A Very Dracula Summer

Dracula is the story that just keeps on ticking. I've adored the book ever since I read it in high school after seeing the Frank Langella film version. It's not just on my mind but on a lot of other people's as well! Recently the show DEMONS on BBC America featured Mina Harker as one of the main characters. In fiction, following on the heels of the recent sequel Dracula The Undead by Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacre Stoker, and The Dracula Dossier by James Reese (which is about how author Bram Stoker came up with the idea of Dracula. Set in 1888, The Ripper naturally comes into play in the story. I haven't read either of these two books and the Dracula Dossier intrigues me the most) comes two new books about Dracula and one book that's sort about Dracula. Interesting that all three are coming out in the summer months, like blockbuster films. The first book called Insatiable is out in June by Meg Cabot, sort of a modern take on Dracula.

Here's a sneak peek: Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper. But her boss is making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn't believe in them. Not that Meena isn't familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you're going to die (not that you're going to believe her. No one ever does). But not even Meena's precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets — then makes the mistake of falling in love with — Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side...a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire-hunters, would prefer to see him dead for. The problem is, Lucien's already dead. Maybe that's why he's the first guy Meena's ever met that she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena's always been able to see everyone else's future, she's never been able look into her own. And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare. Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future...If she even has one.

The next two books come out in July and August. The first is Dracula My Love by Syrie James. I loved her first two books The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen and The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte. I can't wait to read this book.

Here's a sneak peek: Syrie James approaches Bram Stoker's classic Dracula with a breathtaking new perspective--as, for the first time, Mina Harker records the shocking story of her scandalous seduction and sexual rebirth. Who is this magnetic, fascinating man? And how could one woman fall so completely under his spell? 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 so guilty of 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!

Dracula in Love by noted historical fiction author Karen Essex comes out in August. Thanks to Daphne at Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff for alerting readers about the book.

Here's a sneak peek:  Karen Essex turns on the heat in this transporting and darkly haunting new tale of love and possession that puts forth the question: What if everything you knew about Dracula . . . was wrong? From the shadowy banks of the River Thames to the wild and windswept coast of Yorkshire, the quintessential Victorian virgin Mina Murray vividly recounts in the pages of her private diary the intimate details of what transpired between her and Count Dracula—the joys and terrors of a pas­sionate affair and her rebellion against a force of evil that has pursued her through time. Mina’s version of this timeless gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into the dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and locked asylum chambers where she led a secret life, far from the chaste and polite lifestyle the defenders of her purity, and even her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, expected of her.

Sounds exciting doesn't it? I can't wait to read this. I've read Karen's last novel Stealing Athena which was brilliant and I have her other book Leonardo's Swans on tap for some time in the future.

Another interesting take on Mina Harker is Alan Moore's graphic novels The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Skip the movie and read the novels, they are pretty awesome.