Mount Readmore Book Review, 2017 64/100
Larkspur: A Necromancer’s Romance By V. M. Jaskerina
E-Book edition
Finished on 7/8/2017
Description: Childhood love, forbidden magic, and a goddess of death.
A romance is reignited when Pierre Salvador returns to court, now a surgeon and ready to take up his duties as duc. But his love, family, and friends are unaware of his dealings with Mora, the Lady of Death. Striving to know all the physical and mystical means of controlling life, and ending it, he became a suitor to the daimon in return for her knowledge and power. With one final task he become a lord of death, but will Mora let him go?
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Victorian
The Story of a mortal necromancer and his wife, and Death which follows him
Spoiler-tastic review
Pierre Salvador is a duke, doctor and necromancer, and lover of two women: Elizabeth the mortal maid, and Lady Death the goddess. His love is his undoing, for Death is a jealous lover. Death follows the characters of this short novel, both literally and figuratively. Poison, blood magic and various devilry fill the pages of this short book. There are talking cats, schools of medicine and discussions of necrocraeft.
This book is supposed to be Gothic in tone with an emphasis on horror, but I found it to be more Victorian with an emphasis on romance. That’s not a bad thing, and I think the author pulled off the Romance(s) fairly well. I feel the author spent too much time discussing the magic system of the setting, and could have re-invested the time spent into character development and the romance.
The characters involved in the story aren’t the best I’ve ever read. The book is short, only about 50 pages, so to some extent this is acceptable. Pierre is a doctor who has delved into dark magic so as to save people. Elizabeth is a fairly naive ingénue who Pierre brings into his trust.
The plot had numerous twists and turns, usually revolving about death and death magic. I thought this was the stronger part of the story. Net total, this was a good book. I got it for a buck on the Kindle app. I suggest you check the demo pages to see if you like it
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 