4.5 stars
This is the last book in the Night Prince series which is a spin off the Night Huntress series. This series can be read without having read the original series, though you will get more enjoyment if you read all the books starting with Halfway to the Grave (Goodreads has the entire set of books in this world in chronological order.)
The story in this book is that Vlad and Leila are searching for a relative of Vlad’s named Mircea. Leila and Mircea are magically tied together. When one hurts themselves, the same injury appears on the other. Problem is that Mircea has a vendetta against Vlad and is taking it out on Leila. That is until he’s kidnapped himself and used as blackmail against Vlad. If Mircea is killed, the Leila will die as well.
This story we learn about Leila and her ancestry. We get some time with her sister and her old vampire friend, Marty. Mencheres has a decent amount of time in this book. Ian is the side character with the most page time. There is no page time with Cat or Bones, though their house makes an appearance.
There is a lot of Vlad being overbearing, overprotective, demanding and secretive. Or, you know, Vlad being Vlad. Vlad puts quite the strain on not only his relationship with Leila, but also some other friends with his secrets in this book.
This was a pretty good wrap of to this series. The one thing that I would say about it, it felt almost more like a building block for Ian’s book(s) than a finale of Vlad’s series. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it. It was a great story. I loved the parts of Leila and her sister learning more about their mother’s heritage. I loved spending time with Ian. I just think that bigger things happen with Ian than Vlad and Leila. I will be anxiously awaiting the next book set in this universe. I don’t know how many more that Ms. Frost has planned, but I’m excited for them.
Vlad gave Ian a level look, “You don’t truly believe that.”
“I don’t” Ian agreed with a laugh. “But I’ve been wrong before. Think it was on a Tuesday.”
A wolfish smile curled Vlad’s mouth. “It appears you’re right — I simply can’t go an entire day without murdering someone.”
“If I were anyone else, I’d be terrified at pissing off the legendary Vlad Tepesh, meaning “Impaler,” aka Dracula, aka don’t-ever-call-him-Dracula-if-you-want-to-live, but I was Mrs. Vlad Dracul, thank you very much. Uncrowned prince of darkness or no, Vlad wasn’t pulling this crap with me.”