Bewitching Book Tours Book Review: That Scoundrel Emile Dubois

That Scoundrel Emile Dubois

Lucinda Elliot

Genre: Spoof Gothic Paranormal Historical

Publisher: Elliot

Date of Publication: December 2012

ISBN: 9780992736101

ASIN: B00AOA4FN4

Number of pages: 371

Word Count: 127,000

Cover Artist: Streetlight Graphics

Tagline: As the companion to an elderly Countess, Sophie de Courcy longs for Gothic adventure. She gets more of it than she wishes as she joins her grand relative Emile Dubois into an occult struggle, with man vampires and time travel.

Book Description:

That Scoundrel Emile Dubois' has been honoured with the prestigious B.R.A.G medallion for outstanding fiction.

Plunge into a world of over-the-top Gothic adventure and darkly comic happenings and met the wicked Emile Dubois, and the determined Sophie, who will not let him turn into a vulpine predator.

Sophie de Courcy, living during the time of the French Revolutionary Wars on an isolated mountain in North Wales as the bored companion to a kind elderly countess, dreams of excitement and romance. When she meets her long term hero, her grand distant relative, the dashing but wicked Emile Dubois, she has more adventure than she ever wanted.

Caught up in occult happenings with predatory half vampires and time warps, Sophie finds herself living in true Gothic style in an isolated mansion staffed by Emile's villainous accomplices.

With the help of her fearless Tarot reading maid, Sophie must somehow help Emile to overcome the sinister changes that are removing his humanity, and to defeat their evil, half-human neighbours who need him to further their occult schemes.

Set largely in the remote countryside of North Wales, UK, this occult adventure is both a spoof of traditional Gothic themes and a vivid love story.

Half Vampires, time travel, highwaymen, love and dark comedy combine for enthralling adventure as two eighteenth century French scoundrels are incongruously drawn into occult adventure, while their love interests, the romantic Sophie and her loyal ally Agnes stubbornly refuse to allow them to lose their dwindling humanity.

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Review: That Scoundrel Emile Dubois was nothing like I was expecting. I mean that in a good and bad way.

The story is Charlotte Bronte meets Bram Stoker.

I have to admit, I've not the love I once had for vampires, but the premise of this book caught my eye, because it was a mixture of just about everything I like.

Sophie is the perfect gothic heroine. She's a poor relation gone to be the companion to a Countess. She has very strict morals and a etiquette, though even that isn't strong enough to keep her from befriending her outspoken, tarot card reading maid, Agnes. 

Then there's Emile part Robin Hood and a little bit Marius from Les Miz (I know wrong time period but still). He is a scoundrel and at times, both when he was human and when he was a man vampire, that you wouldn't mind "staking" him.

His relationship with Sophie is a bit complex and them finding each other has to do with some wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff, which also figures into the story with the vampires in the next estate and past events in Emile's life.

Sophie and Agnes spend the better part of the novel trying to change their man vampires back into mortals, while the man vampires well, its hard to tell what they really want.

The plot was solid and the characters fascinating.  For me, the pacing was a bit slow. It took me over a week to read this book and I'm usually a fast reader. I needed a little more action to keep my attention.

This won't keep me from finding out what happens in the next book.

Rating 4 flowers