What DO You Get if You Combine Dan Brown and Twilight?

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Blue Rider Press/Penguin Group, via Netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.

If you can answer THAT question, then you need to read no further, but......

if you aren't sure....then I have THE book for YOU to read this Summer!

Synopsis: This document, dear friend, will shatter the Church….. 

Reading these words in a letter in a dusty archive, Thomas Kelly is skeptical. The papers to which they refer have vanished, but Father Kelly, a Jesuit priest, doubts anything could ever have had that power—until the Vatican suddenly calls him to Rome to begin a desperate search for that very document.

Meanwhile, standing before a council of her people, Livia Pietro receives instructions: she must find a Jesuit priest recently arrived in Rome, and join his search for a document that contains a secret so shocking it has the power to destroy not only the Catholic Church, but Livia’s people as well.

As cryptic messages from the past throw Thomas and Livia into a treacherous world of art, religion, and conspiracy, they are pursued by those who would cross any line to obtain the document for themselves. Thomas and Livia must race to stop the chaos and destruction that the revelation of these secrets would create. Livia, though, has a secret of her own: She and her people are vampires.In a sprawling tapestry that combines the religious intrigue of Dan Brown with the otherworldly terror of Stephanie Meyer, Blood of the Lamb is an unforgettable journey into an unthinkable past.

Review: I literally could NOT put this book down once I started it! It is more of a roller coaster read than a Dan Brown novel, with more twists and historical references to keep any history buff running a Google search screen in the background as they are reading it!

Rozan and Dews are a deadly combination! I found myself bookmarking SO many pages in this book! From the Roman Catholic in-jokes (" everything was reason and learning with the Jesuits...they had no interest in mysticism like the Dominicans"), to the truisms (..."that is what courage was about...not the absence of terror, but the ability to go on in the face of it...". I found myself smiling and laughing, while eagerly turning pages and trying to figure out where the book would end! Yes, call me the product of a Dominican Prep and Jesuit University- this book called to me in SO many ways- What does the document contain? How could it rock the foundation of the church? I have to admit I found myself  reading the last page and just sitting there and contemplating the ending for at least 20 minutes! Yup- the sign of a good read, where you end it and it leaves you thinking! And no, I;m NOT gonna spill the ending! If you read/have read this book, I'd love to hear what YOU think of the ending too- email me though, we don't want to ruin the surprise for any future readers here!

I would love to see this book made into a movie, but there are just too many nuances and historical references, that I don't think it could be done (and the reason why I put it under History Corner!). This book is just so DIFFERENT- it offers intellect and scientific reasoning, combined with myth and produces a book in the vein of a Dan Brown book, but enhanced as it were, to a different level, where childish fantasies do not apply, and where the search for the great unknown exits. Make sure you pick this book up this Summer and see where this book can take YOUR imagination!

About the Author: Under the Sam Cabot pseudonym, Edgar-winner S.J. Rozan teams with academic Carlos Dews on this audacious supernatural religious thriller. 

Carlos Dews is an associate professor and chair of the Department of English Language and Literature at John Cabot University, where he directs the Institute for Creative Writing and Literary Translation. He lives in Rome, Italy.

S.J. Rozan is the author of many critically acclaimed novels (including Ghost Hero and 10 other Lydia Chin/Bill Smith novels) and short stories, that have won crime fiction's top honors, including the Anthony and Nero awards. Born and raised in the Bronx, Rozan now lives in Lower Manhattan.