Dieses Buch ist der 2. Teil von "Die grausamen Fälle der Audrey Rose". Hier hat mir das Setting richtig gut gefallen! Ich habe dieses mystische und schon leicht gruselige "Dracula-Setting" richtig geliebt! Auch der Fall war wieder sehr spannend und wirklich gut aufgebaut. Man merkt wie viel Mühe sich die Autorin hier gegeben hat. Ich habe gehört das der Fokus im 3. Teil eher auf die Charakterentwicklung geht, worauf ich mich persönlich schon freue, da der Fokus hier im 2. Teil vor allem auf der gruseligen Atmosphäre lag. Dieses Band ist ein toller Nachfolger, den ich wirklich geliebt habe zu lesen. 5 von 5 Sternen!

Es liegt wahrscheinlich an mir aber ich habe während ich das gelesen habe, kaum die Storyline mitbekommen..Was mich interessiert hat, war die Love-Story zwischen den beiden und deren Leben in der Akademie. Trotzdem eigentlich cooles Buch und ich würde ich die Reihe weiter lesen.

<blockquote><b><i>“Perhaps it was time for fathers to teach their sons how to behave around young women. They were not born superior, no matter how society falsely conditioned them. We were all equals here.”</i></b></blockquote> Actual rating: 3.5 stars This is the kind of fun, enjoyable book that usually gets me out of reading slumps. I enjoyed the first book a lot, especially the mystery aspect of it, so I was hoping for the same thing out of this second installment as well. But here, although the author managed to explore the gothic feel of Vlad Dracul's legend and the setting of the novel, it felt like the mystery and suspense were put aside for character development and romance. The whole thing was a little too fantastical and even kind of childish at times, and even the solution, although it was surprising and a plot twist, was a little too much and had this too-quick resolution that left me feeling unsatisfied. The motivations weren't that strong and even the clues were a little bit scattered. I didn't felt that dark atmosphere of danger and things lurking in the shadows as I did in book one and in no way I felt like Audrey Rose was in any serious danger at all, so I couldn't bring myself to worry too much about her. Not even the more gory scenes troubled me as much (except maybe one at the end of the book, but that's because I have major arachnophobia and that scene had me almost crying with panic) BUT the main characters were the actual stars of the whole story and I absolutely love them - Audrey Rose grew a lot as a character in this novel. She had to overcome the consequences of the end of book one and what it meant to her, as well as the judgment and lack of respect of her colleagues and teachers for the fact that she is a woman studying legal medicine in that period. I loved how the author finally brought some much needed badass females to the series and good female friendships. I was also very happy with getting some background for Thomas and his family, although some of it felt a little bit forced and too much, and how his relationship with Audrey Rose is healthy and adorable - he truly respects her, her mind and her wishes and thinks of her as an equal. They really compliment each other very well and I love their scenes. I'm excited for book 3 and see where it will bring our charming detectives, but I hope the author can balance the character development, the romance, and a good mystery because that was one of the best things about Stalking Jack The Ripper.