REVIEW: A Duel with the Vampire Lord (book) by Elise Kova

A Duel with the Vampire Lord is fantasy romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Floriane is her village's forge maiden, the one to whom her mother will pass all of the family's secrets pertaining to forging the silver weapons necessary to fight vampires. Although Floriane's place is supposed to be solely in her family's forge, her twin brother, one of the village's vampire hunters, has secretly helped her learn to fight in case she needs to protect herself. On the night of the blood moon, when the village is most in danger, Floriane makes use of the skills her brother taught her. Unfortunately, she isn't able to prevent herself from being captured by the Vampire Lord Ruvan, a monster who badly, possibly fatally, injured her twin.

If Floriane can somehow manage to kill Ruvan, she'll have defeated the vampires once and for all. It's not an easy thing to do, however, and a blood bond between the two of them suddenly makes it even more difficult. As Floriane waits and hopes for the right opportunity to kill Ruvan, she learns that there's more to the war between humans and vampires than she ever realized.

REVIEW: Deal with the Elf King (book) by Elise Kova

Deal with the Elf King is fantasy romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Luella has devoted her whole life to becoming her village's healer, until Eldas, the Elf King, arrives and she learns that she's the Human Queen, our world's payment for peace with the elves. Now, with none of the preparation that Human Queens usually receive, Luella must go with Eldas to his lands, which need her life force in order to live and bloom. Her only hope of freedom and returning to her family and village is to find a way to end the cycle of the Human Queens before it's too late.

A couple things attracted me to this book: the gorgeous cover art (Eldas looks very much like Hades in Linda Sejic's Punderworld) and a line I read somewhere in an ad or a review that said this had elements of the Hades and Persephone myth. "Elements of" is definitely more appropriate than saying this is an adaptation of the myth - the only thing the two really have in common is that Eldas, whose powers are linked to death, is essentially king of a dead land (Hades-like) and that Luella's powers are linked to life and growing things (Persephone-like). The seasons in Eldas' land are dependent upon Luella's presence or absence.