Vermilion Whispers

Vermilion #2

by Tia Lee

While rummaging through Stirling's dungeon, Cornelius comes across a journal he dismisses and gives to Edgar as an amusing read for later. When Edgar reads through the journal he gets more than he bargained for. The scientific rambling of a crazy man turns into a discovery of a lost love of Edgar's. With the knowledge of Edgar's lost love as a roaming ghost, he will do anything in his power to bring her back.

129 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 22, 2018

Reviews

[D.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story begins with two vampires, Cornelius and Edgar, searching the dungeon of the deceased and very disturbed Professor Stirling who was Cornelius’ former employer. The professor’s castle is located in western New York and now home to the vampire’s brethren. Cornelius initiated the search, but is not clear what he hopes to find. Locating a journal, he gives it Edgar for later reading.

Surprisingly, the journal contains images of Edgar’s long lost love, Charlotta, in the form of a ghost. Stirling had confessed to Cornelius before he was killed that he was fascinated with the ghost’s image, and so is Edgar. He wonders if ghosts can be brought back to life and embarks on a mission to find out.

Edgar seeks the support of a former friend and witch, Alva, who tells him to bring a ghost back to life, requires the help of the Cauldron of Pair Dadeni. Edgar tricks his vampire friend, Roscoe, into accompanying him to Wales to meet with Alva and to begin the search for the cauldron.

Here the story and level of tension accelerate. Edgar discovers that Alva had departed a coven of witches seeking safety with her current family who discovered her near death. Access to the cauldron would require Alva, Edgar, and begrudgingly, Roscoe going back into the den of witches. And so Edgar’s mission to be reunited with Charlotta continues.

Vampires, witches, and werewolves come at you at a torrid pace. Obstacle after obstacle is tossed before Edgar and Alva in their journey to find Charlotta. To add to the romantic tension, Alva has a not-so-secret crush on Edgar, making her wonder why she’s helping him with his mission.

I found “Vermilion Whispers” to be interesting and fast moving, but “storytelling” in its approach. There are mature themes and dialogue, but at times, I felt like a parent was telling the story to their son or daughter. This is understandable. How vampires, witches and werewolves live and interact is a lot to consume and understand. Explaining this to readers lends itself to storytelling.

I am not the target reader for this novel, nor do I read many fantasy novels, but found it very entertaining. The author clearly has an active imagination and a knack at writing fast-moving novels that bring fantasy to life. The characters of Edgar and Alva are well-developed and compelling. You will want to follow them as they face and overcome obstacle after obstacle. I give the book 3.5 stars but round up to 4 for fantasy readers who will enjoy this story.

[Sarah Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Vermilion series. In the first book, the author introduces Edgar but doesn’t really focus on him. In this story, Edgar is the main focus of it. I was interested from the beginning in the first book because he intrigued me right away. When the author introduced the second book, I just had to know more about this character. While reading, the author takes you on a journey through Edgar’s eyes as we learn about him. In the beginning, Edgar is with Cornelius as they find a journal that points to Edgar’s long lost love. This starts a series of events as Edgar seeks out Alva to help him resurrect his love. During the story, I became interested in who Ralph was as well as wanting to know more about Cornelius. If you’re into the paranormal, this series is definitely worth reading.

[J.A. Kalis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s an easy to read and enjoyable paranormal tale. If you need to escape reality for a few hours, or even if you don't but look for an entertaining story, this book is for you. It will take you on a journey into an interesting fantasy world inhabited by witches, ghosts, werewolves and vampires, a fantasy world that feels believable and quite realistic. Detailed and vivid descriptions help visualize the setting. The pace is brisk. The characters are engaging. They grab you and pull into their imaginary universe. The story gripped me from the beginning and kept my attention to the end. It needs, however, another round of editing and proofreading. There are quite a few grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors and confusing shifts from one point of view to another. Still I recommend it for those who love paranormal stories.

[J.B. Trepagnier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I enjoyed the first book. This one didn't disappoint and focuses more on secondary characters from the second book. I really liked Alva from the first book, so it was good to see her back and find out more about her past. This is book works as a standalone with no cliff hangers, but I can tell the scene is being set for future books with the world building going on and plots that were set in motion with certain characters and developments in the story. I will definitely be picking up further books in this series as they come out. My only complaint was that the book needs another round of proofing or editing as there were a few wrong words in there

[Veronica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. I think I liked it even better than the first one. This book follows Edgar and Alva who were minor characters in the first book. I think my favorite character is Alva. I'll be on the lookout for the next book in the series.