Reviews From a Humble Book Nerd (Opera Macabre - Michelle Rodriguez)

Here's another review for those of you who actually look at this little blog! Please, lend me your ears (or rather, your eyes) for this one!

Count Aiden de Lazarus has grown apathetic to the world around him and the monotony of immortal life. Determined to regain his zest for vampiric pursuits, he chooses a mortal girl and bites her with the intent to drain her. Instead, her intoxicating taste and enchanting beauty stirs feelings he has long buried. Scared by such mortal feelings, he gives her to another vampire as payment for a debt.

After eight long years, Bianca is still living a cursed life--singing on stage in Alexi's profitable opera and enduring the bites of the undead as part of his undercover auction when the stage lights dim. Doomed to become Alexi's vampire bride, her future is bleak.

Aiden is horrified to find Bianca still alive and Alexi's prized possession. Her image has continued to haunt him. Now he must find a way to free her from the life he unwittingly condemned her to and prove that he, unlike the vampires she has known, can be a man worth loving.

MY RATING: 5 STARS

Again, here's my review as follows on Goodreads:

I've been a fan of Ms. Rodriguez's Phantom of the Opera short stories for some time now, and I'm always amazed at her knack for putting the reader right in the action, tugging on the heartstrings, and adding her own little spin. Imagine how blown away I was when I saw what she can do with an original story and her own characters!

This book took me on a roller coaster ride from one emotion to the next, and I was hooked from the very first page. It was torture every time I had to step away from it! Her characters were so vividly drawn I felt as though they might materialize spontaneously as I read, and you honestly feel for them. Bianca was such a strong, spirited heroine, and the despair and pain she had to endure really did bring tears to my eyes. Rufus, her demon guardian, was as engaging as his suits were eye-catching, and his relationship with Bianca was truly moving. As for Count Aiden de Lazarus...when you have heroes like him, who needs Edward Cullen? (No offense meant to the Twi-hards.)

The emotions were so deliciously intense: passionate, sorrowful, tragic, hopeful, terrifying, and so unbelievably romantic! This was a wonderful, and much-needed escape I can already tell I'll be coming back to time and again. It made me cry, for Pete's sake! Any book that can do that deserves some recognition by my reckoning! I can't wait to see what she decides to share with us next!


My jaw dropped when I saw this has only three reviews on Amazon.com and not much more on Goodreads! It's a travesty! Michelle really deserves all the accolades she can get for this one, and a handful of reviews just don't cut it for me! I hope she doesn't mind my promoting her here, so here we go!

Her website:
http://michellegliottonirodriguez.webs.com/

Her FanFiction account (calling all phans, she's got the most amazing work posted here!):
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2299904/

She's one of the most wonderful writers I've ever come across, peeps! No joke and no crossed fingers! She's got one heck of a gift!

Your pal, 
Angels