Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper’s true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe’s best schools of forensic medicine…and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend.

But her life’s dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school’s forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again.

Okay, it’s weird how this book simultaneously really freaks me out, but I also adored it…? I know I have been open about how I’m a little biased towards historical fiction (I just like boys in suspenders and top hats, what can I saw *shrug*), but this was a very strong novel, objectively.

Just, disclaimer, if you’re not a fan of gore, this book is not the read for you. Typically I am not too sensitive to “gorey” books, but this series is a bit much for me. ANYWAYS, on to the review.

I have not been so incredibly…captivated by a series in a while. This, however, was not in the “aw man I want to live there/be this character/etc. etc.” type way. This was in an “oh my word, what the sweet goodness is going to happen next, this is both incredibly exciting and incredibly terrifying.” Like, seriously. The thriller aspect of it was so well-written that I felt my heart rate go up towards the end of the novel. ‘Twas intense.

As with its predecessor, Hunting Prince Dracula is full of suspense, plot twists, romance, and incredible character development. Not only that, but it also deals with some very real issues that were happening during the time period the novel takes place in. Like, seriously, this book has some strong plot and just overall messages (which is weird, considering half the books is just about coronary work…anyways). This series reminds me a lot of a more developed version of The Madman’s Daughter trilogy.

Overall, I had very few qualms with this book. I did skip over a lot of the gorey parts, but what I did read was clearly well researched and well-written (just not my thing). The historical aspect is also very accurate, and a wonderful example of incorporating fiction into real-world stories. ALSO, can we just take a moment to appreciate Thomas Cresswell? Like, CMON. And his plotline in this book was wonderful. The development of his backstory and some of the side plots with his family was really strong; sometimes such a side story can be distracting, but here it added to the overall plot and character development. A+.

4 out of 5 stars.

Maddie