Lucien’s Khamsin

Revenants are vampiric creatures that live off the blood of humans in order to survive. Although they have fangs and can easily drain the life of a human, they choose to support and defend their humans instead of killing them. Since the Great War of 2045, when most of the world was destroyed by bombs, the world as humans know it was changed; it reverted back to the dark ages of no electricity, no shopping malls, leaving humans with no way of fending for themselves. Humans are no longer at the top of the food chain. Instead, humans are now herded like cattle between the four blood princes and kept in castles, in pens, and used as a food source. Most are treated fairly, but some are not so lucky.

Sibylline, the queen of the Revenants, has always favored Lucien Korvina above all four of her blood princes. She favored him so much that she named him her heir apparent, meaning he would rule the Revenants when she decided to step down and go To The Ground. After 800 years of suffering and anguish from watching his wife and child die at the hands of mythical creatures, Sibylline decides to send a special woman to Lucien. This woman has an antibody in her blood that can save the lives of the precious few humans that are left in this world, since the plague and the Great War. But as fate would have it this woman that Sibylline has chosen just happens to resemble Lucien’s dead wife. Of course Khamsin will have no Revenant, no undead being lay his hands on her so she fights back in an attempt to free herself, only to find that she doesn’t know everything about Revenants that she thought she did. As time passes she falls deeply in love with Lucien and then a fight is afoot. Khamsin is kidnapped and Lucien is forced to kill another Revenant in order to get her back. Knowing his love for Khamsin has blossomed and grown, Lucien will stop at nothing to have his woman back at side, even if it means defiling his love for her.

Lucien’s Khamsin by Charlotte Boyett-Compo is the best read of the season. Each and every page is filled with the majesty of romance and seduction of the paranormal. I was enthralled from the moment I read the prologue. So many new ideas have been formulated about vampires and their presence and acceptance in our world, but never like this. You can almost feel the anguish Lucien and Khamsin feel when they are separated and smell the scent of deceit as they uncover a spy amongst their midst. Betrayal, lust, love, and royalty incinerate the pages of Lucien’s Khamsin by Charlotte Boyett-Compo. I highly recommend that if you read only one book this fall, make sure it is this one.

Reviewed by: Sadie