A review by bloodravenlib
Toreador by Stewart Wieck

4.0

This was an interesting reading experience. The whole novel takes place in one night or so, and the story does pack a lot into that one night. Though we are mostly following Victoria Ash and Leopold, the story moves back and forth between other characters, all with their different schemes and motivations. If you like dark fiction with a lot of intrigue and machinations, then this book is for you because the vampires of The Masquerade, known as the Kindred, pretty much live to pursue Machiavellian plots. Our main characters are members of the Toreador Clan, which are artists, so you also get a lot of descriptions related to the art crafts, specially sculpture which is what Leopold does. I think I particularly enjoyed this novel at this point in time because it presents vampires as they should be: scary, powerful, ruthless. In other words, these are not the wimpy sissy vampires a lot of paranormal romances and urban fantasies seem to favor these days. These are not nice vampires, even when they are at their most seductive. The novel has a pretty strong dark tone overall that works nicely. It does leave you with a cliffhanger leading to the next novel, which I will be sure to try and find. It looks like the plot will thicken, but I will have to wait for the next books to find out more.