Product Detailsfrom Amazon.comHardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (August 10, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385528914
ISBN-13: 978-0385528917
Product Description
In this wonderfully transporting novel, award-winning author Karen Essex turns a timeless classic inside out, spinning a haunting, erotic, and suspenseful story of eternal love and possession.
From the shadowy banks of the river Thames to the wild and windswept Yorkshire coast, Dracula’s eternal muse, Mina Murray, vividly recounts the intimate details of what really transpired between her and the Count—the joys and terrors of a passionate affair that has linked them through the centuries, and her rebellion against her own frightening preternatural powers.
Mina’s version of this gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into Victorian England’s dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and asylum chambers, revealing the dark secrets and mysteries locked within. Time falls away as she is swept into a mythical journey far beyond mortal comprehension, where she must finally make the decision she has been avoiding for almost a millennium.
Bram Stoker’s classic novel offered one side of the story, in which Mina had no past and bore no responsibility for the unfolding events. Now, for the first time, the truth of Mina’s personal voyage, and of vampirism itself, is revealed. What this flesh and blood woman has to say is more sensual, more devious, and more enthralling than the Victorians could have expressed or perhaps even have imagined.
My Thoughts:
I think I have seen all the vampire movies and read most of the vampire books out there. In all of these stories the focus is usually on the story of Dracula, Van Helsing or Jonathan but little is known about Mina . Until now. Karen Essex's book Dracula In Love tells the story of Mina Murray in a very strict Victorian England. Mina is a teacher at an all girls school that she had also attended .She was not wanted at home by her parents because of the visions and her imaginary friends, these bahaviors scared her parents . The world Mina exists in is one of proper behavior for young women who know how to comport themselves in this very Victorian era, where women are meant to marry and maintain a household and have children. Mina is one of these women as she is to marry Jonathan or is she?. She is still haunted by visions and "sleep walking" episodes to church ruins and a mist covered cemetary.The parallel world is a world full of mystery suspense and undying love. Mina feels that this other world is where she truly belongs . She realizes that she needs to make a choice, stay in the mortal world as wife to Jonathan or with the undead Dracula. Even though this is a vampire tale, the story is told in such away that it is not gory or even that scary. I did enjoy this telling of this classic tale. A very sensual, without being sordid story, full of real characters that at the last page keeps the reader wanting more.
To learn more about Karen Essex you can visit her website:
http://www.karenessex.com/indexbasic.html
I received this book from Doubleday Book Giveaway and was not monetarily compensated for my review.
Stopped by from Page-Turner's blog!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to read this one -- most newly written Dracula stories nowadays aren't all that fantastic, but this one certainly looks intriguing!