Review: Dust and Shadow -ORIGINAL BLOOD VAMPIRE SERIES Book 2- Stuart Land

Title: Dust and Shadow
Series: ORIGINAL BLOOD VAMPIRE SERIES Book 2
Author: Stuart Land
Genre: Romantic Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Vampire Romance
Publisher: Independent
Release Date: Feb 24, 2024
Format: Kindle
Pages: 236
Source: Amazon

Follow Gailene and Zondra as they delve deeper into the dangerous world of vampires in this electrifying sequel to Echoes of Shadows.
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Gailene rises to power in Washington, D.C., becoming a political force to be reckoned with. As she navigates love and war during the American Civil War, she must also confront her creator and protect her human daughter.
Zondra, now a vampire in her own right, must face the complexities of her changing identity and desires. As she prepares for a showdown with the fearsome Fenton, she must use her unique abilities to protect herself and her family from rival vampire houses who see her as a threat.
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DUST AND SHADOW is a must-read for fans of bestselling vampire novels such as Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire Mysteries" and Julie Kagawa's "The Iron Fey." Get ready to be swept away by this thrilling and emotionally charged continuation of the Original Blood vampire series."

Reviewed by Linda Tonis

Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

Zondra now knows that she is Gailene’s great-granddaughter back seven generations and is still seeing her memories. Zondra is now the leader of the Starling family; the name Gailene gave them and is also Jeremiah’s lover. Jeremiah and Gailene were also lovers, but he convinces Zondra that he loves her as Zondra not Gailene.

Gailene finally moved to America in search of Fenton and has figured out how to survive being a vampire without being taught. She has amassed a fortune and settled in the mansion now belonging to Zondra. Like Zondra, Gailene can see visions of the future and is determined to find a way for vampires to be a part of the government. She builds a school where the children from the human companies familiar with vampires and who work for them will study and eventually be able to enter the political ring.

She becomes an active part of the government and has been able to keep a watch on her daughter Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s offspring. She was Thomas Jefferson’s lover till his death and was an invited guest to Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration ball. It was at that ball that she first met Jeremiah the man she saw in the future and fell in love with.

When she finally reveals what she is Jeremiah doesn’t run from her, his love is too powerful, but it would take the Civil War to change everything. When he is severely wounded, she does to him what Fenton did to her turned him without consent. She went against everything she believed in to save the man she loved.

Zondra and Gailene seem to be occupying one body and Zondra realizes that it will be her in the present that will finally give Gailene the revenge she has been seeking for two centuries against Fenton. The Starling family began in the past but are now in the present protecting Zondra.

Zondra has finally gotten the answers to questions that have evaded her all her life, who and what she is and what Jeremiah had to do with her childhood and now her present.

Everything Gailene went through because of Fenton was all due to powerful emotions, his love for her set off events that lasted for centuries and it would fall on her great-granddaughter to finally finish what Gailene couldn’t.

This series must be read in order because Gailene and Zondra’s story begins in Echoes of Shadows, book one and then continues in book two. All the questions I had were answered and when the book ended it ended with surprises, I never saw coming.

As far as this reviewer is concerned this is a must-read series with amazing characters, surprises, secrets and powerful emotions.