Please join Karen Essex as she tours for the paperback release of Dracula In Love!

{SYNOPSIS}

Release Date:  July 5, 2011 | Random House | 385p

“Reader, you are about to enter a world that exists simultaneous with your own. But be warned: in its realm, there are no rules, and there is certainly no neat formula to become—or to destroy—one who has risen above the human condition…The truth is, we must fear monsters less and be warier of our own kind.”

London, 1890. Mina Murray, the rosy-cheeked, quintessentially pure Victorian heroine, becomes Count Dracula’s object of desire. To preserve her chastity, five male “defenders” rush in to rescue her from the vampire’s evil clutches. This is the version of the story we’ve been told. But now, from Mina’s own pen, we discover that the story is vastly different when told from the female point of view.

In this captivating, bold act of storytelling, award-winning author Karen Essex breathes startling new life into the characters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, transporting the reader into the erotic and bizarre underbelly of the original story. While loosely following the events of its classic predecessor, Dracula in Love deviates from the path at every turn.

The result is a darkly haunting, propulsive, and rapturous tale of immortal love and possession.

From the shadowy banks of the river Thames to the wild and windswept Yorkshire coast, Dracula’s eternal muse—the most famous woman in vampire lore—vividly recounts the joys and terrors of a passionate affair that has linked her and the Count through the centuries, and her rebellion against her own frightening preternatural powers.

Mina’s version of this gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into Victorian England’s dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and terrifying asylum chambers, revealing the dark secrets and mysteries locked within. Time falls away as she is swept into a mythical voyage far beyond mortal comprehension, where she must finally make the decision she has been avoiding for almost a millennium.

Stoker’s Dracula offered one side of the story, in which Mina was a victim bearing no responsibility for the unfolding events. Now, for the first time, the truth of her secret history, and of vampirism itself, is revealed. What this flesh and blood woman has to say is more sensual, more devious, and more enthralling than the Victorians could have expressed or perhaps even imagined.

Read an excerpt HERE.

PRAISE FOR DRACULA IN LOVE…

“Dark, gothic, and utterly sensual, Dracula in Love is the novel for Twilight’s grownup fans. The character of Mina Murray leaps from the pages in an extraordinary confession of what truly happened between her and Count Dracula. In this novel of forbidden desires and secrecy, purity is an overrated virtue.”

—Michelle Moran, bestselling author of Nefertiti & The Heretic Queen

“Karen Essex turns the legendary tale of immortal love into a seductive, blood-tingling celebration of the senses; Mina Harker is a heroine for the ages—bold, intrepid, and in love with one of the most dangerous, irresistible men in history. If you read only one more vampire novel, let it be this one!”

-C.W. Gortner, author of The Last Queen & The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

BOOK TRAILER…

ABOUT KAREN ESSEX

Karen is an award-winning novelist, journalist and screen writer. Her novels include the internationally best-selling Leonardo’s Swans, Stealing Athena, and two novels on the queen of Egypt, Kleopatra and Pharoah.

Essex was born and raised in New Orleans. She was graduated from Tulane University, attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University, and received an MFA in Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She’s appeared on The Today Show and A Word on Words hosted by John Seigenthaler, as well as other PBS and NPR programs. She’s lectured at the Chicago Museum of Art, and extensively at universities. Her books are taught in many college courses from creative writing to history to women’s studies.

Leonardo’s Swans, a runaway bestseller in Italy, won the prestigious 2007 Premio Roma for foreign fiction. Essex’s novels are published in twenty-seven languages. She lives in London.
For more information, please visit her WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK PAGE

VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 5th
Review at The Book Buff
Author Guest Post at Book Flame

Wednesday, July 6th
Review at Book Flame

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Author Guest Post at The Book Buff

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Author Guest Post & Giveaway at To Read or Not to Read

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Review at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
Author Guest Post & Giveaway at The Bibliophilic Book Blog

Tuesday, July 12th
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Wednesday, July 13th
Review at The Bibliophilic Book Blog

Thursday, July 14th

Book Highlight at Books Devoured

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Monday, July 18th
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Thursday, July 21st
Author Guest Post at Jenny Loves to Read
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Review at My Reading Room
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Author Interview & Giveaway at All Things Historical Fiction

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Wednesday, July 27th
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