Absent in Absinthe by Kierstin Cherry

 All the vampyress Alidri wanted to do after the war ended was find the cure to the poisonous curse that racks her Ordög slave and would-be lover, Adora, keeping them forever apart. But when an ancient Queen of Zombies rises to threaten the rightful crown of Vespertavia, Alidri must heed the call to battle. Reluctantly setting aside her quest for a cure, Alidri swears to destroy the Zombie Queen and her hordes of undead.

But the Queen is none other than her sister she thought dead these past hundred years! Now torn between duty to family and duty to the crown, Alidri fights the undead army closing in while the cure for Adora slips farther and farther away. Still, every night Adora fights alongside Alidri—forever by her side, forever unable to touch her, to kiss her, to take her as she wants. To make matters worse, Alidri learns her sister needs only one thing to realize her true power—the blood of the last living Ordög. Adora.

When her sister kidnaps Adora with the intent on sacrificing her, Alidri is forced to face the Queen of Zombies on the field of battle and fight for what is most important to her. But will she choose her duty to the Crown or her love for Adora?

I loved the first book in this series but I am not very impressed with this second book. It is just very dark and has too much necromancy and violent sexual relations in it.  It has little to do with the different species of paranormal characters involved and just how cold some of the relationships seem. 

The book as a whole seemed almost like a much darker version of the first book.  While Lady Grace and Queen Vladja still have a large role in this book the main characters are the Cruciatress Alidri and her Ordӧg slave Adora.  These two ladies suffer from the same curse that Lady Grace and the Queen did.  Society and tradition will not allow for them to be together no matter their love for each other.   

There is a lot of lies, deceit and betrayal in this novel and after a while it almost becomes tedious.  Even Lady Grace had to learn a lesson in being totally honest with her spouse.  While the ending did help to redeem the book overall it was just too tedious of a process to get there.  I liked the characters but I really don’t like it when most of the conflicts in the plot could be solved by simple honest communication.  Even if there is a third book in this series I don’t think I will read it.

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