Completed 09/29/18 ( )

This is quite an entertaining book. Unfortunately it is the first volume of a series, so the story does not end with this book and you stay wanting to know the end. The beginning could not be better. The entities the author created (the cruxim (Amedeo) and the sphinx (Sabine)) are immortal creatures that have a common enemy, the vampires. The plot is simple: Amedeo helps a young lady (Joslyn) to survive from an abusive father and fall in love with her, but she is turned into a vampire by one of his enemies. And he happens to meet Sabine, an sphinx that also kills vampires. They are persecuted and captured by Dr. Gandler, their enemy, that wants to become a vampire, and they are exposed in a circus of curiosities. After some animosities, they find some allies and manage to escape. But Sabine is capture again and Amedeo now has to rescue both Sabine and Joslyn. Very fast paced story, characters well constructed, this is a story that you read on the edge of your chair. Very hard to put the book down before it finishes and I really hope it does not take long for the author to come with the sequel. I am addicted to her style of easy reading and story flowing like there is no tomorrow!

I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader that loves a well written fantasy book. I bought this book from Amazon.com and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinion expressed here is my own. ( )

Content (overall theme, idea and setting). Liked the idea. It was well thought out.

What did you think of the story structure? The book had to be told in chunks because the characters were so very old. So it jumped back in time to give important facts about each character. They had very colorful backgrounds that had to be described.

At the end of the book, do you feel hope for the characters? The only one really left is Adedeo. I do have hope for him, because he did find a mate. Which was a neat beginning for him sense he had lost everyone.

Is the plot well-developed? The plot is well developed and believable. I enjoyed reading this book.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. ( )

Amedeo is Cruxim—a rare, winged supernatural creature who knows neither his purpose nor his past, save but to feed on the vampires that plague the earth. When his one weakness, the girl and novice nun Joslyn, is taken and turned by his enemies, Amedeo vows never to rest until evil is expunged from his world.

On his quest, he meets Sabine: a guardian. Half-woman, half-lioness, she is a Sphinx who has been protecting humans from vampires since the dawn of time. But when she fails in her task of protecting a young boy, she is relentlessly pursued by her evil employer, Dr. Claus Gandler, a scientist collecting a sideshow of freaks, and both she and Amedeo are captured and cruelly paraded in Gandler's Circus of Curiosities.

When the stakes are eternity in a cage, what will Amedeo risk to save one or both of the women he loves?

This gothic paranormal novel explores the beast within amid a setting of mythology and forbidden love. Cruxim's dark world and conflicted characters are the antithesis of the sparkly vampire genre.