Customer Reviews

Bleeding Hearts (Drake Chronicles)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I received this book from Netgalley for review.

Bleeding Hearts is the fourth book in the Drake Chronicles series. It is written from the POV of Lucy, her cousin Christabel and Connor Drake.

In the first book, the focus was on the Drake family, the second the Helios Ra, the third the Hounds and in this instalment, its the Hel Blar.

There is an epidemic of Hel Blar in Violet Hill but now they are acting differently. They are wearing collars and are being controlled. Buy by who?

Lucy's cousin Christabel has come to stay and they have a very strict curfew. Christabel cant understand why its needed in such a small, quiet town. She feels there is something going on that Lucy, Nicholas and his cute brother Connor are not letting her in on. And then she is kidnapped having been mistaken for Lucy!

I enjoyed this book. I liked seeing Lucy back in the main frame as I really like her character and her relationship with Nicholas. Christabel is a strong female character who is tough and sometimes sarcastic. And we see a new side to Connor who is usually just stuck in front of a computer. This one is as action packed as all the rest with the usual great dialect.

There is an interesting sideline involving Solange and it looks like this will resolved in the next instalment.

The downside is a cliffhanger ending which is something that I find offputting.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and will be enjoyed by most paranormal fans. I look forward to the next one!

I have so much love for this series! I mean multiple perspectives? Adorable boys? Warring vampire factions? Tough girls? Dark humor? Sign me up!!! As an added bonus the characters are quirky and fun. Each book is full of fast paced action as well as non-angsty romance. The families portrayed are not perfect and I love them for it. Sure, sometimes they annoy each other but they are a family and there for one another. I also really like how each book focuses on a different Drake sibling and their "love connection" (not as corny as that sounds!) but also continues the overall arc of the series.

Bleeding Hearts focuses on Conner (Quinn's adorably geeky yet still oh so pretty twin) and Lucy's cousin Christabel. Conner has a bit of a challenge since Christabel doesn't know vampires exist! Conner is one of my favorite Drake brothers. I really enjoyed "watching" him and Cristabel get to know one another. Nobody tops Lucy and Nicholas though! They are by far my favorite of the couples :)

I do have to say that I had to re-read the ending three times before I realized that it was indeed the end and I'd have to wait for the next book to find out what happened. I was reading it on my iPad and didn't notice the word "epilogue" so I totally thought that there was more of the book to go! Seriously. I was hoping against hope that I was having an ebook fail. But alas, it was truly the end. My notes literally say, "What?!? No! Nonononono! More! I need more now! More, more, more, more, more." As you can see I am very eloquent when taking notes!

I have enjoyed every book in this series. They are fun and engaging reads. When I'm in a reading slump or have read too many "heavy" books I know I can count on Alyxandra Harvey to amuse me.

The next book in the Drake Chronicles, Bleeding Hearts, hit shelves on Dec. 20, 2011. Written by Alyxandra Harvey, and published by Walker Books for Young Readers, it is a paranormal romance involving vampires.

The Story: It's time for Connor Drake to meet his love interest. Lucy's cousin, Christabel, is in town, and doesn't understand why everyone is so scared to go out at night. So, what's a teen to do? She goes out of course, and straight into the arms of a vampire.

Meanwhile, the Drake family has other problems. The Hel Blar, zombie like vampires, seem to be rallying under a new leader and attacking other vampires in droves. Solange Drake, still recovering from her transformation into a vamp, is still unbalanced. Lucy, her best friend, only wants to help. Of course, Nicholas Drake, Lucy's boyfriend, tries to protect her. Keiran, Solange's boyfriend, and Helios-Ra warrior doesn't know what to do. And so the story goes.

My thoughts: A really big mix of a lot of different characters, but hey, it works. I enjoy following the Drakes and their love interests through out all the books. This time, the story gets a little twist with Christabel. Nobody tells her what is going on, thinking to protect her. Of course, she just ends up in the middle of everything and her life hangs in the balance.

This book in the series wasn't quite as exciting as the previous book, Out For Blood. It feels more like a bridge book, filling in empty plot points before the next book. But, it is good fun. Plus, the ending is- wow! A total cliff hanger. It will definitely make you yearn for the next in the series. I can't wait to find out what happens.
[...]

This is another fabulous sequel following the Chronicles of the Drake Dynasty of Vampires. I couldn't be happier to have found this series, and I'm such an avid fan now, I don't know what I'll do until Alyxandra Harvey continues on to the next one! Thankfully, "Bleeding Hearts" has given us some more answers about Solange's strange, feral ways after her vampirish change in our last encounter with the family!

Alyxandra Harvey books are nothing short of addictive. I know you've heard about vampire books adnauseam, but you haven't heard it from me, because I'm maniacally selective. The books are such fun, such good stories, and have such great characters that you'll eat them up like M&M's and you'll find yourself craving just one more like I'm doing now. I'm throwing all my chips in for the Drake Family and Friends, I have to say, new favs.

Harvey is a better writer than Meyer, in my opinion. Her characters are more complex and more exotic. She casts her spell with a gorgeous group of vampires, feisty friends, intriguing foes, and lots of unusual background information on monster-degenerate vamps to keep it lively. Gothic details are lush.

In "Bleeding Hearts" what I found most enjoyable, aside from all I mention above, was Alyxandra Harvey's extensive reference to poetry in conjunction with the action around her new character, Christabel. So dark and gothic to hear Keats, Shelley, Coleridge and others quoted by the bookish cousin who is swept up in a vampire war without her understanding to begin with, of the dark forces in Violet Hill. It was simply to die for! And I so enjoyed Ms Harvey's exotic introduction of new forms of vampire spawn; as well as viral reactions to different vampire saliva. Gruesome! Utterly inventive work and well-written.

Alyxandra Harvey is a very good writer. I highly recommend "Bleeding Hearts" to all who want to read an entertaining, well-devised vampire story about a family dynasty that will draw you in to their exotic story. I'm sure you'll be searching for more in this series. I bought the other books right away, although you don't have to have read them to enjoy this one. A great read! Captivating, creative and charming.

You must have this book for your library, along with the others in this series if you haven't already read them! You'll be sending me "thank you" notes after you get absorbed in them over a long weekend...

I've loved the Drake Chronicles to this point. I like how it's a continuation of the same story, but a new character becomes a spotlight. It seems like before the character gets their own story, we don't seem to know much about them. I like how each character find their "perfect" match.

What I liked about this story is the direction the storyline seems to be taking. It's getting a little bit darker the deeper in we get. The transition of power doesn't seem to be easy and it's interesting how it's effecting this family. I actually hope we might get a book from the parents point of view eventually. I think their story might be very interesting. There was a short story type of thing at the end, but I'm not sure if that was preview of the next book. All I can say is I want more. And I really want to know what the heck is going on with Solange.

I also really liked how we get a little bit more of the characters we've seen in previous books. Nick and Lucy for example aren't just background characters in this book. I've missed them! I also really loved the way Lucy's character has grown. She's staking her mark on the vampire world. Even if she's only human.

I did feel the main characters of Connor and Christabel were a bit of a let down. There was something missing from their story. Christabel didn't seem to get fired up over anything, which made it hard for me to understand was Connor saw in her. I did like Connor a little bit more. It does seem the story played him off as the "geek" enough that I had a hard time getting to know him.

Obviously nothing that will keep me from reading the next book in the series. The story ended with a cliffhanger, that I have to know what happens next. Plus, I love enough of the characters that I want to see were the series takes them.

this book could not get no better, again lucy is funny, i hope she gets a happy ending when the series stops.

What has consistently been so fun about The Drake Chronicles is the smart and clever dialogue combined with the shifting romances between the various members of the Drake family. Unfortunately, BLEEDING HEARTS isn't quite up to scratch compared to the rest of this series. In the fourth installment, of the three character POVs (which included Lucy, Connor, and Christabel) not one of them really captured my attention, least of all the newly introduced Christabel, one half of the primary couple.

Christabel is an ignorant human sent to live with her cousin (and Drake family confidant), Lucy. She's obsessed with dead literary icons and shuns most human interaction preferring instead to lose herself in a classic novel. Normally, I love reading about obsessively bookish characters since they are so relatable for me, but in Christabel's case, her entire character felt like a bunch of randomly chosen quirks and characteristics cobbled together to fit a specific plot. Why does she only like bad boys? The only reason I could discern was to make the inevitable romance with nice and nerdy Connor feel like it had an actual obstacle to over come (it didn't). She never felt real, or even really likable.

In addition to the two dimensional Christabel, even the various characters from previous books fell flat. Lucy has been this fun, snarky presence that popped in and kept the Drakes from being too surly or brooding. She kept things light and easy. Or she used too. In BLEEDING HEARTS, she was just demanding and precocious (not even a little cute on a sixteen year old). Every chapter from her POV seemed to drag with annoying perkiness and obnoxious pushiness. Not at all the character I remember.

Worse still was the redundancy due to the shifting POVs. Something would happen, then as often as not, I'd have to read about the exact same scene from two other character perspectives. It made the whole story unbelievably slow and boring. I almost gave up a number of times, but it was only my fondness for the previous books that kept me reading. After being so disappointment this time, I'm on the fence about picking up the next book in The Drake Chronicles series which is tentatively titled BLOOD MOON and, according to the author's website, the POVs are Solange, Lucy and Nicholas.

Sexual Content:
Kissing

BLEEDING HEARTS, by Alyxandra Harvey, is another fantastic addition to The Drake Chronicles. I can always count on these books for a great action-filled love story with the hot boys of the Drake family. This book included another outsider coming into the drama-filled life of this vampire family.

I was so happy that Lucy was featured again in this book, along with POVs from her cousin, Christabel, and Connor Drake. I am the biggest fan of Lucy and Nicholas and I am happy to see they are doing well! In this book, Christabel is living with Lucy because her mother is going through rehab. She is a city girl who loves books, definitely my kind of girl! Eventually she is introduced to the vampires in a not so subtle way and Connor helps her through the transition. They are definitely two geeks in a pod and adorable. I always go into the books a little skeptical because I already love the established characters so much but I am never disappointed, I just keep adding to my list of beloved characters.

The tension is definitely stepped up in this book along with the introduction of a different type of vampire. Harvey brings together the cast of all previous books into the fight to keep the Drakes from harm. The suspense climbed higher in each chapter and the book ended with a massive cliffhanger that will make you want the next book...yesterday. The only hanging threads character-wise was Solange. She was kept in the background mostly in this book and she definitely inherited a creepiness factor. Her change is unlike the rest and she is definitely not the girl I ever imagined she would turn into. I am anxious to see what happens to her in the next book.

At the end of the book, Harvey included a short story showcasing how Helena and Liam met called "Lost Girls". Definitely adorable and I loved it!

Fans of the series will want to add this to their collection ASAP and those who aren't on the Drake train yet need to catch up on this fantastic series!

I am a huge die hard fan of Alyxandra Harvey so I was super excited to get the netgalley version of this book to review! I love this series and I wasn't disappointed in this great addition to the Drake Chronicles.

It is told with three POV's Lucy (my fav. character!), her cousin Christabel (what a name), and Conner Drake (the nerdy drake). If you have kept up with the series you know that the Drakes are royalty among the vampires and Solange is having a hard time with her blood change.

Now its time for the Blood Moon and all the vampires from all around are coming to the Drakes and their are some Hel Blar that are wanting recognized during the Blood Moon, they are blue but not like the other Hel Blar.

The Hel Blar are rampaging Violet Hill, but some of them are acting a little stranger and wearing weird collars, who is controlling them?

Christabel has come to visit, but they are under strick curfews because of the resent events with the Hel Blar. Lucy's parents don't even really want her hanging out with the Drakes but her boyfriend is Nicholas one of the vampire princes and she won't stay away. Then Christabel is kidnapped because they thought they were grabbing Lucy and Conner Drake runs to the rescue.

Conner Drake is the computer nerd of the Drakes, still hot and sexy like the others but has a love for computers, comics and Star Wars. Christabel always has her nose in a book, most of the books she has read so many times she has them memorized, and likes bad boys. Conner is not a bad boy at least she doesn't think he is until she gets to see a different side of him when he comes to her rescue. I think they make a interesting couple.

Lucy is still my all time favorite character, because she is so mouthy, gutsy, and feisty. Because of this I really hate the way Solange has been acting towards her, and in general I don't like the turn of events regarding this character. I really hope the author redeems her and puts her back to being nice again. Right now I just want to ring her neck and it makes me mad.

Over all I really liked this addition to the Drake Chronicles and I can't wait for the next installment, my only real complaint was the cliffhanger ending. I really hate them, and this one has ultimate hate, and nothing had better of happened to a certain person or I will really be upset. :(

Recommend this series for all vampire fans!
Gave it 4.5 stars.

As the other reviewers have noted this book is from the POV of CHristabel (Lucy's cousin), Conner Drake and Lucy.
Christabel is not a very likeable heroine. She is not really fleshed out as a person, and I have no real interest in her.
COnner pretty much loves/lies her at first site.
I had to resist skimming through their sections, which is why I deducted 1 star.

Lucy however is Great!
I love her snarky POV, and I love her parents.
Her romance with Nicholas is still only a month old and their chemistry is smokin' hot!
I want more!!!
Their scenes scorched the pages. Nicholas is dreamy,intense and totally drool worthy.

Thankfully the next book is from POV of Lucy, Nicholas and Solange.
I cant' wait- it will be a pre-order for me.