A Dance in Blood Velvet

Blood Wine, Book 2

By: Freda Warrington

Narrated by: Jane Copland

For the love of her vampire suitor, Karl, Charlotte has forsaken her human life. Now her only contact with people is when she hunts them down to feed. Her thirst for blood repulses her but its fulfilment brings ecstasy. The one light in the shadows is the passion that burns between her and Karl. A love that it seems will last for eternity - until Karl's former lover, the seductively beautiful Katerina, is rescued from the Crystal Ring.

For nearly fifty years she has lain, as dead, in the icy depths of the Weisskalt. Now she wants to reclaim her life...and Karl. In despair, Charlotte turns to the prima ballerina Violette Lenoir, an ice maiden who only thaws when she dances. Charlotte is fascinated as she has been by no other human, longing to bring joy to the dancer. But her obsession opens the floodgates to a far darker threat than the vampires could ever have imagined. For Violette is more than human and if she succumbs to the vampire's kiss it could unleash a new terror...

©1994 Freda Warrington (P)2014 Audible Studios

Critic reviews

"No finer vampire novel has been published in any century. The true Queen of the vampire novel... [Warrington] is a real writer, possessing a fine sense of timing and a genuine feel for character. The vampires that flit through her book are never less than whole creations... The complex plot is bold, striking and ambitious, using elements of Hebrew mythology, Gothic suspense, eroticism and black humour. There are fused together by language that is lyrical yet clear. The climax of the story... is forceful and moving. Throughout, passages of delicate or savage sensuality leave scented stains on the page, irresistible yet disturbing." (Black Tears Magazine)
"The story neatly and scrupulously takes up the most important loose ends left dangling by the earlier volume, and moves with measured vigour towards a hectically extended climax, building a remarkable crescendo of action and emotion... amply fulfils the promise of its predecessor, and there is no doubt that the series will become one of the literary monuments of the nascent genre to which it belongs." (Interzone)
"... elegantly macabre... some of the writing in this fantasy is horribly mesmerising... This Gothic fantasy is definitely not one to read when you're in the house alone." (Ms. London)
"... a full-blooded gothique that rips more than bodices... Warrington's vampire dynasty has the grandeur of a cobwebbed cathedral, and her plot is forged in operatic passions. Treating her subjects with theatrical intensity, she creates lush images, awash in colour and shadow, and the ideal gothic mood is preserved; a dark romance to lose yourself in." (Time Out)
"Sexy, brooding and epic in scope, once you have encountered Warrington's undead, others will pale by comparison." (British Fantasy Society)