Vintage Soul is the first book in the DeChance series by David Niall Wilson. Donovan DeChance is a practicing mage, sometimes private investigator, and always collector of ancient manuscripts, but wait I'm already getting ahead of myself. The book starts out at a party full of vampires. Security is both the best technologically speaking that money can buy, and under the best supernatural supervision. This still does not prevent the kidnapping of the host's lover, Vanessa, one of the sexist women ever apparently from the way people react to her. The vampires know they are no match for someone who has magical talents that could breech their security, so they enlist the help of DeChance, who they have gone to in the past.
DeChance meanwhile gets a nasty surprise of his own when he's attacked at home and a journal that he has acquired is taken. When he finds out about Vanessa's kidnapping, he realizes the two things are connected, which is a very, very bad thing, especially for Vanessa. The journal contains all the parts needed for an outlawed ritual, that includes Vanessa's blood. Now, it is a race against time. Can Donovan keep this mysterious bad guy from getting all the ingredients needed and flush him out before the ritual can be completed?
It might take a little bit of help from some others to figure all this out. Thankfully, Donovan has a familiar, Cleo who is downright helpful and able to get in touch with Amethyst for him. What is Amethyst and Donovan's past? No idea. They are involved though, and they also help each other out magically when needed. Oh boy is it needed, and Amethyst has impeccable timing because Donovan did not think to prepare for everything.
In this book, the POV jumps around a bit. It's nice being able to see things from all the different sides, the vampires, Donovan, Amethyst, even our villain every now and then. This did, however, let you know who the villain was a lot sooner than Donovan did, but that's okay. It happens a lot and doesn't take anything away from the story.
Now, at first I had a bit of trouble getting into the book. It starts with the vampires, and that's all fine and well. Then we switch to Donovan, and the magic and all begins without any sort of major back story or world building or anything. So color me a little confused for a bit. The thing is, I was wanting to like it because I liked Donovan, but I didn't know enough to like it. Well, the magical world is still never explained in as much detail as I would like, but this is going to be a series, so there's still room for that in other books I can hope. As far as me liking the book... oh yeah! Once I got more into the world and the characters I was set. Oh, and the action really started to pull me in somewhere in the middle.
Donovan is a great and likable character. He's powerful and intelligent, and I like the undercurrent of romance going on with him and Amethyst. I love her as well. A woman that can take care of herself for the most part with different magical strengths than Donovan. The vampires are all great in there own ways, and I wouldn't mind seeing all of them again. Cleo, the cat, is a helpful familiar, and I wished we had gotten to see a bit more of her. There's also a certain crow, that I ended up really liking, but I don't want to give anything else away. :)
So, to sum it all up. This is kind of an urban fantasy noir starring book-hoarder/mage/investigator extraordinaire Donovan DeChance. Also featuring Amethyst, several powerful vampires who don't do much, several less powerful vampires who like to get in the way, and some awesome animals! Can't wait to read more about Donovan and learn more about this world, because I need to know more!!
David Niall Wilson's Website is HERE.
*I received this .PDF review copy book by David Niall Wilson.
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