Meredith Monday Schwartz

Okay, well, here's a setup for this one.

It's 1785, and the French countryside is soaked in blood.

I thought that was a really good intro, right?

Our lead character is Professor Sebastian Grave, and he is a centuries-old monster slayer.

And he gets word that the infamous and deadly Beast of Gavodon is back.

And this isn't just any monster.

Sebastian hunted this creature 20 years earlier through a brutal, bloody winter, and it nearly destroyed him.

He barely survived it once, and now he has to do it again.

The thing is, the person who summoned him back to the hunt is Antoine Avenel d'Aucerne, his estranged lover, with his own dark ties back to the beast and a secret that complicates everything.

So Sebastian isn't just walking back into danger.

He's also walking back into the most complicated relationship of his very long life.

Luckily, Sebastian doesn't have to face any of this mess alone.

He shares his body and his mind with Sarmadol, a demon with a very specific appetite.

Sarmadol takes payment in living hearts, which is exactly as unsettling as it sounds.

And

What I can only describe as a truly, Star Model has a truly delightful personality.

I loved this character.

The world that Cameron Sullivan builds here takes us across centuries and continents, weaves real historical events and people into a hidden supernatural underbelly.

of European history.

It is a ride.