About the Book:
London, 1890. Mina Murray, the rosy-cheeked, quintessentially pure Victorian heroine, becomes Count Dracula’s object of desire. To preserve her chastity, five male “defenders” rush in to rescue her from the vampire’s evil clutches. This is the version of the story we’ve been told. But now, from Mina’s own pen, we discover that the story is vastly different when told from the female point of view.
In this captivating, bold act of storytelling, award-winning author Karen Essex breathes startling new life into the characters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, transporting the reader into the erotic and bizarre underbelly of the original story. While loosely following the events of its classic predecessor, Dracula in Love deviates from the path at every turn.
About the Author:
My Opinion:
While this book is called Dracula in Love it is really Mina’s tale. I read Bram Stoker’s classic book, Dracula, several years ago and while not necessary to enjoy Ms. Essex’s delightful tale I do believe it helped me understand it on a different level than if I had not read it.
Dracula in Love sets a mood from the very first page. As a reader you feel immersed almost in a mystical fog that pulls you along. Mina Murray is a child of Irish descent currently teaching in a very proper school for young ladies. She is very controlled as is desired for women of the Victorian era. She is engaged to Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor. She has been having disturbing dreams, dreams she doesn’t understand and dreams she cannot tell anyone about for fear of being deemed insane. What she doesn’t understand is that she is more than she thinks she is and older than time.
The book is a marvel of weaving Stoker’s Dracula – a book so full of obnoxious, overbearing men – with a woman’s strength and control. Instead of this being a tale of an evil, blood sucking monster it becomes a story of an eternal love and a woman’s power to choose.
I found myself lost in that mystical fog throughout the book, angry when Mina was mistreated at the hands of men who in the supposed guise of helping her were only trying to control her and cheering when she took control of her strength and power. The women certainly triumph in this tale; living and dead.
You can find Dracula in Love on Facebook
Karen Essex Website
Karen Essex Blog
Dracula in Love is available on Amazon.com
Be sure to enter the giveaway for Dracula in Love – 5 lucky readers will win copies so that they can experience the beauty of this book.
Disclosure: I had a copy of Dracula in Love on my bookshelf.
