Review: The King of the Winter by Andy Monk

The King of the Winter (In the Absence of Light #1) by Andy Monk

Description:

The road has brought him home.

Running from a broken heart and the hangman’s noose he followed the road across Europe; searching for happiness in a pretty girl’s smile, the turn of a card and the depths of a brandy glass. Instead he became a womaniser, and then a thief living behind a charmer’s mask until, finally, the road ensnared him in insanity and murder. 

It is 1708, the Age of The Enlightenment, and, in the shadow of the nearly completed St Paul’s Cathedral, Caleb Cade has returned to London a broken man; incapable of love and terrified of the grave, his only friend the half imagined ghost of his dead brother.

The road has now brought him home for there is nowhere left to run and his only hope of redemption is to find the man he might have been.

Haunted by his own ghosts and demons, he relives the events that led to him fleeing England twenty years before whilst trying to make sense of the selfish wasted life he has lived.

He is befriended by a fellow libertine who shows him that not only is it still possible for him to feel love, but that he could also free him from the grave and the clutches of The King of the Winter who has been waiting patiently for him for so many years.

When love and immortality are snatched from his grasp his friend is revealed to be a monster even more broken by love than Caleb. Although he knows what he felt was just a vampire’s trick, what price would he pay to feel such love again…

My Thoughts:
Caleb is a thief, womanizer, and gambler and is basically not a good guy. He ends up being likable anyway and I found myself rooting for him to get his life figured out. There is sort of a slow build to the story. In the beginning, I wasn't sure where it was going, but the author paints a vivid picture of what Caleb's life is like. The story alternates with Caleb's earlier life and it shows how he became the person he is at present. It is so well done that you can't help but read on to get all the pieces of the puzzle to try to figure Caleb out. There are some excellent twists that I didn't see coming. It is a long book, but I was disappointed when it ended because I wanted more. The second book is out already (which is good because I need to read it) and a third book is due out in the new year.

My Rating: *****
Steam Factor: ***
*Notes: Some profanity and crude language.

My Source: author

Where to get it:
Amazon
Amazon UK

Where to find the author:
Andy Monk