Dracula, My Love by Syrie James

I spotted this book at Sam's Club about a week ago while I was grocery shopping with my dad and was just too intrigued to resist buying it.

Official publisher's description:  Mina Harker is torn between two men. Struggling to hang on to the deep, pure love she's found within her marriage to her husband, Jonathan, she is inexorably drawn into a secret, passionate affair with a charismatic but dangerous lover. This haunted and haunting creature has awakened feelings and desires within her that she has never before known, which remake her as a woman.

Although everyone she knows fears him and is pledged to destroy him, Mina sees a side to him that the others cannot: a tender, romantic side; a man who's taken full advantage of his gift of immortality to expand his mind and talents; a man who is deeply in love, and who may not be evil after all. Yet to surrender is surely madness, for to be with him could end her life. It may cost Mina all she holds dear, but to make her choice she must learn everything she can about the remarkable origins and sensuous powers of this man, this exquisite monster, this . . . Dracula!

I LOVED this book! I was expecting something a little more cheesy and cliche, just some light gothic romance novel, but it was actually a rather enthralling read.
 
The heroine, Mina Harker, is an excellent narrator as she is both intelligent and modern--a rare find in 19th century bourgeousie.  All the characters from the classic tale are present: Van Helsing, Lucy, Jonathon, the three vampire harpies...and, of course, the dark lord himself: Dracula.

But is this the evil bloodsucker that Bela Lugosi portrayed?  Is this the debonair devil that gets unfailingly emulated every Halloween?  No.

This is Dracula, the intelligent, sexy, smoldering UnDead who rues his fate as much as the animals, (yes, animals,) he kills do theirs.  He is cultivated, a true Rennaissance man, and a gentleman to boot.  He's...well, simply put, he's dreamy. 

The plot follows Mina's and the Count's ill-fated love affair and does so from the unique perspective of the woman so ignored by Stroker in the classic tale.  James reveals to us a whole new side of the story, proving not only her protagonist and Dracula to be different from the typical public view, but even going so far as to display Van Helsing as a bumbling old buffoon who, in reality, knows little of what he does.  These deviations from the norm keep the novel from ever becoming boring or drab, and often create humor in an otherwise suspensful and wrenching tale. 

So what is Mina to do?  Married to her best friend who's determined to kill her true love for supposedly murdering her other best friend?  Trust me, you won't even be able to make a guess.  There are more surprises in this book than there are Starbucks in Seattle, and each new turn takes the book deeper into intrigue and makes it harder to put down.  By the end of the novel, you'll be so entrenched that you'll wish there were more.  (BTW--the end?  MAJOR SHOCKER!)

I recommend this book to anyone seeking something darkly romantic as well as thrilling...though for optimal enjoyment I'd wait until winter, so you can snuggle up on a cold snowy night wearing your flannel pajamas and sit cozy warm by the fire while riding this rollercoaster of romance.  That was the only thing missing, I think.  9/10

That's all this bookworm's got to say for today. Happy reading all, be it this book or another!

Question: Are you sick of the vampire hype yet?  I know I definitely am!  But for sexy Dracula, I'll make an exception.  ;]