Dracula in love - Karen Essex

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.

KAREN ESSEX is the author of four novels, including the international bestseller Leonardo's Swans . Her award-winning essays and articles have appeared in many periodicals, among them L.A. Weekly , Vogue , and Playboy . She lives in Los Angeles.

Praise for DRACULA IN LOVE:


"Dark, gothic, and utterly sensual, Dracula in Love is the novel for Twilight 's grownup fans. The character of Mina Murray leaps from the pages in an extraordinary confession of what truly happened between her and Count Dracula. In this novel of forbidden desires and secrecy, purity is an overrated virtue."
-Michelle Moran, bestselling author of Nefertiti: A Novel

"The King of the Undead in all his manifestations confronts Victorian society, reclaiming his throne as the ultimate vampire, before whom all other paltry vampires in literature wither away.
Dracula in Love is a sensual fantasy feast, a flight of the imagination, a darkly rich pleasure. Like The French Lieutenant's Woman , the novel explores and exposes the stifling confines of Victorian society, especially upon women. But the means of deliverance is altogether different."
-- Margaret George, bestselling author of The Memoirs of Cleopatra

"Karen Essex turns the legendary tale of immortal love into a seductive, blood-tingling celebration of the senses;Mina Harker is a heroine for the ages --bold, intrepid, and in love with one of themost dangerous, irresistiblemen in history. If you read only one more vampire novel, let it be this one."
-- C.W. Gortner, author of The Last Queen and The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

"Beautifully written, this novel by the author of Leonardo's Swans features vivid images of drama, danger, and romance...Romance and vampire fiction buffs will snap this one up."
-- Library Journal

"You should run to this fresh perspective on Bram Stoker's classic novel...[DRACULA IN LOVE] is a haunting, feminist portrayal of eternal love, forbidden desires, and Victorian virtues...a refreshing take on a classic that is sure to mesmerize readers." --Fangoria