Book review- The Dracula Duet by Karina Halle
"My heart will always find yours."
Hey y'all!
It's officially spooky season and I'm back with a spooky duet rec for you guys.
If y'all know me, you know how much I love Karina Halle. There isn't a spooky season that goes by without me reading or rereading her stories. They are just so good!
Last year, I had added her books into the fall season recs for y'all. If you haven't checked out the list yet, you can do it here: 🍂6 Fall Books To Read This Fall🍂.
Anyway, I had absolutely loved the Dark eyes duet (a vampire romance) by Karina Halle. So, when she released Wolf's (The MC's best friend from the dark eyes duet) book, I was super happy and read it right away. I've read the duet thrice and Wolf's book twice already hehe.
Last year, we were blessed with Dracula's duet😍 I had absolutely loved him in the Dark eyes duet, he was hilarious af. I was so excited for his story and I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint al all! It was so fucking good. I'm in love with it and want to reread it asap.
Also, if you want to check out shorter versions of my reviews for the duet, you can check them out here: Blood Orange (short review) and Black Rose (Short review).
Title: Blood Orange (Book 1 of the Dracula Duet)
Author: Karina Halle
Genre: Fantasy/ paranormal Romance
Length: 314 pages
Publication Date: October 16, 2022
Buy it on Amazon: Blood Orange by Karina Halle
Synopsis
"My heart will always find yours."
Dahlia Abernathy has only known revenge. When her parents were killed at an early age by vampires, Dahlia spent the rest of her life under the thumb of the Witch's Guild being trained to kill them. Her latest mission sends her undercover to a prestigious music academy in Venice, Italy. Her goal? To kill Professor Valtu Aminoff, her teacher and the notorious vampire who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.
But getting close to a dangerous vampire like Professor Aminoff is one thing. Falling for him is another. With Dahlia's appearance disguised under a glamor spell, Valtu has no idea that the woman who has become his new dark obsession is actually the reincarnation of the woman he loved and lost twice before.
And Dahlia doesn't remember that the very man she has been sent to kill is the love of her life.
Will their love come through and transcend time once again? Or are the fated lovers destined to let history repeat itself?
-Goodreads
Title: Black Rose (Book 2 of the Dracula Duet)
Author: Karina Halle
Genre: Fantasy/ paranormal Romance
Length: 408 pages
Publication Date: March 19, 2023
Buy it on Amazon: Black Rose by Karina Halle
Synopsis
Is it her destiny to love him?
Or is it her destiny to die?
Valtu Aminoff is no stranger to tragedy. Though many know him as the enigmatic vampire that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Valtu’s complex life is far more horrific than any fiction could imagine. When you lose the love of your life over and over again, it can do more than break your heart—it can corrupt your soul.
It's up to his new lover to decide if Valtu's damaged soul is even worth saving.
But destiny isn’t done with Valtu yet. And tragedy is always around the corner.
-Goodreads
Tropes
- Spooky Vibes
- Vampires VS Witches
- Reincarnated Love
- Dark Academia
- Age Gap
- Fated Mates
- Enemies X Lovers
- Professor X Student
My Thoughts
"The darkness in me calls to the darkness in you."
The fated soulmates trope is just so good. This also shows how if it's meant to be, it will be no matter what happens and it makes me so happy thinking about it. Like I am gonna try not to get super disappointed over things that I really wanted to happen but they didn't end up happening. Maybe there's something better planned for me💗
Anyway, back to the book, I love how the universe didn't let anyone mortal or immortal fuck with Dracula and his girl. Universe just kept giving them fuck you's and reincarnating his lover until they could finally be together again for life.
Valtu's story started out sad and I felt so bad for him when I realized his soul mate died in front of him and then later reincarnated but died again. I can't even imagine the pain he was going through and what he had to live with, watching other couples and going through the memories of his girl.
Years after his lover dies, he moves to Italy and becomes a music professor. The Italian setting is literally my favourite in books and I love it so much. Italy is also on top of my bucket list right now. Please ✨manifest✨ a trip to Italy for your girl🤪Imma do the same for you😌.
Dahlia is a vampire slayer who has been sent on a mission to kill Valtu. She pretends to be his student but they both end up catching feelings for each other. She plans to not end his life anymore and one day her memories of her previous lives as his two lovers comes back to her but before she can say anything to Valtu, Solon and Lenore (MC's from the dark eyes duet) enter the scene and since Lenore is a witch, she recognizes Dahlia and does not give her a chance to explain herself.
Valtu ends up choking Dahlia in anger since he's pissed his lover betrayed him. Just before Dahlia dies in the hands of her lover, she asks Lenore to remove the glamor. Once Valtu realizes who she really is, he screams but it's too late to save her. His soulmate died for the third time in front of him, but this time he is the reason for it.
Valtu's heart-shattering screams and sobs broke my heart. The last two chapters were so heartbreaking yet so beautifully written.
That's how Blood Orange ends and it completely broke my heart. The two of them didn't deserve this ending.
"Loss is the risk you take when you love someone, but it's always worth the risk."
I started reading Black Rose right away and finished it in a day. I kinda wanna give y'all a lil spoiler so if you don't want to read it, then please skip this paragraph. OKAY, so you're gonna be as excited as I was if you've read the Dark Eyes Duet and Wolf's book too because Wolf and Amethyst make a comeback in this book! THEY HAVE TWINS! And the girl turns out to be Valtu's reincarnating lover. She's Mina, Lucy and Dahlia who keeps reincarnating, but this time it's her in Rose's body, Rose being Wolf's kid. So poor Valtu had to wait 20+ years to reunite with his lover.
{Spoiler is over so y'all can continue reading hehe}
The problem this time that stops Rose and Valtu from reuniting is that after Dahlia died, Valtu was trying to get his hands on the book of spells after Dahlia died so he could do a spell and bring her back from the dead but once he realized that there was no spell like that, he found another spell. He used it on himself to forget about all the reincarnated versions of his lover so he could get rid of the pain.
When Rose remembers her past as all his lovers, she runs to go meet her Valtu but is warned that he is a completely changed man now. He's heartless and doesn't remember her either. She still decides to take a chance and goes with the doctor because he's the only person who can take her to him. They make her pose as a prostitute so Valtu would allow her into the place where he lives. It's a super magical place where no one can go except the people invited by Valtu and they couldn't take a chance with it.
He lives on top of the snowy mountains with the demon that's attached to the book that he stole. The setting for both the books is beautiful and magical and definitely gives you spooky vibes. It gets you into the spooky season mood. I absolutely love the way Karina describes the settings, it makes you wanna go to those places and experience it all on your own.
Once Rose meets him, he has no memory of her and thinks of her as the prostitute the doc got for him. She soon realizes he isn't the same Valtu he was with her back then. He has changed. He's heartless and cruel now. My heart honestly broke for her but I also got why Valtu did what he did and the pain he was going through that he had to force himself to forget her.
Even though I was sad, the smut was still fire🔥🤤 The smut in Karina's books in always so good😏
The demon and the shit she went through in that room was scary af, like it fed off of her fear? When she told Valtu about it and since they shared the same trauma, he told her he saw the same things but that shit traumatized me. I can't even imagine how terrified she was.
Anyway, I feel like I'm gonna end up writing the whole story for y'all here so I'm gonna stop.
But like he treated her horribly and then stuff happened and he started falling for her again. Of course he would, they are meant to be together. He was turning into his old goofy and loving self. But he gets terrified of falling for her and then losing her again because it's a cycle for them so he decides to take the potion again because he had made two vials for himself just in case.
They had gone to fight someone, there's a whole ass story behind it so just read the book hehe. That's when he decided that he would take the vial again because she was attacked and he didn't want to go through the same heartbreak again. They end up yelling at each other but he ends up taking the vial and goes back to his old heartless self who forgets her again. At that moment, when Rose's heart tore apart and she fell on the ground crying, my heart physically hurt. The poor girl had to go through it all over again.
Later, everybody including her parents aka Wolf and Amethyst, Solon, Lenore and the doc join them. The meeting between Valtu and Wolf was hilarious af. I was dying. They plan their attack and go to the Grand Bazaar in Turkey. This setting was beautifully described as well. OH, I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS, but Rose and her twin had an elder brother who was kidnapped by the witches so all of them went to rescue him.
It was ✨Witches VS Vampires✨
Moving on, something happens and she destroys the book of spells. AND VALTU GETS HIS MEMORY BACK. I was so happy at this point that I giggled out loud, making my brother wake up, stare at me, make a weird face and then go back to sleep. It was like 4AM at that point lmao.
THE ENDING WAS SO SATISFYING AND I WAS SO HAPPY FOR THESE TWO. THEY DESERVED IT💗
I cannot tell you how much I loved this duet. It was absolutely perfect and y'all gotta read it! I can't wait to reread it hehe.
Until next time x
See y'all soon with a new post!💟