First in The Keeper series, Maria the Wanted and the Legacy of The Keepers is a horror novel by V. Castro that organically encompasses other genres, including adventure, romance, and erotica (which is quite different from romance) and incorporates diverse characters from marginalized backgrounds and communities. Castro’s use of historic events and figures build on her layered dark fantasy world where vampires and the devil are real, but humans cause as much damage to each other without the help of otherworldly beings.
This wonderfully eclectic novel showcases a variety of diverse characters, most notably, Maria. A Mexican woman turned vampire, Maria not only transforms from human to living dead but from a person trapped in society’s unrelenting views to a being free from judgments and restrictions placed on her by traditional ideas of gender and race—and this story is all about breaking tradition.
For fans of vampire stories looking for a fresh and exciting twist, Maria the Wanted contains modern and original characters and an interesting addition to the vampire lore. Castro picks up the euro-centric vampire legend and spreads it around the globe, intermingling vampires into the history of pre-colonized Mexico. In this novel, vampires belong to every ethnicity and race. One part horror, one part adventure, one part romance, and one part smoking-hot erotica, Maria the Wanted is a contemporary tale of vampires, love, and the undying fight of good vs. evil.