Ruxandra learned everything she knows while growing up in a convent. Training to be the perfect nobleman’s wife, she relishes the prospect of a simple life. But everything changes when her father, Vlad Dracula, retrieves her on her eighteenth birthday. Securing her a marriage is the last thing he has in mind…(Goodreads)
*Please note that there are some minor spoilers in this review.*
After spending ten years at a convent, Princess Ruxandara is finally reunited with her father, Lord Vlad Dracula. However, the reason behind this reunion is quickly revealed to not be what the Princess expected. Her father hopes to sacrifice her to a demon in exchange for more power. Lord Dracula's plans go awry though, and Ruxandra finds herself changed, with horrifying consequences.
The majority of Princess Dracula is spent detailing the struggles the young woman must now face as part of her transition from royalty to living dead. We accompany her while she learns to hunt (which took up way too much of the book if you ask me) and easily predict the doomed fates of those she comes into contact with. Ultimately, as her failure to contain control over her new primal instinct grows and she experiences a disastrous (and overly dramatic) romance, Ruxandra is left completely hopeless. The book ends by doing a bit of a time jump to set up the second installment of the series by introducing someone I expect will be very important, Elizabeth Bathory.
For the most part, this was an enjoyable read. However, the hunting scenes had so much detail, to the point of being a little too much for me personally. There would be a little development in the story...and then it would go back to hunting. I get it...she needs to feed, but the amount of time spent on just this aspect of the story makes it start to feel like filler. I was also a little in shock at how incredibly cheesy the sex scene was. It was like I put down Princess Dracula and was suddenly reading a Harlequin romance from the 80s or 90s. One line in particular, "She didn't care about being a lady anymore.", somehow left me speechless while laughing hysterically in my head at the same time. Seeing as we start in book one with Vlad Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) and book two will have Elizabeth Bathory, it seems that each book will see Ruxandra's interactions with historical figures connected to the vampire mythology.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
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