[an error occurred while processing this directive]


Blood To Blood reviewed by Carol Castellanos



Book Image   Blood To Blood by ELAINE BERGSTROM   Stars Image
Vampire - Horror
ISBN: 0441007740
Publisher: Ace Books
Date: October 2000
Pages: 309
Price: $5.99
Distribution: Mass Market Paperback

This is a follow up to Mina by Elaine Bergstrom/Marie Kiraly.

We revisit Mina after her ordeal with the vampires and once Dracula is truly dead. 
Mina is trying to piece back together her life. She and Jonathan Harker are living 
separately partly her fault and some his. Jonathan also had his own ordeal at the 
hands of the three vampire women to deal with. Illona and Karina were now dead
but Dracula's half sister Joanna Tepes still lives. 

Joanna now on her own summons up the courage to go to England originally to take
revenge on those who killed her brother.  Through hundreds of year Joanna was 
starved by the more dominant vampiress Illona, now that she is no longer dominated
by another she is unsure what to do. Partially mad after the years of starvation she 
sets out to revenge the death of her brother. Thus she sets out for England after 
Mina and Jonathan.  While undertaking her mission to travel to England Joanna 
manages to make friends with a woman.  This woman becomes not only Joanna's 
caretaker by day but also her friend and lover by night.

During this time Mina and Jonathan are having their own situations. Mina has
inherited a house and land from her dead lover Lord Gance. This does not sit
well with Jonathan, which makes for more tension between them. Jonathan 
becomes unsure whether there is any kind of future in store for he and Mina 
now.  Can they possibly get over her infidelity?  What about what he suffered
at the hands of the vampiress' is this something he will ever come to terms with?
 
As if things aren't even more complicated women are turning up dead. Which 
means a killer is on the loose. Arthur is plagued by doubts about the killing 
of his true love Lucy, who was turned vampire by Dracula. He becomes 
determined to find a vampire and find out whether vampires are truly 
inherently evil. If so then their execution of Lucy his true love, was warranted,
but if not then they made a horrible mistake. One he will have to live with for
the rest of his life.

Many question arise from all of this. For example what is the killer of the 
slain women's association with Mina? Will Mina survive this association?
What role do Joanna and her human lover play in this whole situation? Will
Arthur find the answers he is seeking? Will Jonathan and Mina reunite or 
will what happened separate them forever?

How this all turns out makes for an interesting read. Though personally I
enjoyed the first book more then this one it was still interesting to follow
Mina, Jonathan, Van Helsing and the others into life after Dracula.
Copyright © 2001 Carol Castellanos All Rights Reserved.