Balance of Forces: Toujours Ici by Ali Vali

 

Balance of Forces: Toujours Ici is Ali Vali’s ninth effort, which includes The Cain Casey Saga. This 280-page book begins in Egypt in the year 1482 BC, with Asra, Captain of the Pharaoh’s elite forces, readying for battle until she receives a beautiful and mysterious visitor. This visitor brings her a message: Asra’s brother has been turned into a blood-thirsty demon who has killed their father. The visitor goes on to explain how the vampires came to be and then offers Asra a “gift” – everlasting life to fight demons in order to maintain balance in the universe. The ultimate battle – avenging her father’s death. And that’s just chapter one.

Chapter 2 opens in New York City, present day, where we meet Kendal Richoux and quickly learn Kendal is the modern-day Asra. A phone call from Morgaine, the visitor from that night 3,500 years ago, informs Kendal it is time to return to New Orleans and prepare for the ultimate battle of her life.

Needing a reason to travel to The Big Easy, Kendal, now a successful business woman, decides to take over a floundering company, Marmande Shipyard and Construction Company. In the process Kendal meets a top executive in the family business, Piper Marmande.

If you want to know what happens next you’ll have to read the book, which I read in one sitting.

I’ve never really been much of a fan of tales centered around vampires, werewolves and the like, with the exception of the movie Nosferatu, but once again Vali’s characters seem to dance from the page into your heart and mind.

And it’s not just her characters that seem so vivid, but the intricately woven story, and back story, are uncovered in such a way it all feels so real. And no one uses New Orleans as a backdrop quite the way Vali does, of course the fact that she lives just outside the city helps. Vampires and New Orleans, although Vali certainly isn’t the first woman writer to place the creatures in The Big Easy, she just might be the one to do it best.

If you missed its release in 2011, you’ll find it at www.BoldStrokesBooks.com And this is one book I recommend you read, even if you’re not into vampires.