Bergstrom, Elaine Books

Baroness of Blood (Ravenloft)

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Birth of a Darklord 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

There are two ways a reader is likely to approach this novel: as a Ravenloft fan reading that line of novels; or as an Elaine Bergstrom fan starved for the latest Austra novel. Neither should be disappointed.

As a D&D novel, this book presents us with much more than we would normally expect and consequently should be more readily accessible to one not familiar with the game or the Ravenloft setting, while at the same time satisfying fans of both.

This book is well-suited to the genre. It would be easy to imagine this as one of those 1960's black and white classic movies or TV shows. 'Baroness' tells the tale of a young noble girl who witnesses the execution of her tyrannical father after his failed conquest of a neighbouring feudal state. Baroness Ilsabet then begins a slippery descent into evil in her pursuit of revenge.

The characters are well rounded protagonists acting within a well-paced (abeit linear) plot that steadily gathers momentum towards its tragicly epic, darkly cinematic, and sadly inevitable conclusion (Ravenloft fans have the added satisfaction of seeing the birth of not only a new Darklord but an entire domain).

A definite time-honoured, easy-to-read 'page-turner' with its concise chapters and spiralling pace that should come highly recommended to all readers, including those approaching from yet a third route: fans of the good gothic-fantasy-horror novel.

Other Ravenloft books by Elaine Bergstrom include:
Tapestry of Dark Souls (and the short story 'The Weaver's Pride which serves as a prologue from the anthology 'Tales of Ravenloft')

The Dracula 'sequels':
Mina
Blood to Blood

The Austra series:
Shattered Glass
Daughter of the Night
Blood Alone
Blood Rites
Nocturne

And the stand alone novels:
Madeline
After the Fall of Usher, Leanna
Possession of a Woman
The Door Through Washington Square

Editorial Review:

Witnessing the beheading of her father by a conquering overlord, a young baroness pledges revenge despite the new ruler's just ways, and ingratiates herself to a high position while devising evil plans as a vampire of souls. Original. 75,000 first printing.

Tapestry Of Dark Souls: Ravenloft: The Covenant (Ravenloft: the Covenant)

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Wizards of the Coast TSR reprint 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This TSR reprint by Wizards of the Coast revives the 1950s invented Ravenloft campaign, a seriesa of creepy, even racist old fashioned titles. This was made during colonial days last century, so it has aged, not dated. They WERE really cheesey in the 1990s because they were new trying to jump on the hip and modern gothic network. All that goth stuff is passe, this more witchcraft, which is the official religion of Welfare.

Editorial Review:

A haunting tale of love, and the power of evil to corrupt and betray.

A young man, raised in a monastary, his parents victims of a tapestry of ancient evil, goes in search of love and life beyond the walls. But werewolves and worse stalk the land, and when he returns to release his father from the tapestry's confines, he brings the Silverlord back to a world that has not seen him for centuries.

Blood Rites

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Austra vampire fans, this is a MUST READ 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Having been introduced to Elaine Bergstroms' vampires in Shattered Glass, I was thirsty to read more about what had happened to Helen Wells, of Austra blood and converted to full 'family member' by Stephen in that novel. In Blood Rites, she is the first in the family for many centuries to be able to bear children without the usual death or loss of desire for life that is the sad lot of every Austra female who chooses to have offspring. Helen and Stephen have twin boys, and she is happier in her new life than she would have dreamed possible. When her twin sons are kidnapped (and the kidnappers don't know that they've bitten off far more than they can chew - these babies aren't babies in our usual 'human' sense of the word) she goes hunting in a way she swore to herself never to do when she is changed over to her new, vampire self - hunting for humans, that is. To tell more would be to give away the resolution, but I would suggest looking long and hard for this sequel and NOT lending it out...I'm still trying to find another copy after 10 years!

Editorial Review:

Helen Wells resists the dark desires and savage nature of her vampire existence, until a hired killer begins to stalk her family. Reprint.

Blood to Blood: The Dracula Story continues

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Horror at its best 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 18 people found this review helpful.

The passion that Dracula taught Mina Harker remains deep in her soul although the evil vampire is dead. Once tasting life, Mina needs to escape from her Victorian prison. Her beloved Jonathan fails to emotionally help her because he still broods over Mina having had a lover. Instead, her ex-lover leaves her money so she can explore her new independent spirit. Mina wants reconciliation, but not back to what their relationship once was. As the couple works on their problems, Jonathan begins to have vampiric induced dreams that Van Helsing believes is the calling card of the late Count's sister Joanna Tepes.

With everyone else in the castle dead, the reclusive but lonely Joanna decides to travel to England to settle the score with her brother's killers. Along the way, Joanna picks up a servant girl who becomes more than just a friend. In England, Joanna forgets about her sibling's enemies until a Ripper-like maniac hurts her friend. This provokes a confrontation between the Harkers and Van Helsing on one side and Joanna on the other.

BLOOD TO BLOOD is a fascinating footnote to the Dracula legends. The story occurs six months after the death of Lucy. Elaine Bergstrom turns Victorian England and Transylvania into descriptive images that provide an intriguing look for readers. Ms. Bergstrom centers her tale on prejudicial profiling as not all vampires are alike with individuals needing to use sound judgment to form opinions based on facts not hearsay or stereotyping. Supernatural lovers, especially the vampire crowd, will have a great time reading this fantastic horror novel.

Harriet Klausner

Editorial Review:

Dracula's sister-by birth and by blood-resurrects his dark legacy...

Daughter Of The Night

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Blood-lickin' good! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

My favorite of the Austra vampire books, Daughter of the Night begins with the exploration of how Elizabeth Bathori became who she was, with the expected wonderful Bergstrom subplots that so entice the reader and make the characters so vibrantly real. A must for Stephen and Charles fans, as well as any fans of the series.

haunting with beautiful imagery 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

a dark fascinating tale of lust, greed and deep bloodthirsty vampire love. get it today!

Great book, I loved it! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the best books about vampires I have ever read. It's well writen historical fiction about Elizabeth Bathori's (a real person) life. It's fasinating and terrifying at the same time.

Editorial Review:

Famed for her beauty and feared for her cruelty, Elizabeth Bathori continues her quest for immortality, bathing Europe in the blood of her innocent victims, until she meets Catherine Austra, a mysterious creature with the secret to eternity.

Shattered Glass

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Dull 2 out of 5 stars.
16 of 23 people found this review helpful.

I bought "Shattered Glass" several years ago expecting it to be a great vampire book. After all, the review on the front cover said it was "The Most Terrifying Novel of Sensuous Evil Since Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire". (I hadn't finished Interview yet, but I figured if they could compare the two books, it must be worth reading.) Unfortunately, this is one of the worst vampire books I've ever read.

It begins in 1955 with a prostitute being murdered by Charles Austra, brother to Stephen Austra. Both are vampires, but neither is very much alike. While Charles enjoys the darker, seedier aspects of life, Stephen is an artist and all-around good guy. He's also in love with his handicapped neighbor, Helen Wells. Her uncle, Dick, is the police officer investigating Charles's murders, and because the two brothers look so much alike, Dick thinks Stephen is the killer.

The book was confusing at times, but that may have been my own fault. I was already losing interest a few chapters into it. Even though it's not long (approximately 372 pages), it seemed to drag on forever.

I would only recommend this book to die-hard vampire fans who will read anything with blood and fangs in it. Otherwise, don't waste your time. Try Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire instead.

If you've already read this book and enjoyed it, you might like the other two books in the trilogy: Blood Alone and Blood Rites.

Editorial Review:

One of a new breed of vampires who do not need to hunt blood unless they want to, Stephen Austra makes his living restoring the stained glass in cathedrals, but his existence and his relationship with his lover are threatened by a series of vicious murders. Reissue.

Nocturne (Austra Family)

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fabulous cover... 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

...and a pretty good read once I got into it. It isn't the instant, total, no-holds-barred seduction that I found in Daughter of the Night, which I still like best of all the Austra novels I've read. I started Nocturne a couple of times and put it down before finally settling into it for the duration.

Nocturne has the abduction motif that runs so strongly through all the Austra novels that I have read except Daughter of the Night, which I found so powerful because its major energy is focused on the surhuman, really alien qualities of the Austras - they are people who have different minds, not just different nutritional needs - rather than abductions, physical altercations, and chases.

If I'd edited Nocturne, I'd have encouraged more development of Irena Sava's hidden Austra qualities before she ever makes contact with the family. The life of a Romanian under Ceaucescu, then as an emigree in America, should provide ample pressures to bring out dark glints and suggestions of Austra nature. This kind of character development, applied to Elizabeth Bathory in Daughter of the Night, made for a scrupulous psychological accuracy and ferocious narrative drive. Elizabeth's vampyr heredity works itself out like swallowed shrapnel, in painfully believable ways.

The abduction/chase/physical combat business in Nocturne actually numbed down the narrative drive for me - an "Oh, no, more of this!" Perhaps, having been spoiled by such exemplary character development, I'm not content with mere battery and bloodshed.

In conclusion, Nocturne brings the Austra scions back to the Austra keep and Francis, the Old One, for me the most fascinating of the Austras. We discover that Francis has been gathering women who have some Austra ancestry there and siring more Firstborn children, which should lead to some interesting plot opportunities down the road.

Editorial Review:

In the first new novel about the Austra family of vampires in over ten years, two modern-day young lovers find that they must face a deadly enemy, in a dangerous land that both thought they had left behind...

Tapestry of Dark Souls (Ravenloft Series, Book 5)

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

DiDi 25y Belgium 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I liked this ravenloft adventure very much. It became an obsession after I struggled through the first (rather boring)chapter. Elaine didn't use the 'higher' Ravenloft-caracters and thats why she could do with her caracter what she wanted. It not an open ended story this time, its has a sad end, but that's Ravenloft. I preferred the Ravenloft adventures written by female writers, because it's not just the horror they are writer about, it goes much deeper. I should rather classify this novel as 'dark Fantasy' I loved it!!!

A Ravenloft tie-in that reads like a real novel. 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This Ravenloft novel is only "hard to read" if you're working with a 5th grade education, or only read series tie-ins. The author takes time to develop atmosphere, establish relatively complex characters and situations, and chooses to suggest and insinuate rather than spell everything out, which leaves room for reader interpretation and results in a more satisfying read. "Tapestry of Dark Souls" feels like an actual horror novel rather than 350 page advertisement for a D&D expansion set. If you actually read horror, you'll probably like this one.

Editorial Review:

Jonathan must destroy the Gathering Cloth, a web in which the darkest evils of Ravenloft are trapped, before the evil breaks him and dooms him to eternal darkness. By the author of Blood Rites. Original. 85,000 first printing.

The Door through Washington Square

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

couldn't put it down! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This book is unlike any other book I have ever read! It tells the story of a woman, who inherits her great grandmother's appartment, and finds out there is a door in there which leads 72 years into the past. Contrary to other time travel books, the travel itself isn't what the book focuses on - the "technical" aspects of time travel. Neither does it focus on historial facts (like other time travel books). Instead, it focuses on some historical figures, such as the famous Aleister Crowley, and on magick ("real" magic). Overall, this is a fantasy novel, with a lot of romance in it, but written in a very unique manner. I simply could not put it down! I recommend it to anyone who has an interest (or at least, isn't upset) by reading about magical rituals, likes time travel books - and has a romantic heart ;-)

Editorial Review:

Dierdre MacCallum is summoned to her great-grandmum Bridget's house to settle her affairs. She opens the sun room's french doors to the sunlight-- and finds a doorway to the past, seventy-two years ago.

There she will meet great-grandmum as a young lady. She will find love with a man destined to die before she was born. And she will find danger as she uncovers Bridget's secret--her involvement with the infamous Alistair Crowley, whose dabblings in the dark powers promise destruction for the MacCallum clan.

Now Dierdre must set things right, and rescue both her family, and her one true love...

Blood Alone

Elaine Bergstrom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Amazing detail, wonderful story line! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Blood Alone very quickly sets the tone of the plots and subplots that fill its lovely pages. The setting is World War Two and the Austra family is attempting to save the world from extinction by taking sides in a human war. Paul Stoddard is a young architect who comes to Chaves to work for Stephen Austra and AustraGlass and quickly falls in love with Elizabeth, one of the family. We are introduced to several characters that will become dear to us through the course of the book: Laurence Austra, Gregory Hunter, Charles Austra, to name a few.

I would recommend reading this before Shattered Glass, its predecessor, as it clears up a few mysteries and makes the series easier for the new reader.

Editorial Review:

In pre-World War II Europe pursuing a career in the ancient art of glassmaking, Paul Stoddard falls for a beautiful woman who is also a member of a family of vampires, and together they fight against the menace of the Third Reich. Reissue.