Dracula In Love Review and Giveaway

Dracula In Love
                                 Karen Essex
                                 Hardcover 384 pgs.
                                 Doubleday Publishing (Aug 10,2010)
Synopsis From Goodreads:
Karen Essex turns on the heat in this transporting and darkly haunting new tale of love and possession that puts forth the question: What if everything you knew about Dracula . . . was wrong?

From the shadowy banks of the River Thames to the wild and windswept coast of Yorkshire, the quintessential Victorian virgin Mina Murray vividly recounts in the pages of her private diary the intimate details of what transpired between her and Count Dracula—the joys and terrors of a pas­sionate affair and her rebellion against a force of evil that has pursued her through time.
Mina’s version of this timeless Gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into the dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and locked asylum chambers where she led a secret life, far from the chaste and polite lifestyle the defenders of her purity, and even her fiance, Jonathan Harker, expected of her.
Bram Stoker’s classic novel was only one side of the story. Now, for the first time, Dracula’s eternal muse reveals all. What she has to say is more sensual, more devious, and more enthralling than ever imagined. The result is a scintillating Gothic novel that reinvents the tragic heroine Mina as a modern woman tor­tured by desire.
 
My Take on this book:
 
The author has written a fresh perspective on Bram Stoker's Dracula in which she tells the story from Mina Harker's point of view. Mina is portrayed as a very strong character in this story. Since childhood Mina had suffered from bouts of sleepwalking as well as strange visions and dreams, sometimes the they were terrifying and other times very erotic, and a haunting  figure  keeps appearing in her dreams, and for some unexplainable reason she is strongly  attracted to him. We are teased for over half of the book with descriptions of this mysterious figure before Dracula is introduced.
There are so many twists and turns in this book I couldn't put it down. I think my favorite part of the book was the time Mina spent in the asylum. The authors descriptions was so real that you could feel the torture Mina was going thru. I feel it was also very clever of the author to hold of on introducing Dracula until the latter part of the book, the anticipation of knowing what was coming kept me turning the pages as fast as I could.
I must say I myself was a little surprised at the end and the choice Mina made, and wonder how the story might have been had she made a different choice.
If your looking for a book that has romance, historical appeal and paranormal all rolled together then your going to love this book.. I will warn that even though its a great goth read that does have some vivid sexual scenes that may not appeal to some, but I felt like they were tastefully done.
I easily rate this book a solid 5. If you would like a chance to read it for yourself be sure and check out my giveaway.