I loved the Argeneau series of books! They were really well written. It is truly one of the best vampire series I have ever read. Not to mention Thomas is totally adorable.

I have to agree Katrina. I have yet to find a series where the Vampires are so original and well written. Lynsay has such a fabulous sense of humor. She keeps me in stitches in every book. I chomp at the bit for her next creation.

Lynsay's is the only vampire series that I have. She makes the characters come alive. Also the sense of humor make it believable. The situations you can picture like it is happening.

I agree with all of you, this is the best vampire series I have read, and I have read many because I am a vampire freak, I just love them and will read any book that is about them, but Lynsay's vampires are just out there, and I agree, you can almost feel what they are feling, that's how well written this books are. Lynsay is with no doubts the best

Meli have you read that one series (please bare with me) where its set in the victorian era an she is a vampire slayer (kind of like buffy, the author said her main character was sort of influenced by buffy) its The 'something something' Chronicles I think there are 3 books out right now. lol if you haven't the faintest idea a to what series I'm trying to ask you if its anygood sorry :)

keli

i know hat ur talking about! didnt u find them a slooooooooooow read??

heather

i haven't read them yet but Victorian Era or Regency (are they the same? Maybe Dave needs to help us with this mystery hehe) aren't my type of books I hate that time period. My favorite time periods are Medieval and the Tudor Dynasty. But no I haven't read them I was just curious :)

I read a lot of books in the Regency era and a few in the Victorian era, and they are not the same. The Regency comes before the Victorian era.

The Regency era takes place during the time when The Prince Regent aka as "Prinny" was the regent for his father, King George III. (Yes, the King that those arrogant, pesky colonies rebelled against before he lost his sanity. He did feel a sense of depression and failure as King because of losing the colonies, but his insanity was actually caused by an illness.)

Prince George was appointed as Regent, an agent who acts in place of the reigning ruler when they are not old enough to do so, or are indisposed in some way. King George III had an illness that led to delusions and earned him the nickname "mad King George," and was declared insane in 1812. His oldest son and heir became regent. He acted as Regent for about twenty years. He was very talented, loved beauty and architecture, but was immoral, extravagant (constantly getting into debt) and gluttonous, eventually losing his good looks (He was considered very handsome in his younger days.) and good health due to the way he lived... overindulging in food, wine, mistresses...he had a great many vices. He did have a great love, Maria Fitzherbert, who he married secretly without his father's permission when he was 23yo... but she was not someone he could marry in his position as heir to the throne, as she was a twice-widowed commoner who was Roman Catholic. Eventually, to get Parliament to pay his debts one more time, and because they needed him when King George III was declared insane to become Regent and to provide a legitimate heir,(Thanks to his seven sons, King George III had an army of illegitimate grandchildren, but no legitimate heir.)the Prince left Maria, but would always return to her throughout the years. He called her "the wife of my heart and soul." He disliked on sight the wife, Princess Caroline, that his father had picked out for him.

It was during his time as Prince Regent that the English were at war with France under Napoleon, as well as a war with the Americans in 1812. During the time of the regency, fashion and balls and parties and the theater and horse-racing and country-house parties were very important to the ton(the Peerage...especially those at the top.) I would not have wanted to have lived it, but I do like reading about the Regency...it's my favorite historical period, along with the Scottish historicals.

Prince George became King George IV on his father's death, and reigned as king for about ten years. He and his wife, Caroline, hated each other so much that he arranged it where she was unable to get into the coronation ceremony. They had one daughter, Princess Charlotte, his only legitimate heir. She died in childbirth, and her son was stillborn. On King George IV's death, one of his brothers who had never expected it, became King William IV. He had two daughters, but they died in infancy.

On King William IV's death, his niece, daughter of his brother Edward, Princess Victoria, became Queen. King William IV had detested her mother, and was determined to live until Victoria turned 18yo so that her mother would not become Regent. He just made it, as he died a month after her eighteenth birthday. Her mother had sheltered her carefully while she was growing up. Victoria married Prince Albert (they were both very prudish) and they were determined to put family values and morality (sounds like an American campaign speech ) back into the monarchy. They had nine children, and during Queen Victoria's time, it is said that "the sun never went down on the British Empire" or something like that, because of the British holdings around the world. When Prince Albert died at age 42, possibly of typhoid, Queen Victoria wore black mourning for the rest of her life and never remarried. She reigned 63 years. It is ironic that her son and heir is considered one of the biggest womanizers since King Charles II, following the moral code of the Hanoverians who came before him, although he was not as irresponsible as the Prince Regent, and did believe in the dignity of the monarchy.

Mr. or Mrs. Spice will have to fill in any details...I don't know so much about those 63 years that Queen Victoria reigned, other than the beautiful crafts and woodwork that was done during that time. Christmas ornaments and cards from the Victorian era are very beautiful.

Hey, this was only so wordy because it is morning...got to get a start on getting those extra 20,000 words that women have more of than men(supposedly a fact) and it is hard to describe the two eras in a short paragraph and get across what they were really like.

Essays...no wonder I became a teacher.

wren

Ain't she great? I love reading essays...
Hey wren, even if you weren't my true IRL sis...I would think you're super!

Wren - when I get ready to write my disertation for my PhD will you help? lol Like I'm going to do that anytime soon.

Hey, Wren. I'd all but forgotten about the war of 1812. Remind me again who won.

Alright, Mr. Spice... you are naughty, you know that?

Who knows, maybe that war was just to distract the British? After all, they had plenty going on with Napoleon...and the Americans were not above working with him to further their own agenda against the British. Actually, though I know who won, I can't remember what the war was about! Now I have to go look it up! Oh well, saves making lesson plans for it later...I'll be ready when we get to it.

It has been called the second war for independence...for it established America's reputation as a nation...and this time the Americans fought alone without any European allies so the British could not blame American victories on the French. Even so, the Americans were unable to capture Canada, though they arrogantly believed that they could. On the other hand, the British found that the American navy was very successful and they could not sneer at them anymore. Tecumseh was killed in this war in Canada...and his confederacy of Indian nations that had sided with the British fell apart. Overall, it was a confusing, bumbling war...

Mr. Spice, you know as well as I do who won! Shall I you the song "The Battle of New Orleans?" Actually, the war was a draw, ending in a treaty that was essentially a cease-fire agreement. Oh, and The Battle of New Orleans, which was the greatest American victory, was fought after the peace treaty...which made most Americans feel like we won and made Andrew Jackson a hero! When did the British finally learn not to march in formation toward enemy fire, getting mowed down in the process?

Poor Prinny...all he wanted to do was play! All those dreary kingly responsibilities like wars...

wren

Hey Wren could you confirm a couple of things for me?

There couple of things I have heard over the years that I never knew if they were true or not? Was the song "Three Blind Mice" about one of the George's of England? Also Napoleon, I always confuse myself about, was confined once or twice and where? Do you know what illness that caused George's Madness?

I know very little about Queen Victoria either. I remember the war of Manfaking was fought during her reign and that she was a relative (unsure of the relation) to the last czarina of Russia. She passed the gene for Hemophillia to her children. And she had one of the longest reigns of English monarchs.

J4-Loved your history essay W2 "1814 we took a little trip"

Wren, sadly it took another 120 years before the British military leadership stopped sending their their troops to certain death in pretty, but ultimately pointless, parade ground formation. If you ever take your kids to visit Europe I'd recommend visiting the war cemeteries. There is something very profound to be understood when you stand and view acres of well kept white gravestones, stretching in front of you as far as the eye can see, and realising that you are looking at a whole lost generation of all nations lying there before you.

Mafeking, or the Siege of Mafeking, as it's generally known, was a well known event in the second Boer War, when the British forces holding the town of Mafeking were under siege by the Boer forces (South Africans of Dutch origin) who outnumbered the British by four to one. The town held out against repeated bombardment and assault for 217 days until they were relieved and reinforced by more troops who fought their way through the besieging Boers. The leader of the British during the siege was Colonel Robert Baden Powell who later went on to found the Scout movement. The independant Boer republics who had been fighting annexation into the British Empire were assimilated into the British occupied territory and so the Boer War was ultimately won by the British although they did suffer some devastating and unexpected defeats when fighting what was, in fact, one of the first modern guerilla armies.

Modern science generally considers George III to have suffered from hepatic porphyria which is some kind of irregularity in enzyme production and which can lead to various kinds of physical and mental complications - including behaviour which may be diagnosed as mental illness despite it having a physical cause.

The song Three Blind Mice goes back at least as far as the 16th century and therefore pre-dates the reign of George III and the House of Hanover by a long number of years.

All of the members of the European monarchies are related and have been for centuries - sometimes much too closely related. Look at the following two pictures of the last Tsar of Russia and King George V of England (Victoria's son) and then see if you can convince yourself that there isn't a little too much common genetic material shared between them

http://www.users.waitrose.com/~victorianphoto/post3/georgev.jpg

http://www.russiannobility.org/images2/Nickolas2.jpg

Victoria was the longest reigning British Monarch and she was queen from 1837 until her death in 1901 - just shy of 63 years.

Dave - who is doing the night shift so Wren can rest and recuperate.

Goodness, give George V dark eyes and he could pass as Nicholas's twin!

Thank you Dave. I appreciate that information. It always made sad to read about the loss of life for England during some of the wars in history. For what I had read World War I was one of the worst.

Denise ...you are right, that is crazy how much they look alike! the only big exception is the eyes!

This is completely off topic in a way but...You know I just had this conversation this afternoon at lunch about incestuous relationships, which was from a topic brought up by a recent letter from a reader to Dear Abby. My co-worker brought it up and went on and on about how gross it was - and my question to her was ok, how facinated about the royal family are you. Of course her reply was she buys anything tabloid that hits the shelf - so thanks Mr. Spice I sent her the links you supplied to the websites to prove my point.

Well from what I understand it was fairly common thing to do all of the world. I would imagine it began to stop after they saw the birth defects with interbreeding.

yea, at that time in history, it was more imortantly to keep the bloodlines pure so the money and land as well as the name in the family! You had to keep your title, you did not marry beneath you! the more weakthy and the more powerful the family the more it was expected. any outsiders were considered aweakness.
so the problem came up when the families eventually were all related in someway or the another.
gena

I know - hard to explain to close minded people though.

true....just do what i do.. and walk away!


G3 (no not really! just what i wish i could do to some...)

Also, among the monarchies, marriages were made for political connections...not for love matches. That was a rarity. After awhile, they were all interconnected...but still had to follow the protocol of being "royal."

Same among the wealthy and titled...most marriages were arranged for wealth or connections. That is just the way life was...even if it wasn't so great for the gene pool! Besides, how much genetic study was going on then anyway

wren

i really love the books i have read alot of vampire storys and the argeneau series is the the most thought though storys and has the best characters

Isn't that the ironic thing. They were marrying to keep the blood lines pure but in the end they were messing around with the gene pool.

Copper- Of course I agree 100% about the Argeneau series. It seems you too maybe an Argeneau Addict.

BEST BOOKS EVER!!

I am so sorry that it took me so long to come back, and Kelli I am sorry but I have no idea which books you are talking about, what was the name, maybe I could look for them and read them