100 Pages A Day...Stephanie's Book Reviews

Anne is a daeva- one of a few magical and ancient beings left who now use their powers to hunt down any evil beings left in the world.  Anne is on assignment in a small Romanian village in 1889, she is on the hunt for a pricolici- a creature of folklore, a werewolf that killed several children in the small village. Anne has uncharacteristically gone missing from a nearby monastery on her assignment prompting friends Vivienne, Alec and Nathaniel to come looking for her.  Unbeknownst to Anna or Alec, Anne is being held as collateral by the very beast she was after in order for the beast to settle a grudge a few hundred years old.  However, as Anne begins to study her captor, she learns much more about him than she expected.

 

Bad Breed is a Gothic fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast and is the third in the Gaslamp Gothic series.  This can be read as a stand-alone, but now I definitely want to read the first two books.  The Romanian folklore of the pricolici intrigued me at the very beginning as Anne tries to outrun the vampire-werewolf hybrid that doesn't seem to particularly want to hurt her.  Furthermore, I was very interested in the origins of the daeva, I'll have to go back and read the other books to find out about that.  The action and pacing of the story was very tight and kept everything moving quickly.  The writing was a good mix of fantasy, fairy tale retelling, mystery and romance.  I especially liked the details that tied the story to Beauty and the Beast, but didn't make it a direct reproduction.  I especially loved the fierce female characters.  Anne was anything but a damsel in distress, even when her magic was disabled and Vivienne seems a loyal protector.  The mystery of the pricolici and what exactly he wanted with Anne and Alec kept the mystery going.  The ending left room for more of the story to be told as well, so I will be looking forward to the next book as well. 

 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.