Scarlet (Scarlet Revolution #1) by Genevieve Cogman 2 stars

[Sue]

This Scarlet Pimpernel retelling takes place during the French Revolution.

Eleanor, a young English housemaid, is a dead ringer for a woman imprisoned by the Revolutionary Guard in Paris. She's recruited by Sir Percy - the Scarlet Pimpernel himself - to travel with him and the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel to rescue this prisoner and her children.

Then things get really weird.

Vampires are introduced early in the story, and are presented as "just like humans" in many ways - at least in England. The vampires Eleanor encounters in France are evil predators. She finds herself trapped in a house with a vampire determined to kill her, but then she's suddenly possessed by a ghost - or what she assumes is a ghost. This ghost, named Anima, helps Eleanor escape the evil vampire by creating a giant explosion. We assume the vampire is killed in the process since we don't see or hear from him again. Eleanor escapes with her life and has only hazy memories of the whole incident.

Anima helps Eleanor escape from vampires several more times throughout the book. We never get to Anima's backstory, I guess that's the cliffhanger that's supposed to make me read book 2? I'll never know because I'm not planning to read book 2.

Sadly this book contains none of the humor from the original Scarlet Pimpernel books. But I was certainly on the edge of my seat wondering what would come out of the woodwork next.