4.5 Wine Glass #Review of The White Lily by Juliette Cross

 

Title: The White Lily
Series: Vampire Blood #3
Author: Juliette Cross
Format: Kindle, 326 pages
Published: 23 October 2017  (Entangled: Amara Publishing)
ISBN: ASIN: B0763T5WBM
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Wine Glasses

To the north of the Varis empire, a mysterious faction spreads propaganda against the vampire monarchy. Friedrich Volya, the Duke of Winter Hill, seeks to discover who they are before his uncle finds them first. King Dominik will punish the traitors with brutal force.

Local schoolteacher, the raven-haired Brennalyn, is on her own mission—to spy on the duke and discover what she can for the Black Lily. She longs to help the commonwealth and bring justice to the many orphans left behind from the ravages of the blood madness, like the children she lovingly keeps in her care. What she doesn’t plan for is the heart-pounding attraction she feels for the duke, enemy to the Black Lily.

But when Brennalyn’s secret puts her life and the life of her children in danger, Friedrich steps in as her protector, she finds out there’s more to the duke than she thought.

Your Thoughts:
She wasn’t the kind of woman to give herself easily. But she’d never known a man or vampire like him. He always got what he wanted. And right now, he wanted nothing more in the wide world than the complete and absolute submission of the lovely Miss Snow.  

The White Lily by Juliette Cross is a sexy, riveting adventure and a loosely fractured retelling of the fairy tale, Snow White. It’s the first book by this author that I’ve read and all I can say is why did I wait so long? The covers for the entire series are eye-catching. This is the story of Royal Vampire Friedrich Volya, the Duke of Winter Hill, and schoolteacher Brennalyn Snow.

Each book in the Vampire Blood series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order. Even so, this installment has whetted my appetite to catch up with the plotline that is obviously spanning the series, and read the stories of the prior couples soon!

Brennalyn is a multi-faceted character. Besides being gutsy, she’s a caring teacher, the mother to seven orphaned children, and the driving force surreptitiously working to aid the rebellion against the vampiric crown.

Freidrich is no fan of his uncle, King Dominik, nor of his brutal rule. When he discovers Brennalyn, an attractive woman in his kingdom to whom he’s strongly drawn, is behind the rebellion, he doesn’t hesitate to step in as her protector.

The sparks are definitely hot between Freidrich and Brennalyn. Their times alone were hot and steamy. While there was an instant chemistry between them, their relationship did not feel rushed. I enjoyed their interactions, the delightful scenes with Brenna’s adopted children and the antics of Friedrich’s valet, Grant – which made me laugh-out-loud too many times to count.

Following please find a few of my favorite quotes from The White Lily:

“It was no longer a war of humans against vampires. It was a war between justice and tyranny.” 
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She opened her mouth and let him feed her. He slipped in his index finger with melted chocolate on the tip and she sucked it clean as he pulled his finger free and away from her mouth. The chocolate was decadent, but the man who fed her was pure intoxication.
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He was too big, too dark, too strong, too seductive… simply too much for her to resist.

The characters and the storyline grabbed my attention from the beginning and held it through to the end without a single dull moment. The undercurrent of danger is pervasive throughout. If you enjoy fairy tale romances with a paranormal slant with two protagonists that you will want to root for, The White Lily superbly fits the bill!



Suggested Reading Order: 
Book #1 The Black Lily
Book #2 The Red Lily
Book #3 The White Lily
Book #4 The Emerald Lily – Series Finale! Coming Jan 29, 2018!