Maggie Shayne: Prince of Twilight

Review by Vicky London

Prince of Twilight is the story of Vlad Dracula (yes, The Dracula). Vlad’s wife ends her life tragically because his family thought he was killed in battle. When Vlad returns home to find his beloved Elisabeta dead he can’t accept it. He gathers a group of powerful sorcerers and asks them to try and save her. They can’t bring her back from the dead so they trap a part of her soul in her wedding ring. According to a prophecy, Elisabeta’s soul will be allowed to return in 500 years in another woman. The ring, along with a rite written on a scroll by the sorcerers will allow Vlad to free his wife and be with her once again.

Tempest “Stormy” Jones had some weird episodes over 16 years ago when Elisabeta began to try and take over her body. The episodes got worse when she met Dracula who sensed the soul of his beloved was near. The scroll and ring were lost so he has no way to restore his wife. It would also mean the “death” of Stormy since her soul could not survive if Elisabeta took over. Dracula has been watching her and waiting. His chance arrives when the ring is rediscovered at a Canadian museum.

Stormy has been in love with Dracula since she met him. The problem is that he is only attracted to her because his wife resides within her body. When the mysterious Athena organization contacts her to steal the ring for them, Stormy decides she wants to destroy the ring to prevent Dracula from performing the rite.

I have a long list of peeves with this book in particular. If you haven’t read it and don’t want any spoilers, don’t read any further.

t takes place 16 (16!!) years after the last book in the series. If you haven’t read these books, good luck trying to figure out what order to read them in.
Dracula, really?
Dracula can take the form of a raven but he has to spin around and around really fast first.
Tempest’s insistence on being called Stormy. Aren’t the names pretty much the same thing? At the end of the book we discover that Dracula is really an ancient Sumerian Storm god. STORM? aha! That explains everything (huh???)
Dracula has to “make love” to Stormy against her will (uhhhh isn’t that rape?) and she’s okay with that. That’s just weird on so many levels.
Stormy is really stuck on Dracula even though he pretty much wants to kill her. At least she admits that’s really twisted.
Dracula only knew his wife for a few days and we’re supposed to believe he was so in love with her that he would wait for 500 years and put up with her psycho behavior to bring her back to life.
The ending is just way too convenient. I would have liked it better if Stormy was going to grow old and die. Can you imagine being married for eternity to some bossy Sumerian storm god not to mention the most famous vampire of all time? No, I can’t.

Prince of Twilight is currently available in the US and UK. You can order this book by clicking on the Amazon.com link above.

Read an Excerpt of Prince of Twilight

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