Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to 'My dear and unfortunate successor'. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history. In those few quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright - a hunt for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the Dracula myth. Deciphering obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions, and evading terrifying adversaries, one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions - a captivating tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful - and utterly unforgettable.

RELEASE NOTES:

At the English meet up.

picked up at the english meetup

not my cup of tea. i gave it until page 200 and it didn't grab me up to that point, so i quit.

reserved for riannone.

RELEASE NOTES:

plan to hand this over at tonight's ladies night

Thanks a lot for reserving it for me concertina8!!

I've given the book three chances but it just can't hold my interest.
The writing is too "clunky"?
And I wonder why a book which is based on letters supposedly written in a hurry end up reading a melodramatic word-by-word recreations of events twenty years past?
I hope I will find a new home soon!!!

Lieber Finder!
Gratulation, dass Sie das Buch gefunden haben! Ich hoffe, Sie werden es mögen!
Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn Sie sich die Zeit nehmen, Ihre Meinung über das Buch nach dem Lesen hier einzugeben!
Das ist anonym und kostenlos für Sie!
Danke und viel Spaß beim Lesen :-)

OBCZ Café Einstein - am shelf

Lieber Finder!
Gratulation, dass Sie das Buch gefunden haben! Ich hoffe, Sie werden es mögen!
Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn Sie sich die Zeit nehmen, Ihre Meinung über das Buch nach dem Lesen hier einzugeben!
Das ist anonym und kostenlos für Sie!
Danke und viel Spaß beim Lesen wünscht,
CafeEinstein

I enjoyed it. Might not be the best book ever written but well worth a read -if you like vampire stories or historical fiction :-)