Late one night, exploring her father's library, a woman discovers an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to "my dear and unfortunate successor"

Well I enjoyed this. Bit of a love story, lots of history (if that's not real historical stuff it's very well made up!), not TOO heavy on the vampire stuff, though of course Dracula does make an appearance several times.

Whilst the daughter is prevalent at the start of the book, she does get "lost" in the middle, and makes a smallish appearance at the end of the book, which was a bit of a disappointment, as she was the one who initiated the story at the beginning

Sent as a ring in the following order:

PenguinSilja
Caroline080
Aubriel
aveburysurfer


and finally back to me! (Nordie)

Got this in the post today, thanks!

In a word, I thought this book was "meh". The way the story is told, in a mixture of letters, third and first person accounts, with the first person narrator changing, is interesting, but also confusing, especially in the beginning, and also because as Nordie said the book sets up the daughter as the main heroine of the book and then she sort of disapears. I realise this is novel, but the mere hinting at the social and political issues of Eastern Europe at the time sort of frustrated me- either talk about it a bit more and how it affected people, or leave it out.

That being said, I really liked the initial idea of finding a book that brings you on a journey- that has happened to me several times in less dramatic ways than this- and the story itself is decent. Despite all I said above, this is not a bad book, and it reads well. It just didn't really capture me, and I am not sure I see what the hype is about that I heard about this book.

Book will go into the post tomorrow to Caroline080, the next person in this mini-ring.

Received from PenguinSilja, by post from Ireland. Many thanks! I look forward to reading it.

I'm now more than halfway through the book, and I like it. I agree with nordie so far, "lots of history (if that's not real historical stuff it's very well made up!)". It does require the reader to pay attention, to keep track of the different timelines, and I'm wondering how it's going to finish!

I won't give anything away, but I can say that the finish wasn't disappointing. The story is complex but it's worth reading carefully, to keep track of the different generations of historians in search of Dracula. I'm not sure which of them is the Historian of the title, but it doesn't matter.

On its way to Aubriel in Sheffield.

Arrived this morning. I've another ring ahead of this, but hopefully should get to quite quickly. They may, however, be famous last words ;-)

I really enjoyed this one. It was one of those books that sucked me in so I couldn't tell you how well it was written or anything like that. For quite a weighty book, it didn't take long at all.

Posted on to aveburysurfer this afternoon

I can't see my 'book has arrived' entry, though I know I did one.

Anyway, I have finally finished this weighty paperback.

Without giving the plot away, this is what I thought of it: The beginning was exciting, then, as the story progressed, it really wasn't that exciting unless you like Romanian/Hungarian/Ottoman History. I think the author must have done an awful lot of research and was determined not to leave a scrap out, to the detriment of the story. Anyway, more towards the end, exciting things began to happen again, just a shame about the middle!!

I'm grateful to have been given the chance to read the book though.Now the book goes back to Nordie.

got this back from RubyBlueLady a few days ago (forgot to catch again, sorry!) and is off on it's sunny travels again...

RELEASE NOTES:

Received from nordie at BMAG. It's on the pile!

And it's been on the pile for so long that I know it's not going to be read any time soon!

On the book swap shelf at the back of Mary Seacole library.

This book has been released for the Never Judge A Book By Its Cover release challenge 2014, Week 13 (1st quarter re-do: red on the cover, Week 16).

Welcome to Bookcrossing! You are about to lose a whole chunk of your life, but I assure you it will be worthwhile. Do let us know your thoughts about this book, and your plans for its next move.

Why not join Birmingham Bookcrossers for their regular meetup ? Fourth Saturday of the month, 2 pm at York's Bakery Cafe, Newhall Street, Birmingham city centre. We have a Facebook page which gives more info.