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James Reese

Author of The Book of Shadows

5 Works 1,117 Members 44 Reviews 1 Favorited

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Includes the name: James Reese

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Works by James Reese

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Reviews

sex and violence to semi-porn level with witchcraft as excuse, couldn't finish
 
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ritaer | 14 other reviews | Jul 4, 2021 |
Herculine is only six-years-old when she watches her mother die horribly and inexplicably. A child alone in the nineteenth-century French countryside, she makes her way to the secluded convent, where she is taken in as a foundling orphan and raised by nuns who teach the children of the privileged to fear a wrathful God. But shy, unworldly Herculine is not like the others in this cold, forebidding place. And when she is led down a dark path by a rebellious fellow student, she soon finds herself convicted of crimes unimaginable. But death at the hands of the ignorant and falsely pious is not to be Herculine's lot. Held captive in the convent library, she is visited by four unexpected saviors with timeless needs of their own: the incubus priest Father Louis; the tragic, damned beauty Madeleine; the demonic Asmodei; and Sebastiana d'Azur, a witch. By dawn, Herculine is free yet forever changed as she follows her liberators into a world of sensuous pleasures and great mysteries both wondrous and strange. Secreted away in Sebastiana's once-grand manor high above the Breton sands, Herculine sets out to find out why she has been "chosen" and for what purpose. Her quest - ripe with erotic discovery, dark magic, heresy, and blood - propels her headlong through the perils of the age, across borders between the living and the dead, and back through a time when hysteria and madness reigned, when noble heads were impaled and paraded through the streets of Paris. For only when her mysterious mission is completed - and the terrible, otherworldly roots of a gruesome Revolution are finally revealed - can she understand who and what she truly is. Until then, she must simply trust...and learn.… (more)
 
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Cultural_Attache | 14 other reviews | Jul 27, 2018 |
Meh. I enjoyed the characterization in this book. While the plot cleverly interweaves into actual history, it's quite predictable. it's worth reading for the glimpses into the lives of literary lights of the day, but the story isn't particularly compelling.

It's almost cheating to count this for the Postal Reading Challenge. It's told from Stoker's perspective, under the conceit of being a record of a kind with the novel Dracula. While Dracula felt like a scrapbook of various accounts and journals, this is really one long narrative with letters, notes, and articles tacked in here and there. I had hoped for more.… (more)
 
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hopeevey | 27 other reviews | May 20, 2018 |
Well written but boring.
 
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Gerardlionel | 14 other reviews | Apr 2, 2016 |

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Frans Hille Translator
Julie Metz Cover designer

Statistics

Works
5
Members
1,117
Popularity
#22,994
Rating
3.2
Reviews
44
ISBNs
24
Languages
3
Favorited
1

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