Firstborn

It is hard to put into words what The Descendants of the House of Bathory Series by Tosca Lee is about. In fact, my husband asked me what Firstborn was about as I was reading it. I said, it's hard to put into words exactly because it is unlike anything I have read before. Even trying to decide what type of genre it fit into was a bit challenging. Firstborn is the second novel in the series, with the first being Progeny. I would highly recommend that you read these novels in order or you will be completely lost if you pick up Firstborn and read it first.

The best thing that the Tosca Lee did in Firstborn is not only provide you with a list of the characters, since there are two main factions at war with one another, is also giving you a little bit of recap of Progeny since there has been some time between the novels, and for someone like me that reads a lot of books, I had a hard time remembering about the story line and even going back to my review on Progeny didn't help much because I don't want to give away too much of the exceptional novel. The best way to describe it as the Progeny's are a class of humans that descended from the bloodline of Elizabeth Bathory, known throughout history at the Blood Countess. Audra Ellison is her direct descendant. The progeny are endowed with special powers of charisma and persuasion which they can use on humans to achieve their goals. Audra is the most wanted progeny but those who are hunting her, especially her hunter assigned to her, Luka Novak.

Each hunter or Scion is given 5 years to hunt down and kill their progeny. Once they kill them they have powers that enable them to transfer or "harvest" their memories into the hunters own, but it must be completed at the time of their initial death. There is the head of the hunters known only as the Historian who controls and manipulates the hunters on their tasks in an effort to rid the world of all progeny and assume total control over the human race. Scions however can't be persuaded so a progeny's powers are limited to humans only, which enables them to tell who are humans and who are Scion hunters. Progeny have the unique ability to connect with one another so they know at an instant their own kind, who dwell underground in what are known as courts. They try to hidden at all times and are constantly on the run from those hunting them.

In Firstborn, we pick up the story between Audra and Luka' quest to find out who the Historian is, while keeping their child Eva a secret. Neither of them knows the location of their child and are doing everything to ensure that no one knows that they have had a child between them. It is a race against time with a ragtag team of characters that works with Audra, other progeny that are doing all they can to stay one step ahead of the Historian and her Scion hunters. Audra and Luka know they must find her before she can kill the progeny or even worse kill Audra and take the very memories away that would expose the Historian to the world.

I received Firstborn by Tosca Lee compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers and Net Galley. In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book reviewed here at Reviews From The Heart was provided to the reviewer by the publisher, media group or the author for free and were received, unless specified otherwise.  I absolutely LOVE this series because the action never stops. There is honestly never a dull moment in the book. If you look at those who are rating this series with less than favorable results is that the probably didn't understand the complexity of the novels back story and character motivation. Think of it like the Divergent Series, only in this case it involves a bit of history as well as there are only two warring factions at odds with one another. That is possibly the best way to describe it but I love all the historical and complex details Tosca provides. You feel like you have traveled the entire globe by the time you finish this one breathless. I easily give this one a 5 out of 5 stars and I enjoyed this one much more than the first novel. Can't wait to see the final one in the series!

For more information about Firstborn, Tosca Lee or where you can pre-order a copy of this novel due out in May of 2017, please click on the links below:

Firstborn by Tosca Lee

You can find Tosca Lee on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on Firstborn, please visit Howard Book's website.