I really enjoy Rhys Bowen’s Lady Georgiana cozy series, but this book may have been my favorite so far. In Royal Blood (2010) Lady Georgiana, the down-on-her-luck distance cousin to the King of England, is sent to Romania to represent the royal family at the royal wedding of a Romanian princess and a Bulgarian prince. Turns out the wedding is being held at what used to be King Vlad’s castle (yes, that’s Dracula), so the royal blood of the title refers not only to the royal bloodlines present at the castle but also the possibility that some of that blood is of the undead type.
The usually level-headed Georgiana gets caught up in the vampire theory when a Bulgarian general is killed at a pre-wedding dinner amidst the rounds of toasts to the wedding party. Georgiana and her true love (but too poor to marry) Irish nobleman, Darcy, are trapped at the castle with a cast of European royals, Transylvanian servants, and possible vampires, all speaking different languages and locked in by snowstorms. Even the bride, Georgiana’s school chum Matty, soon recognizes holding the wedding at the old castle was a bad idea.
I had a lot of fun with this one. If you’re searching for a cozy with dramatic undertones, I recommend it.
Karen – Thanks for this recommendation. I’ve enjoyed Bowen’s Constable Evans series, and this one sounds like a fun series, too. I’ll have to give it a try.
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That’s funny, Margot, because I’ve never read the Constable Evans series. ; )
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Thanks for the review – sounds like a good read.
Ann
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Thanks for the comment, Ann. I just subscribed to your blog because I always like a good cozy.
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