3.88 AVERAGE


⎯» Rating: 3.75 Stars

⎯» Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Gothic, Horror

⎯» POV: Multiple—Third Person Omniscient



“The future is twofold.”

She tapped the two cards that sat beside each other. The Ten of Swords and the Lovers.

“Defeat—utter surrender. Surrounded on all sides, beaten and broken. Or…love. The choice of what road to take is yours.”




Kingsley’s haunting prose, weaves together a story full of loss, acceptance, and sacrifice; featuring a romance that brings into question the worth of love when given in willful ignorance.



⎯»Extra Information


❖ Series or Standalone:

Book 1 of 2 in the [b: Immortal Soul] Duet.


❖ HEA*:

SpoilerYes


❖ Cliffhanger:

Yes


❖ Relationship:

M-F Romance


❖ Labels/Tropes:

➢ Ancient-Powerful-MMC
➢ Demons
➢ Empath-Heroine
➢ Enemies-to-Lovers
➢ Magic
➢ MMC-Only-One-Able-to-Touch-Heroine
➢ MMC-Pursues-Reluctant-Heroine
➢ Possessive-MMC
➢ Royalty/King-MMC
➢ Slow-Burn
➢ Tortured-Cursed-MMC
➢ Tortured-Heroine
➢ Vampire-Hunters
➢ Vampires
➢ Van-Helsing-and-Dracula
➢ Victorian-Era/Progressive-Era
➢ Villain/Anti-Hero


❖ Triggers:

Yes
SpoilerBlood, gore, and violence; references to past abuse




* By end of series

It was full of banter and yearning and the perfect trash read for Halloween. 5/5
adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jadedfrrog's review

5.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

When one of my favorite authors writes a Dracula retelling, you bet I'm going to read it(and love it)!

Heart of Dracula has a heroine who is quite different from the ones that I've previously seen in the author's books! Maxine Parker is an empath and her gift is also a curse as it sets her apart from others and makes it difficult for her to touch others. She can literally kill people with her touch(gave me Shatter Me vibes)!

And though she hasn't let her experiences change her, she's still lonely you know? In comes a group of hunters who seek her help. Dracula has come to lay claim to Boston and the vampire hunters think that she could help them in locating and defeating him. Just by seeking her out they've put her in the sights of the vampires and there's no way out for Maxine, so she agrees to help them. Little does she know that Dracula has found her now too! And how hard he'll find it to let her go!

What I loved about this book, other than the characters, was the fact that the storyline and everything is completely original! We've got elements of the original Dracula in here, but everything else is completely new and it's more like the events in Dracula took place before this one. So that was quite refreshing and I was pulled in by this vivid, new world that Kathryn Ann Kingsley had created!

Maxine was an amazing protagonist! She is a little naive and sheltered, but that doesn't make her meek or stupid. She knows when to take her stand and when to let things go. She's also very intelligent and I loved the way she viewed the world and the people around her.

“All we are, in the end, is a product of our context.” She continued to circle her fingers along the wood grooves thoughtfully. “A series of events that surround us and define us. You are what you are because of the life you have lived. Some of it was your doing, much of it was not. But it is what created you all the same.”

I loved watching her grow and become stronger in this book! The more she interacted with the hunters and Vlad, the bolder she became! She was pulled in by the possibilities that Vlad offered her( the ones that she'd never thought were possible) and at the same time she's not blind to the danger he presents. I loved the interactions between Vlad and her!

Vlad is so ancient and mysterious, but at one point you do feel sorry for him too. It won't justify all the actions and the pain that he's caused but one can't help but root for him to get the girl.
And come on, he could charm the pants off a grandma with declarations like these!

“When this world burns to dust, and the sun swallows it whole, I will have seen all of humanity come and go before me. I can control the nature of the world around me. I am expert in what is real, my darling. If you are a dream, then it is one from which I do not ever wish to be woken.”

How can one not fall in love with Kathryn Ann Kingsley's villains? Lol.
He has almost beat Aon from the top of my list. I'll have to read the next book before I make the final judgement! :P

Plus there are so many tidbits sprinkled here and there about his past and there definitely must be a reason for him to capture a city everytime! Can't wait to find out more!

*I was provided with an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I have mixed feeling about this book. I think I might also be closer to giving it 2 stars. So maybe a 2.5 stars.
Firstly I love a good vampire romance. And this one was pretty good. I kinda loved that Vlad wasn’t necessarily the hero of this story. He wasn’t necessarily the bad guy either. He kinda very much had the stand of being old and like done with humanity in general, which yer sure I get it. I will admit that I did get a little swoony when Vlad and Maxine were together, it’s was kind of a slow burn intensity that I haven’t really read before. The author did a lot of good things with simplicity which I really liked. Like a touch meant so much to both of them. It was also a little steamy which I didn’t expect but liked nonetheless.
For the writing, I did quite like it, it was very beautiful and most of it like poetry almost. However, that also mean I had to reread a lot of lines cos things weren’t always clear, and I found myself losing focus because while the words sounded nice sometimes it was too much and didn’t really mean anything for me. I also get it was set way back when, but also like come on, sometimes a kettle is just a kettle, it doesn’t need to be romanticised. Which brings me to my next point of Maxine being basically unsure about Vlad throughout the whole thing. And I get it. I do. Really. But also like not here for that. I really wished she’d realised all her shit a little sooner. Or at least gave him the benefit of the doubt, or just mot immediately assumed the worse - but also like if you’re gonna assume the worse then like you gotta back that up. Don’t be like omg Vlad is bad then make out with him. Like one or the other love, one or the other. Like either just dive in with him or like run away, and don’t spend a whole two pages being like ‘I should run, but I won’t!’ Like a pretty simple decision really. Especially since we all know what your gonna choose. Maybe that’s why it grated on my nerves so much, like everyone - including Vlad knew what she was going to choose so why do we gotta talk about it for like 200 pages ?! Like it took more then half the book for them two to meet. Then the rest of it was Maxine being like I shouldn’t, but I will.

That all being said, I think I am keen to read the next book, I wanna know what happens now, it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. And like I didn’t hate the story. Just wished it got to its points a little quicker and clearer.
dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

readalot20's review

4.0

The book is exceptional at most parts and useless at few but it is still an enjoyable read..... moreover it ended at a cliffhanger which is a cherry at top although i enjoyed the back and forth between Vlad and Maxine gotta say it became a little repetitive after one point but still loved the storytelling aspect of it.
dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kaceeem5's review

2.0

I thought this book was okay. What really annoyed me throughout the book was how many times it was mentioned that Maxine was an empath. It felt like every paragraph mentioned how she was an empath.

Okay. Please stop. We know you're an empath and can "lOoK iNtO tHe SoUl"

Giving me Alex Volkov vibes.



I thought the ending of the book left at a decent point. Some might say its a cliff hanger but I thought it was a perfect ending because it shows that at the end of the day he is a monster.

Me when I find out the second book isn't included in audible plus catalog, even though I wasn't going to read it anyway: