Karen Essex

'Cisnes de Leonardo' é a história das poderosas irmãs d'Este - Beatrice, duquesa de Milão, e Isabella, marquesa de Mântua - e de sua competição pelo amor de um dos príncipes mais influentes da Itália, Ludovico Sforza, e pelo prêmio maior - ser imortalizada em um quadro a óleo pelo pintor e engenheiro da corte de Milão, Leonardo da Vinci. No livro, Leonardo da Vinci aparece como homem de carne e osso que, a despeito de sua inegável genialidade, precisa lutar para pagar as contas e sustentar a família. Cada capítulo começa com um diferente trecho do diário que o mestre italiano escreveu ao longo da vida.… (mais)

I received this ARC from Doubleday just in time for a trip to the beach, so I dropped it in my beach bag and hopped on my plane.

This is being billed as "the novel for Twilight's grown up fans," but I don't know how accurate that is. It has more sex, that's certain, but the romance element is lacking. The framework is there---Mina Murray is faced with an impossible choice between the immortal Dracula and hunky Jonathan Harker (who is not re-imagined here as a werewolf, TYVM)--but the love story isn't convincing. Mina says over and over that she can't understand why anyone would choose other than to become immortal with Dracula, but we don't actually see anything to recommend him to her except that he plies her with good, supernatural sex.

Harker is just creepy and vacant throughout. For the entire book, Harker defers to the thoughts and wishes of whatever character is standing closest to him. I mean that literally. His entire mindset changes from page to page depending on who he's been talking to most recently. Essex may have built this into his character deliberately, but it makes one wonder what on earth Mina could possibly want with this guy.

Mina and her friend Kate Reed are almost comical foils. Mina can't understand why women would want the franchise while Kate prances around sans corset and writes for the newspaper. Mina's other friend, Lucy, is much more three-dimensional with her psychopathic lust and love for Morris Quincey (they have much more of a Twilight romance---she stops eating or sleeping due to her obsession with him, while he makes some very Edward-esque moves later on in the story).

The most interesting parts of the book revolved around a Victorian-era mental institution and the patients and treatments therein. The book most closely approaches horror not when Mina is being fed upon by Dracula but when she is being "treated" for her hysteria and "erotomania." (Actually, that could have been a book on its own without the Dracula connection.)

Three stars---not bad enough to stop reading, but not good enough to read again or recommend. If you're looking for something Twilight-esque but for a more mature audience, try Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries instead.
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