This is my first review so apologies if its a bit disjointed.

This book has me a bit conflicted on rating, It's somewhere between a 2 and a 3 for me. Despite its flaws I still had a good time reading it and the ending surprised me enough to have to read the second in the duet. (20% in currently)

The description and concept really appealed to me and had my hopes pretty high. There was an interesting subplot that unfortunately didn't come into play too much in this book, but may become more relevant in the second. Regardless I wish it had played a bigger part in this one.

The romance was a little too "quick burn" for me. With the basis of their dynamic being Professor/Student I would have liked to have seen more grappling with the ethical concerns from the characters. I would have also liked to have seen more of basis to their relationship besides the reincarnation and "shared darkness".

Valtu's inner monologue and dialogue struck me as bit too modern or immature for a 300 year old vampire on occasion, especially one who is supposedly the legendary Dracula himself. Despite that I did like his characterization most of the time and

Spoiler

appreciated his honesty with Dahlia about him being a vampire. (honesty that was not returned)

Also, his tragic backstory got some genuinely gut-wrenching reactions out of me.

I would have liked to have seen more "witchy shit" from our witch, Dahlia. I also wished we were told more about her origins in the guild, and the "indoctrination" she eludes to throughout the story.

The writing itself is decent enough, although I did feel I was bring told and not shown on many occasions, and found environmental descriptions to be a bit lacking when trying to picture the scenes.

The smut in this book is plentiful, If you are looking for hot vampire-flavored sex then you will find it here.

The ending threw me for a loop and had me open-mouthed staring at the page, and then immediately downloading the second book. So take that for what you will.