Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2)

by Kerri Maniscalco

[zooloo1983]

✮ My Review ✮
Audrey’s back, back again! This time we are hunting Prince Dracula dun dun dun. Hmm, how do I start this review? Talking about how refreshing it was with this new twist on Dracula? About how we pick up the story weeks after the ending of Stalking Jack the Ripper? How much I am in love with Thomas Cresswell? How amazing Nicola Barber still is at narrating this book? All this and so much!!!

The more I am invested in this series the more I love Audrey Rose and Thomas! Nicola is yet again absolutely amazing at bringing these two epic characters by Kerri alive with her narration. I still can’t believe when listening to this that it is just one person doing it!

Following on merely weeks after the horrific events of Stalking Jack the Ripper, we meet up with Thomas and Audrey Rose, with their chaperone en route to Transylvania! I was so excited when I knew this was our destination and I was so intrigued to see where we would be taken on this journey! Would I be disappointed? No siree!

What I always seem to forget with Hunting Prince Dracula is not the fact that is set in 1888 and so times were different for women and the interest in death was not proper for women. No, it was more that Audrey is only 17!!!! Yes, that is right 17! I completely forget and I think when Audrey is not pining/hating for Thomas she forgets! She has seen and done a lot more than a lot privileged 17-year-olds for sure!

I loved the journey we were taken on and the urban legend himself Dracula. There were so many twists and turns and so many people to suspect of the killings. Set in the cold winter, it was perfect as we play detective in a whodunnit scenario. I will have to say one thing I really DID NOT appreciate were the blinking SPIDERS! Seriously did there need to be so many of them and did they have to be so bloody big *shudders*. Sometimes when you listen to audiobooks they let you down as you can not skip bits especially when you are driving and your skin is crawling, ick.

The castle itself was a living breathing entity. Listening to the story unfurl, I could imagine the dark corridors, with flickering candlelight. The dampness and the cold from the snow outside, with the cackles of the fires as the only source of warmth. The setting emphasised how cut off from the world and everyone they were, so when the murders started well there was nowhere to run to.

I love the introduction of the new characters and I loved seeing Audrey come into her, especially at the end. And the chemistry between her and Thomas was just sizzling. Two people who love each other so much but won’t admit it! Normally I would be bored of the will they won’t they situation, but the banter between them and the respect keeps it going and you just can’t help falling in love with them.

I also loved the little nod in this book to the next one in the series Escaping Houdini – cleverly done!
Despite all the darkness and evil doing, this Hunting Prince Dracula will leave a smile on your face as you know the next adventure is on its way