magic were also occasionally inconsistent, it was only a few small times but it was obvious enough that I noticed straight away so it seemed like the book could have used another round of edits to catch those kind of world building details.
I noticed the main character, Floriane, had a few similar personality traits to the main characters from the other books in this world, and her relationship journey with the love interest, Ruvan, felt similar to the way that the relationships in those other books developed too. It was different enough that I could still enjoy it as its own story, and I knew from the summary that it would be an enemies to lovers story, so I was not disappointed by that trope appearing again, and I think if you have not read any of the other books in this world yet it will not feel too similar to anything else, but it does feel like a pattern is beginning to develop with these books and if they continue with the same type of relationship it could get repetitive. As I said, I could still like the characters and relationship in this one, but I hope in the next one we get something a little different with a change in the dynamic between the characters.
I understood why Floriane was keeping things from Ruvan during the first part of the book because she could not trust him enough to open up to him and she thought she could protect her home that way, but I did not understand why Ruvan was not telling her more sooner since he wanted to persuade her over to his point of view and make her understand the vampire's side of the story, and yet he was not explaining everything. I understand it is best to slowly give out pieces of information rather than tell it to us all at once, but from the vampire's point of view I could not see why he was not explaining as much as he could.
This may be a strange comment but it was distracting that for a while at the beginning of the book, several days seemed to pass without any mention of Floriane washing or changing her clothes or even taking off her amour. I know some people do not mind those kind of details but I always find I notice them and this made me think again that the book could have done with more editing and including even just one mention of her taking a moment to freshen up would have stopped me wondering if she was just wearing the same clothes for several days. It is true that they were in dangerous situations a lot but there were enough opportunites where she could have taken a moment to safely change. She was covered in blood from fighting at one point and it was never so much as implied that she ever washed the blood off at any time.
I did like the setting and atmosphere of the book, it was good to read at the beginning of October when the weather was getting colder and the nights were turning darker. Everything was described well and the vampires' castle felt very grand and imposing and sinister. That was all certainly a highlight of the book.
The dialogue did not always flow easily or feel natural, and I think that was one of the things that lead to me not feeling the emotions in the relationship as much as I would have liked to and it did not have as much impact as it could have had. I still liked the relationship overall but did not not really feel the chemistry between them that strongly. The strongest emotion I felt between them was when they were angry at each other and then I just got frustrated that they were not communicating well.
There were a few things set up at the start that felt like the beginning of a plot thread or like it was sending the plot in one direction or something that would be picked up later but never was, or was not seen through in a satisfying way. For example the plot point of Floriane being a forge maiden who was supposed to have an arranged marriage so she could have children to be future forge maidens and how this would secure the future and safety of the village, how she was not supposed to be with other men because of this, how she felt guilt and pressure around that, this was included from the beginning but not built up or developed throughout the story well enough to feel like a satisfying theme, it was only mentioned every so often. Some plot points in general were hard to follow, to remember where details came from or how characters had come to certain conclusions. Some of the conflict felt forced, as the plot points seemed to be added in because they needed to be, not because it was a natural progression of the story.
There was also not a lot of groundwork or foreshadowing or hints laid for the reveals towards the end of the book, they seemed to come out of nowhere. I also felt the plot was paced quite strangely, it felt like quite a long book, especially compared to the previous two, but the climax seemed to come on suddenly and sooner than expected. The conclusion after the climax could have been longer, it wrapped up everything pretty quickly and it would have been nice to just have a bit more time with the characters once everything was resolved. After seeing Ruvan and Floriane spending so much time in conflict and dealing with obstacles, we hardly got to see them together happily.
I was excited for this book, it had a lot of great ideas and I thought adding vampires to this world would be really exciting but unfortunately the ideas did not land very well in most cases. There was a lot of potential but it was not quite reached. I could still see myself rereading it at some point in the future as I may understand the plot better on a second read and perhaps I would like the book better then, and I will still be reading the next book in the world, as I am curious about what might happen in that one and how else this world might expand.
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