Blood Orange

Karina Halle — 2022

Once there was a man who fell deeply in love with a woman he could never have. When their affair was uncovered she was brutally murdered in front of him, and he discovered he was cursed, doomed to live forever as a vampire. Over the centuries, he found his love again, and lost her again, until he was so broken he gave up on love entirely, sinking into the depths of depravity, losing his humanity. Then one day, she came back into his life. A student of music studying under him at the conservatory in Venice, Italy where he was a professor. But even though he found her beautiful and intriguing, he didn’t recognize his fated mate at all. Because this time she had to hide her true self. This time she came back as a witch, whose destiny wasn’t to love him…but to kill him. Blood Orange is a modern-day Dracula retelling about the “real-life” Dracula that inspired Bram Stoker. This is a dark vampire romance with plenty of content warnings (check interior of book for CW) and while it is a spinoff of The Dark Eyes Duet, it can be read as a standalone. It was previously referred to as "King of Darkness"

Reviews

big ab@snapitsabbey

Sep 30, 2024

probably more like a 3.5, but i was really annoyed that he messed up her hair before her big organ concert so im giving it 3 stars. a witch/vampire slayer falls in love with THE dracula who is also her professor? but wait she’s also the reincarnation of his first love??? lol happy halloween, officially entering spooky season and this is a great mood setter.

Nik ✨@nixter

Aug 28, 2024

I can’t tell if it’s because I went into this book with low expectations or if it was genuinely good, but I liked it. I always love when authors find ways to reinvent vampires. When it comes to smut books, I have gotten used to no plot and an abundance of sex, but I was pleasantly surprised that there was actually a plot to move us through the story.

Grace Wong@graceslibrary

May 22, 2024

I liked the story line but too much smut for me

Lyndsy Argento@lyndsyc32

Feb 20, 2024

i enjoyed this one and the ending had me gagged

marta @mmartta

Dec 22, 2023

3.5★

Katie Allard@ktallard

Sep 8, 2023

The way this book ended, in my opinion negated the entirety of the novel. While I didn’t see it coming, it was because it basically made the whole story pointless. The book desperately needed an editor, both grammatically and thematically. There were gigantic plot holes or things central to the story the author didn’t even bother to flesh out. Everything was dealt with a very heavy hand. The spice was the only good thing about this book. This was mainly vibes no plot because our FMC did fuck all except fuck Valtu, and while I’m not mad about that, again, the ending negates what little plot the author actually tried to create. It was like she just wanted the MMC to be so super duper traumatized, even though one could argue he already was. Seriously wtf did I just read.

Shelby BD @shelbylynnebd

Mar 7, 2023

I really liked the plot and the story. SUPER spicy 🌶️!

I really wanted to see where this story would go, and the ending… I’m a little sad!

SPOILERS!

I enjoyed Dahlias character, I am upset we won’t get to see more with their dynamic.

Excited for the second book!

This review contains a spoiler

Sloan MacDonald@itsmesloaner

Feb 6, 2023

3.5⭐️ Karina girly .. you cannot leave my on a cliff hanger like that wtf … okay this book took me by surprise, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. this helped with the Blue and Orion withdrawals I have been going through. even though there’s A LOT of sex in this, the actual plot was really intriguing. HOWEVER, the spicy scenes in this book were a bit much for me tbh. they’re quite raunchy and explicit (uses the word c*nt a lot) which is not my taste at all, but to each their own. please read trigger warnings before reading this.