Bloodlust & Bonnets Blog Tour

The Year is 1820, and bored young debutante Lucy knows there must be more to life than embroidery and engagements – no matter how eligible the bachelore might be. Some bechelors, she has discovered, are less ‘eligible’ than they are ‘bloodthirsty,’ however…literally. It turns out that there are a lot of vampires in latje-Regency England, and Lucy has an eye for spotting them and the desire to rid the world of them.

It’s not long before Lady Violet Travesty, leader of a mysterious vampire cult, spots Lucy’s talents and offers her a place amongst her vampire acolytes. Unfortunately, lady Violet is most horribly slain by the famous Lord Byron before Lucy can accept. Lucy instead joins Lord Byron and his enormous, psychic eagle Napoleon in their ongoing fight against evils such as bloodsucking ghouls and bad taste. Before long they’re joind by the mysterious Sham, an androgynous bounty hunter, who catches Lucy’s eye. The trio lie, flirt, fight and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled.

A balm for the soul for readers who love Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, novels by Eloisa James and Jane Austen, and the action and adventure of Xena, Warrior Princess, Bloodlust & Bonnets is the most modern action-heavy love-story set two hundred years ago that you’ll read this year.

Book Information:
By: Emily McGovern
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: September 19, 2019
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 9781471178955
GoodReads

My Review

Do you enjoy dramatic walks in the park? Reading the poetry of Lord Byron and scoffing at Walter Scott? Historical fiction with vampire hunting and endless adventure? What about amazingly funny and witty humour?

This may be the graphic novel for you.

Lucy finds herself being approached by the vampire Lady Travesty and before she can consider the woman’s offer, Lord Byron takes care of Lady Travesty with his sword.

They run off together to start a string of adventures in their pursuit of Lady Travesty, to vanquish her…of course.

Along the way they meet and interact with some hilarious characters, BB, Walter Scott, a quadrille society. You heard me.

But the best character they interact with along the way is Sham, the androgynous and mysterious third to their newly made trio as Sham is also seeking out Lady Travesty.

Are there sparks between Sham and Lucy? They do both reach for the same piece of bread after all.

Guys, there is even a psychic eagle named Napoleon who speaks French and honestly, he is the one I can connect with most bahaha. He’s hysterical and seems to be going through a bit of a mid-life/existential crisis. [To be fair, if I had to be Lord Byron’s loyal animal sidekick, I might also be acting that way.]

Also, Lord Byron lives in a magical castle who though capable of speaking, seems to enjoy carrying its own schedule and doing as it pleases, always mysteriously gone when they need its answers most.

I was cackling [as Slytherins tend to do] through this so much. It is a longer graphic novel at around 200 pages but it kept me chuckling cackling the whole time. I loved how ridiculous their plights were and the villains were appropriately hilarious and gifted with bad timing, well, to be fair the bad timing was more on Lord Byron’s part.

Funny, great queer rep, and with vampires and poetic rivals Byron and Scott, I really truly enjoyed this. The colours are brilliant and I really love the art/comic style that is used.

Already a huge fan of McGovern’s ‘My Life As A Background Slytherin’ I knew that I needed to read this, something different but still full of her wonderful sense of humour and the art that has become so easily recognizably McGovern’s.

Four and a half cups of coffee from me, and I can’t wait to read what McGovern comes out with next.

Thank you to Anne Cater and Simon&Schuster for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review. Expect this to continue tomorrow as part of Darkroom Tours as well.

About the Author

Emily was born in the UK but grew up in Brussels, where she attended the European School of Brussels II. After graduating, she began a Foundation Art Diploma course at London College of Fashion. She studiously avoided any fashion, and instead spent her timemaking hand-drawn animations and weird paintings of witches.

She began a BA degree in Russion Studies at the University College Lonon and spent a year in Russia working in a rural commune, where she ran a weekly art “gathering” for the kids. The year abroad allowed her to go to many Russian art galleries, which were a revelation to her – artists such as Vereshchagin and Vasnetsov she found influenced her greatly.

She graduated with First Class Honours and by 2016 was uilding a comic driven social media platform based around the regular posting of her ‘My Life as a Background Slytherin’ comic. Emily’s instagram account @emilyscartoons has over 135K followers. Bloodlust & Bonnets is her first graphic novel.

The Rest of the Tour