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The Phantom #2
Abendlied: A Novel of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera
Madrigal Continues . . . Desiring normalcy is difficult enough with a price on his head, but when Erik is falsely accused of killing Philippe de Chagny, brother of his nemesis Raoul, he is launched toward madness. Anna is an unlikely companion, sharing Erik's heart and the bounty on his head. As the manhunt heats, Erik's mysterious relationship with Philippe spurs the campaign against them forward and exposes her darkest secret: defending her honor ended in murder. Plagued by his past as The Phantom of the Opera, Erik's memories enslave his heart to Raoul's wife Christine, whose shocking confession brings a ruthless bounty hunter into the fray and blackmail to the Chagny bloodline. Blackmail from a hunter who cares little about the Phantom or Philippe and everything about the one he has lusted for: Anna. With the past weeping like an open wound, can love endure or will it take memories of one unlikely man to heal them all? Memories of Philippe Georges Marie, Comte de Chagny . . .
270 pages, Paperback
First published December 14, 2009
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78 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Linforth
4 books34 followersJennifer is known for her works expanding Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. She is currently writing book four in this series.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 1, 2010
ABENDLIED BY JENNIFER LINFORTH
ISBN 9780984249909
After Christine’s confession, Raul hires Loup to find the Phantom (Erik.) Raoul is convinced Erik killed his brother Philippe de Chagny even though evidence proves his brother’s death is an accident. Loup agrees to hunt down Erik, but the man has his own personal agenda. He will hunt the Phantom, but his main goal is to capture Anna, the woman with Erik. Her crime was committed when defending her honor and he has every intention to make her pay for it. Also Loup is blackmailing Christine after witnessing a transgression that will threaten the Chagny bloodline.
Christine must deal with her own demons. Is she in love with two men? She tries to hide her confusion, but Raoul senses his wife’s unrest. He loves Christine and will do anything to protect her, but his judgment is hampered by his insecurities.
As the manhunt continues, Anna fears Erik will embrace the madness that lurks beneath the surface and will never find the man in madman. Erik falls back to being The Phantom of the Opera and seeks out Christine. Her shocking confession may destroy his relationship with Anna. Erik recalls his association with Comte Philippe de Chagney and what his friendship meant to him, but will the memories be enough to heal him?
Ms. Linforth has written another noteworthy tale about the Phantom. Anna and Erik must learn to trust each other to allow their relationship to flourish. Erik must also learn to put the past behind him before he can accept what Anna offers. In Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, Philippe is a man of the world and doesn’t like Raol’s attachment to Christine. Erik later drowns Philippe when the man goes looking for Raoul in the cellars of the opera house. I enjoyed how the author takes the reader back to Erik’s life below the opera house to unfold a new tale with the Phantom’s friendship with Comte Philippe de Chagney. I don’t want to reveal too much of this wonderful tale with a twist to the old story. This is the second book in the series. It does stand alone, but I believe the reader may take pleasure reading Madrigal first to thoroughly enjoy the continue tale of The Phantom of the Opera.
Reviewed for PNR Paranormal Reviews
ISBN 9780984249909
After Christine’s confession, Raul hires Loup to find the Phantom (Erik.) Raoul is convinced Erik killed his brother Philippe de Chagny even though evidence proves his brother’s death is an accident. Loup agrees to hunt down Erik, but the man has his own personal agenda. He will hunt the Phantom, but his main goal is to capture Anna, the woman with Erik. Her crime was committed when defending her honor and he has every intention to make her pay for it. Also Loup is blackmailing Christine after witnessing a transgression that will threaten the Chagny bloodline.
Christine must deal with her own demons. Is she in love with two men? She tries to hide her confusion, but Raoul senses his wife’s unrest. He loves Christine and will do anything to protect her, but his judgment is hampered by his insecurities.
As the manhunt continues, Anna fears Erik will embrace the madness that lurks beneath the surface and will never find the man in madman. Erik falls back to being The Phantom of the Opera and seeks out Christine. Her shocking confession may destroy his relationship with Anna. Erik recalls his association with Comte Philippe de Chagney and what his friendship meant to him, but will the memories be enough to heal him?
Ms. Linforth has written another noteworthy tale about the Phantom. Anna and Erik must learn to trust each other to allow their relationship to flourish. Erik must also learn to put the past behind him before he can accept what Anna offers. In Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, Philippe is a man of the world and doesn’t like Raol’s attachment to Christine. Erik later drowns Philippe when the man goes looking for Raoul in the cellars of the opera house. I enjoyed how the author takes the reader back to Erik’s life below the opera house to unfold a new tale with the Phantom’s friendship with Comte Philippe de Chagney. I don’t want to reveal too much of this wonderful tale with a twist to the old story. This is the second book in the series. It does stand alone, but I believe the reader may take pleasure reading Madrigal first to thoroughly enjoy the continue tale of The Phantom of the Opera.
Reviewed for PNR Paranormal Reviews
April 14, 2015
Hurray, a continuation! And I must say just as good as the first. And I never thought I would meet someone who held the same view of Christine as I did.
I appulade you, Linforth, for a another great book!
I appulade you, Linforth, for a another great book!
August 11, 2016
#50 of the 2015 Reading Challenge: "A book you started but never finished"
I now realize why I never finished this book initially...
Assuming you've already read Madrigal and loved it enough to read this one, I'm here to tell you that you will be disappointed. Really, nothing much happens. This trilogy is a continuing storyline that could have easily been condensed into a Phan-Fiction retelling with one sequel. Two is excessive. The plot draaags. The first time I read it, I only got to 40% and then petered out. I quickly reread this much to refresh my memory, and then struggled to finish it.
To be clear - Madrigal, the first in the series, is wonderful. I do love it, but this book has tarnished my admiration for Jennifer Linforth. The reason being that issues we thought were resolved at the end are still festering in Abendlied. There's the whole Erik-obsessed-with-Christine bit. So, that defining moment [no spoilers] in Madrigal wasn't so defining after all? Do we still need to have yet another Christine purging? Blech. Well, okay then. Then there's Anna's insecurities at being second to Christine - that situation is getting old now. Her past is still yet to be resolved, and quite frankly, I won't be sticking around for Rondeau to see how it turns out. After my initial read of the first book, I subsequently bought the remaining two. Darn, coulda saved a few bucks on that.
All these complaints are secondary to the fact that Erik was driving me to madness. I wanted someone to slap him senseless and tell him to grow a set. I know he is a complex character with issues, and I can work with that - bipolar mood swings and extremely pathetic tears, I cannot. There was SO. MUCH. CRYING. Everywhere. From Anna or Erik or both of them. My Kindle could have rusted if the salt had materialized.
STAAAHP. Stop! Like, abort. Seriously.
[Deep breaths] Okay, so ends the rant. The saving graces for this book which balanced it out were these quotes:
I now realize why I never finished this book initially...
Assuming you've already read Madrigal and loved it enough to read this one, I'm here to tell you that you will be disappointed. Really, nothing much happens. This trilogy is a continuing storyline that could have easily been condensed into a Phan-Fiction retelling with one sequel. Two is excessive. The plot draaags. The first time I read it, I only got to 40% and then petered out. I quickly reread this much to refresh my memory, and then struggled to finish it.
To be clear - Madrigal, the first in the series, is wonderful. I do love it, but this book has tarnished my admiration for Jennifer Linforth. The reason being that issues we thought were resolved at the end are still festering in Abendlied. There's the whole Erik-obsessed-with-Christine bit. So, that defining moment [no spoilers] in Madrigal wasn't so defining after all? Do we still need to have yet another Christine purging? Blech. Well, okay then. Then there's Anna's insecurities at being second to Christine - that situation is getting old now. Her past is still yet to be resolved, and quite frankly, I won't be sticking around for Rondeau to see how it turns out. After my initial read of the first book, I subsequently bought the remaining two. Darn, coulda saved a few bucks on that.
All these complaints are secondary to the fact that Erik was driving me to madness. I wanted someone to slap him senseless and tell him to grow a set. I know he is a complex character with issues, and I can work with that - bipolar mood swings and extremely pathetic tears, I cannot. There was SO. MUCH. CRYING. Everywhere. From Anna or Erik or both of them. My Kindle could have rusted if the salt had materialized.
STAAAHP. Stop! Like, abort. Seriously.
[Deep breaths] Okay, so ends the rant. The saving graces for this book which balanced it out were these quotes:
[In a flashback to original TPOTO, ya gotta love this] Seeing as you are a man like the rest of the world, far be it for me to deny your affections for the girl, though I truly suggest you learn other means to display it. Kidnapping and attempted murder are not the ways to a woman’s heart and being possessive and controlling not the best avenues for love.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[In similar flashback] You are pathetic. I prove [Christine] loves another man, and you roll over and decide to actually die? When are you going to awake and realize she is not the be all and end all? Did you ever think perhaps your life could go on without her? Maybe there is something else out there worth living for? Dare I say someone else?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
YES! My favorite character who calls people out on their crap. And finally, Pappy, the other voice of reason and stable mentality:
[Erik:] “I betrayed Anna because of my music. I cannot be without it. Christine always needed my music. She fulfills a part of my restless mind in a way Anna never could.”
“Erik?”
The use of his name shot him right out of somber thoughts. It sounded so foreign coming from Pappy that it rendered him stupid.
“What packages did she deliver?” Pappy asked.
Erik moved around the barn with contemplative steps. He twirled a thin wrist in the air as he spoke in an attempt to track the old man’s line of questioning.
“Paper, ink, and figs.” Wretched, disgusting fruits...
“Paper? What kind of paper?”
“Composition. Lined for a Maestro’s notes.”
“Anna doesn’t understand music? You’re certain of that? Let me tell you a secret and you decide whether or not Christine will be the only one to fulfill your needs. Anna couldn’t always afford that paper— told me so herself. When she couldn’t, she studied all that music she still can’t understand, to figure out what a Maestro might need and lined plain paper herself, every last stanza, colon, clef, and treble. She didn’t understand the music, but she wanted to hear it badly enough. Anna needed music too, except she didn’t need it to help perfect some part of herself. She only needed it because it said what she could not.” Pappy leaned toward Erik. “She heard your music, and she could not allow that to be silent. She had no idea at that time about the Phantom— or Christine. Anna had a lot to say. Except for her, it was not done through music; it was done through simple, random acts.
August 17, 2012
Abendlied by Jennifer Linforth is the second novel in a three-part series that continue the story of Erik, The Phantom of the Opera. Like its predecessor, Madrigal, the plot is superb and the characters true to their original source material (Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera). And, like Madrigal, the title of the novel is derived from a form of musical composition - that of the Abendlied - or literally translated from the German as "Evening song," or lullaby. In the first book Erik is inspired to write new music based on the madrigal form. Here he begins composing an "Abendlied" while on the run through the wilds of France with the main female character, Anna Barret, and an older male wayfarer referred to as Pappy.
Along the way there are plenty of surprises and plot twists to keep the avid reader turning each new page with sweaty palms and racing heart. The introduction of a ruthless bounty hunter named Loupe, for example, who is cunning and calculating enough to be reminiscent of Les Miserables's Inspector Javert but without an ounce of morality to offset his ruthless nature.
We also are reunited with old faces, including the opera diva Christine Daae (now married to the Comte de Chagney, Raoul) and even the enigmatic Persian.
But perhaps the most fascinating and moving "reunion" comes in the form of a series of flashbacks Erik experiences involving Raoul's brother, Phillipe. If you're an avid admirer of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera and you are wondering at this point why I would say Phillipe can be counted as a "reunion" when he is only referred to briefly in the original book before his death, let me just say you have to read Abendlied to understand.
The relationship that is alluded to between Erik and Philippe answers several questions that remain after the conclusion of the original Leroux novel and shed significant light on Erik's character. It also makes plausible the subsequent personal growth Erik experiences, not unlike Valjean being changed on a spritual level after meeting the Bishop in Les Miserables.
Of course Abendlied is more than just about Erik altering his perception of the world, though that is a major theme. Part of it also involves him growing enough on an emotional level to fall in love and be loved by none other than Anna.
That's all I will give away about the plot. Read the book to find out for yourself!
Along the way there are plenty of surprises and plot twists to keep the avid reader turning each new page with sweaty palms and racing heart. The introduction of a ruthless bounty hunter named Loupe, for example, who is cunning and calculating enough to be reminiscent of Les Miserables's Inspector Javert but without an ounce of morality to offset his ruthless nature.
We also are reunited with old faces, including the opera diva Christine Daae (now married to the Comte de Chagney, Raoul) and even the enigmatic Persian.
But perhaps the most fascinating and moving "reunion" comes in the form of a series of flashbacks Erik experiences involving Raoul's brother, Phillipe. If you're an avid admirer of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera and you are wondering at this point why I would say Phillipe can be counted as a "reunion" when he is only referred to briefly in the original book before his death, let me just say you have to read Abendlied to understand.
The relationship that is alluded to between Erik and Philippe answers several questions that remain after the conclusion of the original Leroux novel and shed significant light on Erik's character. It also makes plausible the subsequent personal growth Erik experiences, not unlike Valjean being changed on a spritual level after meeting the Bishop in Les Miserables.
Of course Abendlied is more than just about Erik altering his perception of the world, though that is a major theme. Part of it also involves him growing enough on an emotional level to fall in love and be loved by none other than Anna.
That's all I will give away about the plot. Read the book to find out for yourself!
November 7, 2019
Well, while this was entertaining, I must admit that it left me a bit disappointed. Linforth's Phantom is more mad, and in general, just not as remarkable as the original or even Susan Kay's retelling. Maybe I would have liked this one more if I had not so recently re-read that version and the original as well... I liked the endings that others have created. The way Christine is treated here is a bit upsetting. And while I like the overall idea explaining deaths, the overall timeline changes did bother me. It is an interesting frame for the sequel, but a lot of what was left hanging in Madrigal is still open here, and I don't plan on continuing on with the series.
January 28, 2016
Great continuation of how Erik and Anna escape together and find love
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews