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Sisters of the Night #2
The Soul of an Angel
Young and beautiful, Fenice Zucchar lives in opulent splendor on the world's richest island. The pampered daughter of a wealthy and powerful owner of ocean-going merchant vessels, Fenice's soul yearns for the freedom of the sea--for the adventures and breathtaking sights and sounds that await her far from Venice, her velvet prison. Determined to flee, she feigns an audacious kidnapping and stows away on one of her brother's ships on the very eve of her own arranged wedding.
But her plans are dashed to bits when, upon discovery, her brother refuses to offer her safe quarter--and abandons the young noblewoman in the teeming port of Varna, just as panic is descending upon the city. For death has come to this place, spawning stories told in hushed, frightened whispers in the night--a being of strange, alluring power and dark sensuality who has chosen Fenice, offering her more freedom than she could know in a hundred lifetimes.
Subjugation is the price this mesmirizing creature demands fro the exquisite renegade's eternal pleasure, as Fenice follows her Dark Lord to his mountain domain, where she is to live...and die. But another is waiting there already, lurking in the shadows of the imposing castle keep: a lovely and crazed consort already corrupted by Dracula's terrible passion...a once-mortal girl named Kelene, late of a distant realm called Greece who could prove to be Fenice's staunchest ally and sister, or her most fearsome adversary.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1999
1 person is currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
262 books478 followersA professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 29, 2015
Enjoyed it, but somehow felt like the "rules" from the first book were broken. The Dracula had a completely different personality and that made the series seem disjointed.
Would really like to read the third story. Hey Avon Press or whoever owns it...why not publish now with the immense popularity of the vampire genre?
Would really like to read the third story. Hey Avon Press or whoever owns it...why not publish now with the immense popularity of the vampire genre?
April 6, 2010
This, the second book in Yarbro’s “Sisters of the Night” series, wasn’t nearly as good as the first, “The Angry Angel”. Some of the same elements that made the first book so great where there, but somehow they fell flat or weren’t developed enough. Dracula himself, for example, seemed to swing back and forth from kind, caring, and generous to only mildly commanding and unapologetic, even after he was well within control of the situation and the seduction was complete.
The other big problem I had was the redundant nature of book’s beginning. It was not redundant in the sense that the story of Fenice Zucchar, the second woman to become on of the “weird sister”, closely mirrored that of Kelene from the first book. The two characters were in fact mirror opposites of each other. Where Kelene had been devoutly religious Fenice found religion boring. Where Kelene had been poor Fenice was rich. Where Kelene had been willing to sacrifice her own happiness and life for those of her family Fenice was a free spirit who to the detriment of her family flew in the face of tradition and societal norms. No, the redundancy instead came from the multiple conversations, seemingly with every member of her immediate family, and minor events that were presented to show Fenice’s unhappiness with her family’s pressure for her to marry and her longing for adventure. The first hundred pages of the book, which were mostly exclusively dedicated to this, could have easily been cut to twenty or thirty with nothing of importance or substance lost.
Once, finally, out on her adventure the story of Fenice did redeem itself, somewhat. I had some minor issue with how Dracula’s character dealt with Fenice, his servants, and their joint travels. Where before he had not cared if Kelene was upset by violent displays of power and dominance he was much milder with his servants in Fenice’s presence and indeed with her. None of this really took away from the story, but it did nothing to enrich it either.
Ultimately of course Fenice became a vampire and returned to Dracula’s castle to live out her undead days, no surprise there. Also no surprise there were some power struggles back and forth between her and Kelene and also between them both and Dracula, but nothing unexpected or which leads to a shocking outcome.
The thing that is the most regrettable about the book’s ending is it clearly leaves the door open for a third book on the final third member of the weird sister trio in which Fenice and Kelene might have a more active role in choosing and seducing the young woman. However, as best I can tell there is no third book and this, the second, is out of print. That does not bode well that this third book will ever be seen.
The other big problem I had was the redundant nature of book’s beginning. It was not redundant in the sense that the story of Fenice Zucchar, the second woman to become on of the “weird sister”, closely mirrored that of Kelene from the first book. The two characters were in fact mirror opposites of each other. Where Kelene had been devoutly religious Fenice found religion boring. Where Kelene had been poor Fenice was rich. Where Kelene had been willing to sacrifice her own happiness and life for those of her family Fenice was a free spirit who to the detriment of her family flew in the face of tradition and societal norms. No, the redundancy instead came from the multiple conversations, seemingly with every member of her immediate family, and minor events that were presented to show Fenice’s unhappiness with her family’s pressure for her to marry and her longing for adventure. The first hundred pages of the book, which were mostly exclusively dedicated to this, could have easily been cut to twenty or thirty with nothing of importance or substance lost.
Once, finally, out on her adventure the story of Fenice did redeem itself, somewhat. I had some minor issue with how Dracula’s character dealt with Fenice, his servants, and their joint travels. Where before he had not cared if Kelene was upset by violent displays of power and dominance he was much milder with his servants in Fenice’s presence and indeed with her. None of this really took away from the story, but it did nothing to enrich it either.
Ultimately of course Fenice became a vampire and returned to Dracula’s castle to live out her undead days, no surprise there. Also no surprise there were some power struggles back and forth between her and Kelene and also between them both and Dracula, but nothing unexpected or which leads to a shocking outcome.
The thing that is the most regrettable about the book’s ending is it clearly leaves the door open for a third book on the final third member of the weird sister trio in which Fenice and Kelene might have a more active role in choosing and seducing the young woman. However, as best I can tell there is no third book and this, the second, is out of print. That does not bode well that this third book will ever be seen.
September 8, 2016
just could not get excited by this second book.
September 1, 2017
Just finished the book.
August 11, 2010
More than up to the challenge of matching bride #1
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews