A Vile Season

Gr 9 Up–Bridgerton meets The Bachelor meets vampires in Ferraro’s latest novel. Count Lucian is one of the most feared vampires around, or at least he used to be before he was returned to his human state in order to infiltrate a contest for the hand of the future Duke Ambrose, at the request of Vrykolakas, the god of vampires. Amid heavy competition of the finest suitors, Lucian becomes enamored by not the future Duke, but rather his younger brother Maxwell, a young man concerned with finding his missing brother, Emmett. Lucian must balance romancing Ambrose with trying to help the man he is quickly falling in love with find his brother while reconciling with his violent past as a coldblooded killer. This novel is certainly enjoyable, but at nearly 400 pages, the story is all but guaranteed to drag at some point, and it does. However, the end result is a mixture of romance, mystery, and the supernatural that is delightfully satisfying. Count Lucian, Maxwell, Ambrose, and the majority of suitors are coded as white. Zachariah, one of Lucian’s allies in the competition, is Black. Sexual orientation seems to be fluid for most characters in this universe.