Review: Lightfall

Lightfall by Ed Crocker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars rounded down.

I came down a half-star for several reasons---sometimes the writing was repetitious, there were a lot of characters to keep straight, and, well, those are the only things I didn't really like. There were even times that I was going to give up and make it a DNF. But I kept going, and I am so glad I did. I cannot wait for the next book to come out.

This book has an interesting take on the vampire/werewolf genre since there are no humans in this world. The Vampires' needed blood sources from animals, and the larger and more vicious the animal, the more 'kick' the blood gives the vampires: that and a little magic from the sorcerers help with the 'kick.'

This is the story of our fair Samantha, a maid (unwillingly and looking for something better)in the First Lords mansion, and her cohorts, though they don't come into play till a little bit into the story. There has been a death (murder), and Samantha seems to feel like she has to solve the mystery behind it. But no, this isn't the only mystery in this novel- many mysteries are rolled into one.

Intrigue, lying, mysteries, murders, action, and adventure pepper this novel with a fine spice.

I'm looking forward to the next book and will probably be putting this on my comfort reads shelf!

* ARC was supplied by the publisher Macmillan/ St. Martin's Press, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "An epic fantasy of vampires, werewolves and sorcerers, Lightfall is the debut novel of Ed Crocker, for fans of Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire and Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings.

No humans here. Just immortals: their politics, their feuds—and their long buried secrets.

For centuries, vampires freely roamed the land until the Grays came out of nowhere, wiping out half the population in a night. The survivors fled to the last vampire city of First Light, where the rules are simple. If you’re poor, you drink weak blood. If you’re nobility, you get the good stuff. And you can never, ever leave.

Palace maid Sam has had enough of these rules, and she’s definitely had enough of cleaning the bedpans of the lords who enforce them. When the son of the city’s ruler is murdered and she finds the only clue to his death, she seizes the chance to blackmail her way into a better class and better blood. She falls in with the Leeches, a group of rebel maids who rein in the worst of the Lords. Soon she’s in league with a sorcerer whose deductive skills make up for his lack of magic, a deadly werewolf assassin and a countess who knows a city’s worth of secrets.

There’s just one problem. What began as a murder investigation has uncovered a vast conspiracy by the ruling elite, and now Sam must find the truth before she becomes another victim. If she can avoid getting murdered, she might just live forever."