I was honestly surprised by how much I liked this book. Yes, it was a bit campy but the story was still good. The concept behind the story—that the bubonic plague mutated into vampirism and lycanthropy—is an interesting idea. The technology is similar to what we have—cell phones and texting for instance—but the names she gave them to emphasize the difference just felt clunky. The romantic aspect of the story wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought it was going to be, there’s sex without it slipping into gratuitous erotica. The cover is pretty terrible, particularly the photo they used, and is part of the reason I was surprised by how much I did actually like this book.

I had forgotten how good this book was. The characters are varied and believable, the deaths are unexpected but not unbelievable. I love good political scheming and this book has that in abundance. And all the while, little pebbles that trigger larger rock slides later. *chef's kiss*