Review: Blood Orange (The Dracula Duet #1)

Title: Blood Orange (The Dracula Duet #1)
Author: Karina Halle
Genre: Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Karina Halle
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 16, 2022
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Once there was a man who fell deeply in love with a woman he could never have. When their affair was uncovered she was brutally murdered in front of him, and he discovered he was cursed, doomed to live forever as a vampire.

Over the centuries, he found his love again, and lost her again, until he was so broken he gave up on love entirely, sinking into the depths of depravity, losing his humanity.

Then one day, she came back into his life. A student of music studying under him at the conservatory in Venice, Italy where he was a professor. But even though he found her beautiful and intriguing, he didn’t recognize his fated mate at all.

Because this time she had to hide her true self.

This time she came back as a witch, whose destiny wasn’t to love him…but to kill him.

Blood Orange is a modern-day Dracula retelling about the “real-life” Dracula that inspired Bram Stoker. This is a dark vampire romance with plenty of content warnings (check interior of book for CW) and while it is a spinoff of The Dark Eyes Duet, it can be read as a standalone. It was previously referred to as “King of Darkness”

Review:

Dahlia Abernathy is a witch who has been trained to be a vampire hunter. Her goal is to pretend to be a music student and kill Professor Valtu Aminoff, the vampire who inspired Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. However, Dahlia didn’t expect to fall in love with him. Dahlia disguises her appearance under a glamour, so that Valtu can’t see that she’s actually a witch. Valtu also can’t see through her disguise that Dahlia is actually the reincarnated version of his first loves who died tragically. Their love is put to the ultimate test when they discover the truth and have to decide if history will repeat itself. 

This was an intense story. It was spicy and bloody. There were some quite graphic scenes that were difficult to read. I highly recommend checking the content warnings before reading this book. 

Though it was a graphic story, I absolutely loved the ending. I love the idea of history repeating itself, particularly when someone is reincarnated through different time periods. This story ended on a cliffhanger, so I’m glad the sequel will be out on December 31!

Blood Orange is a spicy and intense story!

What to read next:

Other books in the series:

• Black Rose

Have you read Blood Orange? What did you think of it?