Author: Tosca Lee
Publisher: Howard Books
ISBN: 978-1-5011-224-08

“This isn’t about some Progeny agenda or righting some centuries-old wrong. It’s about staying alive,” Audra acknowledges in Tosca Lee’s novel, The Progeny: Descendants of the House of Bathory.

At three hundred and thirty-six pages, this first in the series paperback targets readers that like fantasy fiction thrillers with romance and a touch of paranormal. With slang words such as crap, ass, heck, and bitchiness along with topics of murder and death, it would not be apropos for immature readers. A map is included at the beginning, and the ending has acknowledgments, a teaser for the next book in the series, author’s biography, and advertisements for other books written.

In this fast-paced tale, a twenty-one-year-old woman awakes in a backwoods Maine cabin with a new identity and her memory erased. Learning she willing deleted her past, she is once again caught up in confusion as others are determined to kill her or protect and keep her alive. Being a direct relative of a 1600s female serial killer, she becomes hunted by a secret society out to destroy any of the murderer’s descendants. 

Befriending Luka and others from her strange past, she races against time to find the one item that will not only keep her safe but also keep those she loves alive.  As a Progeny that holds the key to survival for others, Audra must make hard choices to overcome her past.

With the backdrop of America and parts of Europe, the book shows how blood relatives are connected throughout the ages while love conquers obstructions, heartbreaks, and complications. I like how the author weaved writing in the first person of Audra into a tightly-knitted blanket of her care and concern for those around her.

Since it is the first in a series, the initial story may be short-sighted as it intrigues the reader enough to finish the pages to find out what happens, but at the same time, it frustrates one who expects closure and completion to some aspects. As a quick read, it produced some perplexity at different sections for me.

An award-winning New York Times bestselling author, Lee has written over a half dozen novels. Loving travel, she and her family live in the Midwest.

I wish the book did not jump around often until the end when the puzzle pieces were coming together. With an abrupt, unexplained ending, it was disappointing for me, leaving little satisfaction of unanswered issues.

If you like mystery thrillers that are fast-paced and involve many countries as it reverts to decades and past relationships, this may be a good read for you, but I did not find it one of Lee’s best works like some of her previous books.

Thanks to Bookpleasures and Howard Books for this book to read and review.