Dracul

Title: Dracul

Authors: Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker

Publisher: Penguin Random House, 2018

Pages: 493

Genre: horror, gothic fiction

Obtained: from publisher in exchange for an honest review




Summary: Ellen Crone, the nanny of Bram Stoker when he was a child, was a strange woman.  At times she would disappear and then return, acting like nothing was out of the ordinary.  After some murders in a nearby town, Ellen disappeared for good.  Years later Ellen has been spotted by Bram's sister Matilda.  This sighting has coincided with Matilda seeing an obituary with a picture of one of the murdered victims who has not aged since his first death.  How can the same man die twice?

Thoughts: Dracul was written as the prequel to Dracula by Bram Stoker.  Dacre Stoker, the great grand nephew of Bram, teamed up with author, J.D. Barker to create this novel.  The authors used a combination of notes from the journals of Bram Stoker (which included such things as story ideas and information about vampires), and the actual history of the Stoker family, weaving both fiction and nonfiction together to construct this novel.  The result is a book written with a similar writing style to Bram Stoker, which again brings the world of Dracula to life, giving the reader more information and insight into this character.  In addition, it also brings Bram Stoker and his family to life since they are characters in the novel.  The atmosphere and pacing are much like that of Dracula (although I actually found the beginning of this book to be even more creepy), but the story is new. Although the book was 493 pages and looked long, the book did not seem too lengthy while reading it.

Dracula has always been one of my favorite books and I was very skeptical of a prequel to it, but this did not disappoint me at all.  I loved it, and I don't think it could have been done any better.  I was sucked right into the story and stayed there until the end.  This is a must read for anyone that likes the old school horror stories.  Well done!

 I now want to reread Dracula.


                                                                          


Company: Davids Tea

Tea: Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait

Obtained: purchased


Today I tried Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait tea from Davids Tea.  Did you know that, in Romania, hot teas are thought of as something to drink when you have a cold or other physical ailment, and that in a restaurant you would probably only be able to get a fruity, sweet herbal tea?  Well, this is what I read on kingofromania.com .  And isn't this the perfect color tea for a vampire novel?

Anyway, the leaves of this tea were not really leaves, but looked mostly like chunks of dried fruit, which had a strong, fruity scent.  The ingredients of this herbal tea were apple, hibiscus, raisins, carrot, yogurt bits (milk powder, sugar, maltodextrin, modified starch, citric acid), beetroot, strawberry, rhubarb, and natural and artificial flavouring.  I put about two teaspoons of tea into my teapot and poured sixteen ounces of water that had been boiled over this.  I let this brew for about five minutes.  The liquid was a stunning red and the light scent was of sweet strawberries.  The taste was a mix of sweet and tart fruits with the strawberry in the forefront.  It reminded me of strawberry rhubarb pie, maybe with whipped cream on top because it had a creamy aftertaste. If you like sweet strawberry herbal tea, I'm sure you'd like this!

Rogue Lawyer

Title: Rogue Lawyer

Author: John Grisham

Narrator: Mark Deakins

Publisher: Random House Audio, 2015

Genre: mystery, legal thriller

Format: 9 compact discs,  11 1/2 hours

Obtained: passed on from friend




Summary: Sebastian Rudd is a criminal defender who works out of his van and has one employee, who may also be his only friend.  In this book, the reader follows Rudd's life along with his cases.

Thoughts:  I really enjoyed the characters in this story, especially Sebastian Rudd.  If he was a real person, I don't think I would even like him, but I enjoyed reading about him.  The book itself was a collection of Rudd's cases with his life story intertwined.  I enjoyed this format which was quite different for John Grisham.  It kind of shook things up.  I also enjoyed learning about different aspects of the legal system through the various cases.

I like John Grisham's writing style, and although the format of this book was a bit different, the writing style remained the same.  He seems to write about complicated legal matters in a way that an individual not involved with the courts could understand.  He also has many things going on in the story at the same time, but writes so as not to confuse the reader.

The narrator portrayed the characters very well, and spoke clearly.  He told the story at a good pace.  The narrator and the story held my attention and I looked forward to listening to this book.

If you like legal thrillers and interesting characters- give this one a try.



                                                                   




Company: Davids Tea

Tea: Organic Cream of Earl Grey

Obtained: purchased





Today I tried the Organic Cream of Earl Grey from Davids Tea.  The ingredients were black tea, marigolds, cornflowers, and natural flavouring.  This tea has a high caffeine content.  The black tea leaves were long and thin and there were marigold petals mixed in with the tea leaves. They had a sweet scent, not of bergamot like I expected.  I didn't see any cornflower petals.  I put a little over a teaspoon of leaves into my tea ball and poured about 8 ounces of water that had been boiled over the leaves.  I let this steep for 3 minutes.  The dark orange liquid had a faint sweet scent.  The taste was a mixture of flavours. There was a taste of bold, rich black tea, and in the background was a bit of citrus and a bit of sweet vanilla.  I really liked this tea.  It was very different from other earl grey cream teas I have tried.  It wasn't quite as creamy and the background flavour was more of citrus than the usual bergamot taste.  I also liked that the black tea was so bold.  This was a wonderful blend that I really enjoyed on this cold winter day.