My Love Lies Bleeding - Book #1 in the Drake Chronicles Series by Alyxandra Harvey - 3 STARS

My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey

 

Three full  of potential stars

Blurb - The Drakes are rather different to your usual neighbours. They are vampires and some of the members of the family date back to the twelfth century. One of the children, Solange, is the only born female vampire known and, as such, she poses a direct threat to the vampire queen. Her best friend Lucy is human, and when Solange is kidnapped, Lucy and Solange's brother, Nicholas, set out to save her. Lucy soon discovers that she would like to be more than just friends with Nicholas. But how does one go about dating a vampire? Meanwhile, Solange finds an unlikely ally in Kieran, a vampire slayer on the hunt for his father's killer.

 

My Love Lies Bleeding is book #1 in the Drake Chronicles Series by Alyxandra Harvey and is the first book I have read by this author.

My first impressions are good; it feels like a romance story with a vampire backdrop. I get Buffy with a bit of Twilight thrown in but I like both of those so for me so far so good.

The Good Bits...

·         Lucy, she’s the eccentric sidekick but for me she steals the show in this book.

·         Nicholas, he has potential but I don’t feel like we see enough of his personality in this book.

The not so good bits...

·         I kind of feel like I’ve read this book before, the story feels like a lot of influences from other books and TV/films and made into a book.

·         Could have done with a glossary to help figure out who is who and what lol.

Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed this book I read it in one go. I’m hoping that my reticence about this book is because its book one of a series and is basically an intro into the world of the Drakes.

I loved Lucy she’s only sixteen but she’s fab, strong, loveable and generally adorable. I thought after the first few chapters that she may end up getting turned vampire but I’m not so sure anymore.

I know that really this series of books is about Solange and the Drakes but I struggled to engage with Solange. I liked her instant attraction to Kieran and I feel like he is an interesting character to add to the mix.

I was a bit disappointed when the Lady Natasha was killed, not because I wanted her to kill Solange and the Drakes but more because I felt she could have been an interesting enemy for the next book.

I’m not sure what to make of Montmarte, I imagine him as some moustache twirling old school villain but he comes across as a bit of a perv. He wants to marry a sixteen year old girl hoping she can have vampire babies and make him king talk about playing the long game!!

Lucy & Nicholas are cute its young love, sweet and endearing but I definitely didn’t feel any real passion or first love obsession. Lucy describes it as having a crush on him and that exactly what it felt like.

I liked that there are loads of brothers and I’m assuming we will follow them ultimately meeting girls and falling in love.

I loved that Helena is a badass and taught all of her kids how to fight, I imagine her as some willowy Lara Croft type character hiding weapons in her dress lol.

I feel like this series has massive potential and I will defiantly read the next book.