Sacrifice of the Hybrid Princess
by Nancy Kilpatrick
Macabre Ink, an imprint of Crossroad Press, US$4.99 (Kindle)
Published September 5, 2017
Edition for review: e-book
Sequel to Revenge of the Vampir King, this is the second in Kilpatrick’s Thrones of Blood series and takes place long enough after the first book that Moarte and Valada, the protagonists of the first volume, have had a child (and subsequently Valada has been turned vampir) who turns eighteen during this volume.
The Princess Serene is the hybrid mentioned within the title. Although aged, the sapiens king of the first book is primary antagonist again.
I mentioned in the previous review the whispering ghosts, and as this book starts one believes that mystery will be solved, unfortunately that is a tease and the thrust of the novel is the redemption of a spoilt member of royalty.
If I had to complain it would be that I felt that switches in the title character’s personality were to swift, perhaps too fickle and it made the character a little unbelievable, at least at first.
Ultimately, she does undergo quite a tortuous journey and the book, like the first, contains many sexual scenes, including bondage, incest and sexual assault/violence.
It becomes interesting to note the teasing of the background. I mentioned previously that, whilst on the surface this feels like a fantasy setting, it appears we are in an alternate history. In this we certainly get to see a little more of that—including the sapiens use of electricity.
We also get to see a little bit of the wider world—meeting other sapiens rulers and vampir rulers.
However, despite my reservation about the title character’s fickleness, the writing is again as strong, generally, as one would expect from the author and the book draws us along.
The series is strong, the setting unusual and the vampires are a unique breed in this world. 7 out of 10.
Sacrifice of the Hybrid Princess, the second volume in the Thrones of Blood series, is available on Kindle, paperback (November 21, 2017) and hardback (November 27, 2017) formats on Amazon.
Read Andy’s review of the first book, Revenge of the Vampir King, here:
- “Great Start to a Series: Nancy Kilpatrick’s Latest Vampire Novel” (March 25, 2017)
For more information on the book and the author, visit nancykilpatrick.com.
Corrections
April 23, 2020
- Publisher changed from “Macabre Ink” to “Macabre Ink, an imprint of Crossroad Press.”
- Price changed from US$3.97 (Amazon price) to US$4.99; the price featured on the Crossroads Press website, which should have been the first point of reference. Book prices for reviews are derived from the publisher site as a baseline, to avoid price fluctuations due to periodic discounts.