Hunting Prince Dracula is the second book in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series, and is a great addition to the series. It's not *quite* as good as Stalking Jack the Ripper, but it's pretty close!
Format: Paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson (September 4, 2018)
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Darcy‘s Rating: “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
A Chasing Mr. Darcy Review
Here’s a plot synopsis from GoodReads: 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. 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?
Hunting Prince Dracula picks up right where SJTR leaves off, and Audrey Rose and Thomas are on their way to the forensics academy in Romania. The romantic tension between them is just as good as it as in the first book, and the story is just as juicy this time around. There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book!
First, I just love Audrey Rose and Thomas. They are such interesting characters, and I love that each character stands on their own as well as together. Audrey Rose is vibrant, inquisitive, stubborn, smart, and fiery. She never takes no for an answer, and she always hunts until she finds the answer. One thing she lacks, though, is emotional clarity. She constantly fights her emotions and pushes her feelings down, and that sometimes gives her a mental fog about the important things...like her feelings for Thomas. Thomas isn't always the best version of himself, either, but I love how both of them work together to get where they need to be. Neither of them has the best methods all the time, but they always have each other's best intentions at heart.
Second, the setting was just perfection for this book. A forensics school in Dracula's castle in Romania? Is there anywhere better to hunt a vampire-like killer? The castle had all the elements of a spooky setting - drafty hallways, secret passages, betrayals, people who were not what they seemed, and of course, people who were exactly what they seemed.
That being said, I still really enjoyed this book. It gave me more of the characters I fell in love with in SJTR, and it set up the third book perfectly.
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