Title: Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker
Author: Syrie James
Release Date: July 20, 2010
Pages: 480 pages
Genre: Vampire Romance
Best Book Quote: “I will never forget the magic of being held in his embrace, the compelling magnetism of his eyes as he gazed at me, or how it felt to whirl about the dance floor in his arms. I still shiver with delight when I recall the dizzying sensation of traveling with him at the speed of light, and the way his slightest touch could make me gasp with unimaginable pleasure and desire.”
What is it about vampires that women love so much? If you had asked me what I thought about vampires when I was a teenager, I wouldn’t have had much to say. By then I’d read the original Dracula and I certainly didn’t end the book wishing a vampire would rescue me from my boring life.
I recently read “Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker” by Syrie James. When I decided to read it, I half-heartedly thought back to my boring experience reading the original Dracula novel.
My experience with this book was COMPLETELY different.
As with the original Bram Stoker novel, this story introduces us to Jonathan Harker, a solicitor that’s been sent to Transylvania to finish a real estate transaction with the wealthy and mysterious Count Dracula. The horrors that befall Jonathan during his stay at Dracula’s castle drive him temporarily insane and leave his fiancée Mina back home fretting about what may have happened to him. Meanwhile, Dracula learns of beautiful Mina through Jonathan and decides to travel to England to court her. He successfully uses his charm and his special powers of persuasion on her and she does indeed fall for him.
If you’ll remember, in the original novel Dracula was evil and not the kind of character you would want to spend the rest of your days with. In Syrie James’ version, the story is written from the point of view of Mina. The author skillfully constructs a story that lets us understand why Mina fell so hard for Dracula. We enter Mina’s psyche and fully understand her wants, her fears and her desires. We likewise develop an understanding of Dracula’s motivations. This insight explains why a human woman and a “monster” would literally ache to be with one another.
Dracula, My Love made me feel the way I did when I first watched the Frank Langella Dracula movie from 1979 and the Gary Oldman Dracula film from 1992: exhilarated, enthralled and completely mesmerized. Reading the classic story from a woman’s perspective adds an element of sensitivity to the tale that greatly enriched my reading experience.
Vampire book lovers will absolutely love this book. If you read it I think you’ll agree that Syrie James’ retelling of the story is brilliantly executed and deserves to be added to your “to be read again” shelf of books.
Matrimony and betrayal are in the air on this episode of True Blood as Russell, the king of Mississippi, asks Sophie Ann, the queen of Louisiana, to marry him. Is there anyone who isn’t getting married this season? Bill and Sookie, Franklin and Tara, and now the king of Mississippi and queen of Louisiana? Well, after seeing this episode, I don’t think Bill and Sookie will be getting married anytime soon – he’s not likely to be up and around for a while and she finds out he’s not all that he pretended to be. Here are some other highlights from Episode 6:
Highlights from Tonight’s Episode
The king drags Sookie back to his house where Bill tries a last ditch effort to save her but Eric intervenes and takes her back to the king…betrayed again! Now they know Bill has not been 100% honest with them. Sookie is so pissed at Eric but he just tells her to shut up, that she means nothing to him. And he looks like he means it when he says it.
Bill is taken to the slave quarters where Lorena chains him to the floor as she pulls out her little bag of torture instruments. She is quite the sadist and she is going to bleed Bill to death. It’s a nasty scene, he’s got pieces missing from him. Cooter and Debbie come in, looking for a little taste of Bill. Gross, Debbie starts licking all over him and they say they are going to turn him into a “fucking raisin”.
Russell wants to know what Sookie is and he’s not above torturing her to get it out of her. She says she’s just a waitress and then she kicks off a game of quid pro quo where they go back and forth on questions to each other. Sookie asks “is Lorena going to kill Bill?” To which the king asks her why does she care? And that’s when he tells her that Bill has been keeping a file on her and her family this whole time. She looks so shocked, you feel sorry for her. Russell says “oh sweetheart, you really don’t know anything do you?”
Arlene tells Jessica “please don’t kill me, I’m pregnant” when Jessica’s teeth pop out after Arlene cuts her hand. Uh-oh, I guess the secret’s out. Jessica puts the whammy on a grouchy customer who was being a bitch at Merlotte’s and she attacks her in the restroom. It looks like Pam’s advice is working – she got her dinner without killing the entree. Jessica is really coming into her own.
Lafayette and Jesus are hanging out together in Lafayette’s super-sports car that Eric gave him. They tell each other deep, dark secrets. These two share a hot kiss in the car, necking like two teenagers. Later, they arrive at Lafayette’s place but are interrupted by some rednecks who are trashing his car. These two kick some redneck ass but Jesus finds out in the process that Lafayette is a drug dealer. Looks like the honeymoon is over.
Tara is still tied to the bed – poor thing, I’d think her circulation would be cut off by now. She’s trying the charming routine on Franklin and it appears to work as he lets her go. She convinces him to let her bite him and she just rips and rips at his throat, digging in hard, it’s pretty nasty to see but Franklin appears to like it. That confirms the fact that he is a psycho.
Eric is doing a great job of charming Russell, he’s suspicious of Eric but seems to be allowing himself to be taken in. In their limo ride to the queen’s house, Russell describes his master plan – kill all the humans. Hmm, I wonder if they’ve thought where their food source will come from if they are successful? The king goes to see the queen and proposes but she rejects him. Eric takes the queen down hard when he realizes that she is the one who framed him with the Magister. He says he is Russell’s now and since Eric is stronger than she is, she agrees to the marriage. I wonder what Talbot will have to say about that!
It’s finally daytime and Tara grabs a mace from the wall and bashes Franklin’s head in. Whoa – it is smashed FLAT. He is going to be so mad at her, if she thought he was psycho before, she hasn’t seen anything yet, I suspect. Tara sneaks into Sookie’s room and they escape Russell’s house. Of course, Sookie won’t leave without Bill so she runs off to to find the slave quarters while Tara calls her an idiot. Sookie finds Bill still alive but then so is Lorena who grabs her and throws her across the room. And with a vicious neck bite from Lorena, this week’s episode ends with a scream.
Title: The Sand Dragon
Author: Michael F. Stewart
Release Date: April 2, 2010
Pages: 256 pages
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Best Book Quote: “In the Cretaceous period the area would have been a hunting ground for a lizard like this. But these appeared to be bones, real bones. “It’s not a fossil,” Kim suggested, and immediately shook the thought clear from her mind.”
Kim Axon, a gung-ho paleontologist, thinks that she has found the skeletal find of a lifetime but just as she is about to start her excavation, the skeleton is stolen. Kim immediately suspects that the mysterious Dr. Bythell, a scientist in league with the oil company, is the culprit. What the heck – this is her find! That’s how The Sand Dragon by Michael F. Stewart starts out and it keeps getting better.
Kim makes this find near Fort Mic, a place with a mysterious history. Although the area, close to where her father was killed, holds disturbing memories for Kim, she’s a determined young woman who refuses to let the male-dominated Canadian oil mining camp deter her from her mission. She’s steadfast in her goal to identify the mysterious skeleton accidentally excavated by one of the operators at the mining facility.
As Kim refuses to let up in her quest to recover the mysterious skeleton, she’s faced with hostile townsfolk and Native American tribe members who blame her family for an ugly history of indoctrination at a local school by government authorities. However, she perseveres and as she delves deeper into the mysterious skeleton, it’s obvious that all is not as it seems. When the townsfolk start to get sick and die, Kim realizes that more than scientific glory-grabbing is at stake – their survival is at risk.
Michael F. Stewart provides an excellent fantasy/horror story with great action and intrigue. Is the strange illness actually part of a conspiracy being perpetuated by the oil conglomerate? Is it an age-old curse come to life? Kim will need to use all of her talents in order to solve this puzzle and save her life.
Fortunately, she’s not alone in her quest. Her adventure puts her in contact with lots of different characters, all of whom are well defined and progress the plot forward. They’re skillfully woven into parallel story lines that keep you guessing as you try to figure out how and when they’ll eventually intersect with one another.
If you like a solid, fast-paced horror mystery that has some fantastical elements to it, read The Sand Dragon; Michael F. Stewart delivers a remarkable story.
Title: Living With the Dead
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Pages: 560
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Best Book Quote: “. . . the greatest impediment to justice is prejudice.”
The main character, Robyn Peltier, is a public relations consultant who becomes accused of a crime she didn’t commit – the murder of her annoyingly irritating celebrity employer. She finds her boss shot dead and to all outward appearances it looks like she did it. But when she goes on the run to save her life it leads to her immediate guilt in the eyes of the police and more importantly, the gorgeous lead investigator, Detective Finn. Luckily for Robyn, she finds help from her best friend Hope Adams (a half-demon) and Hope’s werewolf boyfriend, Karl. Apparently, Robyn has inadvertently became involved in a supernatural mess that could kill both her and her friends. But this doesn’t stop them in their mission to prove Hope’s innocence.
I was surprised to find that I was so quickly hooked on this story since I usually avoid the “innocent person accused of a crime” plotline. It’s a testimony to Kelly Armstrong’s great writing style that I kept on reading.
This novel has pulse-racing writing combined with Armstrong’s usual wit – a combination I’ve really come to like. The author makes Robyn a sympathetic character that you connect with and pull for throughout the book. Comic relief is provided by the ghost of Robyn’s husband who was killed but has come back to help her; the twist is that he can only be seen by Detective Finn! Whether you like “innocent girl wrongly accused” storylines or not, give Living with the Dead a try. If I hadn’t, I would have missed out on a really fun read.
The creep factor ratcheted up quite a few notches this week as Franklin keeps Tara locked up with him in the king’s house and he finally confesses that he wants her to be his vampire bride. Poor girl, she can’t win…she finds a guy who’s crazy for her and he’s a psycho. Some other highlights from Episode 5:
Highlights from Tonight’s Episode
Tara is stuck as Franklin’s plaything, he’s considers her to be “spectacularly different”. Franklins says that Tara is such a fucking disaster, the two of them could be twins. What a compliment…
The king of Mississippi is disturbingly interested in Sookie, especially when he finds out that Bill was keeping a dossier on Sookie and her family tree. Eric arrives at the king’s house, meeting Talbot, the royal consort. Talbot is quite fascinated with him. Eric tells the king that he wants to hunt Bill Compton in his area, when much to his surprise, Bill walks in and the two of them engage in one of their famous glaring contests. No love lost there.
Franklin has Tara tied to the bed, he put her in a new gown that he bought her. Franklin is obsessed with her and he’s jealous of Layfayette texting her. At one point he says “watch how fast I text”. That was pretty amusing, watching a vampire brag about their texting skills. Tara gets away during the day while all the vampires are in their daylight sleeping mode. Unfortunately, she can’t get away from Franklin that easily, especially when a werewolf runs her down.
Jason shows up at the sheriff’s department, waiting to start his new job. Andy gives him a desk and puts him on phone duty. Jason is out washing police cars when he sees a hot girl drive by in a pickup. He pulls her over – shirtless – and asks for her license and registration. She challenges him and says no, she doesn’t think he’s a cop. All he gets out of her is her name, Crystal. He begs her to meet him at Merlotte’s but she just drives away. Jason? Shirtless? And the girl just drives away?
Alcide wants to tell his packmaster about Debbie and what happened at her initiation where the King of Mississippi gave his blood to the werewolves. The packmaster, Colonel Flood, says there’s nothing he can do about the king – he wants to ignore the problem and just wait for it go away. That’s a can-do attitude!
Layfayette and Sam’s brother Tommy are smoking cigars together when his mother’s nurse Jesus shows up. Layfayette is having a hard time accepting that Jesus came over just to see him. Nice to see Layfayette flustered for a change.
Tara is tied up again by Franklin and he’s having a major crying jag over the idea that she tried to leave him. She mollifies him by apologizing profusely and acting like she wants to be with him. That girl has some good acting skills.
The king questions Bill on why he was investigating Sookie and her genealogy. It appears that Bill is no longer on the king’s list of favorites since he has him escorted to his room under guard. Bill finds out that Sookie is in Mississippi and escapes, racing out to try and warn her.
Jason sees Crystal in Merlotte’s parking lot – it looks like she showed up after all. She tells him to stay away from her but they end up making out by the water. Good old Jason, he’s still got his mojo after all.
At the king’s house, Lorena comes down the stairs and sees Eric. They both say “YOU” with disdain so it appears there is some history there.
Bill shows up at Alcide’s place trying to warn Sookie off but in her own annoying way, she won’t listen to him and keeps demanding an explanation. Just then, the king and his minions show up, planning to take Sookie with them. This week’s episode ends with a werewolf attacking Sookie, who knocks him off with a blast of white light, much to the king’s surprise and pleasure. It looks like Sookie has become a hot commodity in the vampire world.
