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librariesoflindsey's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
I don't even know where to start with this book. I bought this a few months ago after only reading the description on the dust jacket, mainly because I thought that the cover was pretty and appealing to look at. After finally sitting down to read it I can definitively say that the cover is the only pretty thing about this book. The description paints the story as a feminist Indiana Jones type adventure set in the 1930s. The heroine is smart after having read all of the books in her father's library. Her father goes missing and then her ex lover, whom she now hates, comes to get her so they can find her father before it's too late. In order to do that they must figure out his clues to find a ring that once belonged to Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. the inspiration behind Dracula.
This book did not end up having any of that.
Let's start with the characters and their interactions. From the beginning, the main character-Theodora-is painted as a klutz who is not as smart as she thinks she is. In reality, she is an airhead with a knack for screwing things up. She is annoying, whiny, and privileged with no real world experience, just some fancy overpriced Mary Janes-that the author makes a point to mention every other page in the first few chapters and how they get covered in mud. It appears that she has read exactly one book which was not from her father's library. She acts so hurt that she was left behind in the nicest hotel in Istanbul when to me it appears that she has made no real move to get her father to take her on adventures. At the beginning she seems to be some sort of a free spirit, but after the first few chapters it is never mentioned again. Next we have Huck. Huck is slightly better than Theo, but with terrible judgement and an easily bendable will. To me it seems as if the author tried to make a relatable and imperfect love interest and failed spectacularly. From the second Huck appears in Theo's bathroom in Istanbul you can tell that the book is going to be about them and their relationship instead of actually finding Theo's father. From reading the summary I expected Theo to deny Huck's offer for help and instead set off on her own, or at least put up a fight, but apparently when your ex (whom you supposedly hate) walks back into your life and says that they are tasked with protecting you-even though you are supposed to be a headstrong, powerful woman who doesn't need protecting-you roll over and let him do as he pleases. It was disappointing. Theo never acted like she despised Huck, even though she would constantly say that and complained whenever they had to be near each other. Overall, their relationship was annoying and took up way too much of my time to read about. The social dynamics between them and other characters were exasperating to read. The "romance", if you can even call it that, was lackluster and felt borderline incestual to the point where I wasn't sure if I could even continue to read. For all of the alluding to their past, the author actually describes very little of what happened before they meet in the book. Also, Theo is supposed to be fluent in Romanian because of her mother but there are multiple instances where she has trouble communicating with people in Romanian. Not to mention the fact that there is no diversity in this book; all of the characters, major and minor, are white (with a few possibly racially ambiguous), cis-het, and the main characters are all upper class. There were only a few characters that I found somewhat interesting to read about: Lovena, Theo's mother, Vlad and the other inspirations behind Dracula, and at some instances her father's journal entries. The characters also made some stupid decisions (skip the rest of this sentence because of a minor spoiler)-see the fact that they carried a banknote given to them by the person they knew was following them, left the train with their things to spend nearly 100 pages walking through the middle of nowhere to get to the city where the train with the person following them was already going. Amazing plan. (Slight spoiler ends).
Next up we have plot.
The plot was unoriginal and boring with entirely predictable "plot twists" that was based more around the relationship between Theo and Huck than anything of actual substance. There were countless poorly written and poorly concealed tropes and barely anything of historical accuracy or importance about any of the figures mentioned in the book. I was more interested in the storyline of Lupu being stolen than the outcome of the adventure. There were several plot holes and inconsistencies that I will not go into detail about because of spoilers, but for me the most annoying one was about their possessions and how they would lose them and then somehow 25 pages later they would miraculously reappear. The book felt like a bad ripoff of the second book in the "Stalking Jack the Ripper" series by Kerri Maniscalco called "Hunting Prince Dracula".
Onto world building.
I had an issue with the world building. It was terribly written and did not seem to fit the 1930s time period at all. The descriptions of locations were lacking and it felt forced to explain anything at all. I cannot imagine myself in any of these places the characters traveled to. Beyond that, there was no description of any form of caste system or people falling lower on a hierarchical totem pole when there should have been. There was no explanation for the magic system and how it functions, just that it might exist but at the same time not and it somehow runs in your blood? I am still not quite sure. There were random descriptions of magical beings who also may or may not exist but who the characters were paranoid of.
Overall I am surprised I was even able to finish this book. Instead of it being a fairly short, fluffy romance with vampires and adventure involved, it turned out to be a poorly written blatant copy of similar books. I would not recommend this book. Instead, I would urge you to read the "Stalking Jack the Ripper" series by Kerri Maniscalco for a similar plot but a better execution and a more interesting romance.
Do not try to continue the book "just to see if it gets better". It doesn't and is not worth your time.
This book did not end up having any of that.
Let's start with the characters and their interactions. From the beginning, the main character-Theodora-is painted as a klutz who is not as smart as she thinks she is. In reality, she is an airhead with a knack for screwing things up. She is annoying, whiny, and privileged with no real world experience, just some fancy overpriced Mary Janes-that the author makes a point to mention every other page in the first few chapters and how they get covered in mud. It appears that she has read exactly one book which was not from her father's library. She acts so hurt that she was left behind in the nicest hotel in Istanbul when to me it appears that she has made no real move to get her father to take her on adventures. At the beginning she seems to be some sort of a free spirit, but after the first few chapters it is never mentioned again. Next we have Huck. Huck is slightly better than Theo, but with terrible judgement and an easily bendable will. To me it seems as if the author tried to make a relatable and imperfect love interest and failed spectacularly. From the second Huck appears in Theo's bathroom in Istanbul you can tell that the book is going to be about them and their relationship instead of actually finding Theo's father. From reading the summary I expected Theo to deny Huck's offer for help and instead set off on her own, or at least put up a fight, but apparently when your ex (whom you supposedly hate) walks back into your life and says that they are tasked with protecting you-even though you are supposed to be a headstrong, powerful woman who doesn't need protecting-you roll over and let him do as he pleases. It was disappointing. Theo never acted like she despised Huck, even though she would constantly say that and complained whenever they had to be near each other. Overall, their relationship was annoying and took up way too much of my time to read about. The social dynamics between them and other characters were exasperating to read. The "romance", if you can even call it that, was lackluster and felt borderline incestual to the point where I wasn't sure if I could even continue to read. For all of the alluding to their past, the author actually describes very little of what happened before they meet in the book. Also, Theo is supposed to be fluent in Romanian because of her mother but there are multiple instances where she has trouble communicating with people in Romanian. Not to mention the fact that there is no diversity in this book; all of the characters, major and minor, are white (with a few possibly racially ambiguous), cis-het, and the main characters are all upper class. There were only a few characters that I found somewhat interesting to read about: Lovena, Theo's mother, Vlad and the other inspirations behind Dracula, and at some instances her father's journal entries. The characters also made some stupid decisions (skip the rest of this sentence because of a minor spoiler)-see the fact that they carried a banknote given to them by the person they knew was following them, left the train with their things to spend nearly 100 pages walking through the middle of nowhere to get to the city where the train with the person following them was already going. Amazing plan. (Slight spoiler ends).
Next up we have plot.
The plot was unoriginal and boring with entirely predictable "plot twists" that was based more around the relationship between Theo and Huck than anything of actual substance. There were countless poorly written and poorly concealed tropes and barely anything of historical accuracy or importance about any of the figures mentioned in the book. I was more interested in the storyline of Lupu being stolen than the outcome of the adventure. There were several plot holes and inconsistencies that I will not go into detail about because of spoilers, but for me the most annoying one was about their possessions and how they would lose them and then somehow 25 pages later they would miraculously reappear. The book felt like a bad ripoff of the second book in the "Stalking Jack the Ripper" series by Kerri Maniscalco called "Hunting Prince Dracula".
Onto world building.
I had an issue with the world building. It was terribly written and did not seem to fit the 1930s time period at all. The descriptions of locations were lacking and it felt forced to explain anything at all. I cannot imagine myself in any of these places the characters traveled to. Beyond that, there was no description of any form of caste system or people falling lower on a hierarchical totem pole when there should have been. There was no explanation for the magic system and how it functions, just that it might exist but at the same time not and it somehow runs in your blood? I am still not quite sure. There were random descriptions of magical beings who also may or may not exist but who the characters were paranoid of.
Overall I am surprised I was even able to finish this book. Instead of it being a fairly short, fluffy romance with vampires and adventure involved, it turned out to be a poorly written blatant copy of similar books. I would not recommend this book. Instead, I would urge you to read the "Stalking Jack the Ripper" series by Kerri Maniscalco for a similar plot but a better execution and a more interesting romance.
Do not try to continue the book "just to see if it gets better". It doesn't and is not worth your time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Incest
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