From Publishers Weekly
Aficionados of Yarbro's long-running Saint-Germain series (Blood Roses, etc.) will find this related novel to their liking, though its female point of view lends a different emphasis and emotional texture. French vampire Madelaine de Montalia, younger by many centuries than Saint-Germain, is not as immured to the pain of loving and losing mortals as her vampiric friend, lover and mentor. In 1845, Madelaine sets out to live with and study American Indian tribes in an effort to document their culture and knowledge before they're lost forever. (Admirably accurate research makes one wish these anthropological journals truly existed.) Arriving in 1855 San Francisco, the beautiful, charismatic Madelaine-who appears to be no more than 20 years oldâ€"and her banker, the unhappily married William Tecumseh Sherman, fall passionately in love. Madelaine eventually finds herself trapped in 1860 Alabama facing the vicissitudes of civil war. Sherman, who was actually a partner in a San Francisco bank before the Civil War, necessarily receives short shrift as a supporting character, but his role does allow Madelaine to make her points about the true meaning of undying love. Romance and history predominate in a story whose horrors, as in the Saint-Germain novels, are all of human origin. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Yarbro steps away from her St. Germaine series to follow the fortunes of one of the vampire count's many lovers, Madelaine de Montalia, whom St. Germaine fell in love with in the very first novel in the series, Hotel Transylvania (1978). Madelaine, also a vampire, leaves her home in London to travel to the U.S. to write a book about Indians in the mid-1800s. The country is inching toward civil war when Madelaine meets William Tecumseh Sherman, a senior officer at her bank in San Francisco. The two are immediately drawn to one another, despite the fact that Sherman is married and extremely devoted to his children. His wife is away visiting her parents, allowing the beginning of a passionate affair. Circumstance separates them when Madelaine heads off to study Indian tribes and Sherman is pulled back toward a military career, but they are fated to meet again. An engaging blend of historical fiction and romance. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This erotic and historical vampire novel is set in America in the years before and during the Civil War and features Madelaine de Montalia, sometime lover of Count St. Germain; General William Tecumseh Sherman; and, in a supporting role, St. Germain himself. Madelaine lives with and studies the native tribes of America, trying to document their culture and knowledge before they are changed unalterably by contact with the settlers new to North America, only to find herself in the middle of some of the most horrifying events of the war. The stubborn and highly disciplined Tecumseh wrestles with his conscience as he falls in love with Madelaine, while the strong-willed Madelaine is torn between her love for Tecumseh and the demands of her nature.

About the Author:
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is the author of the Count Saint-Germain series and has published many titles in a wide variety of genres including horror, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, young adult, and western. She lives in San Francisco, California.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Aficionados of Yarbro's long-running Saint-Germain series (Blood Roses, etc.) will find this related novel to their liking, though its female point of view lends a different emphasis and emotional texture. French vampire Madelaine de Montalia, younger by many centuries than Saint-Germain, is not as immured to the pain of loving and losing mortals as her vampiric friend, lover and mentor. In 1845, Madelaine sets out to live with and study American Indian tribes in an effort to document their culture and knowledge before they're lost forever. (Admirably accurate research makes one wish these anthropological journals truly existed.) Arriving in 1855 San Francisco, the beautiful, charismatic Madelaine-who appears to be no more than 20 years old-and her banker, the unhappily married William Tecumseh Sherman, fall passionately in love. Madelaine eventually finds herself trapped in 1860 Alabama facing the vicissitudes of civil war. Sherman, who was actually a partner in a San Francisco bank before the Civil War, necessarily receives short shrift as a supporting character, but his role does allow Madelaine to make her points about the true meaning of undying love. Romance and history predominate in a story whose horrors, as in the Saint-Germain novels, are all of human origin. (Apr.) Forecast: First published as an e-book, this one is unlikely to appeal to vampire-romance lovers but may find an audience with historical romance readers who never read vampire fiction. The lack of sex and violence makes it less commercial than the Saint-Germain novels. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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