Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

My Rating: 5 Stars!

Publisher: Little Brown & Company

Publish Date: September 19th, 2017

Received: CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!! (Of awesomeness!!)

Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis:

In this New York Times bestselling sequel to Kerri Maniscalco’s haunting #1 debut Stalking Jack the Ripper, bizarre murders are discovered in the castle of Prince Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula. Could it be a copycat killer…or has the depraved prince been brought back to life?

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.

Opening Sentence: “Our train gnashed its way along frozen tracks toward the white-capped fangs of the Carpathian Mountains.”

Musings:

A gothic tale veiled in the mysterious rich atmosphere of Romania that will keep you on your toes from start to finish. Hunting Prince Dracula is an incredible sequel to the amazing Stalking Jack the Ripper that will make your heart stop in its tracks.

There was so much more internal struggle in this book then the last. Audrey’s trama and grief has her questioning everything and with mix of folklore and her own mind edging toward insanity she doesn’t know how to think or feel. Throwing in her relationship with Thomas things get even more wobbly.

One things for certain though Thomas is my BAE and I love him to pieces. He makes some choice mistakes in this book due to his own lack of ability to understand how to act in social situations (and a CLEAR lack of understanding how a woman is feeling). However, in spite of (more like because of) his mistakes Thomas has grown more and more into being a snowflake that I feel I must protect. He is so gosh darn pure with his feelings and he never knows how to act because of them and I feel so bad when he makes mistakes. But then he turns around with this arrogance saying how good looking he is and then I want to agree with Audrey and have him smacked.

The distance of the friendship between these two amazing characters that formed almost broke my heart. It sucked so much because I could understand both sides (but what I really wanted was for them to stop thinking so much and start kissing already) but I couldn’t help wanting them to go back to being happy with one another again.

One of the biggest things I loved about this book was the folklore. Romania is full of its own unique superstitions and as much as the other characters hated learning about Romania’s folklore I was living for it! As good as it is to be logical about things I think our superstitions are imperative to forming a healthy imagination and appreciation for the foundations of our culture. It’s a beautiful thing to believe in something spiritual. So I was super appreciative of the otherworldly connections in this storyline.

All I can say is I am so ready for book 3 in the new year. I can’t wait to see what adventure awaits Audrey and Thomas next!

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below. Have you read Stalking Jack the Ripper or Hunting Prince Dracula? What are your thoughts?

-Till next time!