The Florentine #1.

The Raven
von Sylvain Reynard

Bewertet mit 4.5 Sternen

“I didn't know what darkness was until I lost you.”

The Prince is a vampire, and he is the ruler of the vampire colony that resides in Florence, Italy. He is also a huge art collector and has many paintings by Michelangelo and Botticelli. Gabriel and Julia from the Gabriel's Inferno Series have loaned their Dante & Beatrice illustrations to the Uffizi Museum. The Prince is furious and plots to kill Gabriel because those illustrations were his property but were stolen many years ago. William spies on the Emersons and catches them during some very passionate moments. He finds himself envying the love that Gabriel and Julia have. But, he also is determined to take back what belongs to him and succeeds. This triggers an investigation by the Florence police department and FBI. Raven Wood is an American woman who happens to work at the Uffizi as an art restorer. She disappears the week the illustrations were stolen, and when she returns, she has no recollection of where she has been. She also has gone under a major physical transformation that she has no reasonable explanation for.

William York is the prince of Florence and all the vampires. He's an old vampire and thus very powerful. He's confused as to why he felt compelled to save the life of the woman with the bright green eyes, but he's feeling even more troubled, because he can't stop thinking about her.

Raven is used to being invisible. When she was young she had an accident that left her with a disability. She is comfortable behind her baggy clothes and her cane. She finds beauty inside the paintings she restores at the museum where she works, in Florence Italy.

Sylvain Reynard is one of my very favourite authors and he is a master at  writing of romantic love. He is very talented when it comes to writing about love and now he takes us on a riveting journey to the dark underworld of Florence, Italy. Vampire and human relationships will become blurry and the rules may have to be re-written...

I mean I have to say that I don’t know why I am surprised that I ended up liking this book! Maybe it’s because I was really not feeling the novella. I found it a little boring and it didn’t paint a favorable picture of the Prince aka William York. He was far from lovable in The Prince and so I thought I wouldn’t end up liking him in The Raven. I liked mysterious and supernatural aspects of this book. This is a paranormal romance and I don't usually read in this genre so for me to like this book so much, it felt like I'd been enlightened by a totally new kind of romance-world. A world that in this book is beautifully detailed and filled with symbolism, strength, darkness, seduction, but ultimately filled with bravery and hope. It was enjoyable read and I definitely plan on reading the sequel.

Those who are fans of professor Gabriel Emerson, will get a nice treat as he and his lovely family make an appearance in this book.