REVIEW: The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum, By Cynthia Ward

Title: The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum

Series: Conversation Pieces

Author: Cynthia Ward

Genre: Action Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, Mystery, Paranormal (supernatural, etc.), Science Fiction (space opera, science fantasy, steampunk, etc), Romance, steampunk dieselpunk vampires wolfmen mashup

LGBTQ+ Category: Asexual Spectrum (demi, gray, aromantic, etc), Bisexual+, Lesbian, Pansexual, Poly, Sapiosexual

Publisher: Aqueduct Press

Pages: 109

Reviewer: Melissa Brus, Paranormal Romance Guild

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About The Book

Intelligence agent Lucy Harker receives the most dangerous job in the world — keeping Winston Churchill safe in the Great War. Despite her unique abilities as Dracula’s daughter, she loses Churchill to Kaiser Wilhelm’s inhuman allies.

If she’s to recover Britain’s greatest leader, Agent Harker must gain the aid of her Austrian lover, Countess Karnstein — better known as Carmilla. But the notorious vampire is keeping secrets that might doom the British Empire.

The Review

Cynthia Ward took James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Vampires and other paranormal creatures, World War II, and a smidge of romance, put them all in a giant shaker and out came this incredibly interesting and fun bit of fiction!

It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really is a great story. The adventure is so compelling. I love seeing the historical moments through the lens of the paranormal.

I read this without having read the previous book in the series (The Adventure of the Incognita Countess) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Due to the dark subject matter, the story itself was not a light read in any way.

Also, the romance was minimal in this edition, but was really well done in the context of the story.

With that said, this is just overall a great quick read.

The Reviewer

In writing this bio I am taking a rare break from reading! I always have a book on hand just in case there is time to sneak in a chapter or two. As a military spouse and a mom of two boys, it is amazing how often I am hurrying up to wait. Luckily for me I don’t have a favorite genre so I get lots of fun authors to choose from. My education was in sociology and mental health counseling, so stories with strong character development are my favorites. Happily Ever After is the best part of romance for me because real life is hard enough.

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