Becoming the Dark Prince Review

Title:  Becoming the Dark Prince

Author:  Kerri Maniscalco

Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper book 3.5

Chapters: 9

Pages: 67

Genre: teen historical fiction/steampunk

Rating: 4 stars

I've  wanted to read something from Thomas's point of view since I finished Stalking Jack the Ripper. I've wanted to know what was going on in his head. By the third book Escaping Houdini and what Audrey was putting him through I needed a book from his point view. That being said I am quite happy with this novella from Thomas' s point of view that bridges the gap between the end of book three and the beginning of book 4. Telling what happened while they were in New York.  You do get a bit of Thomas's backstory, but he doesn't tell all there's still a bit of mystery there.  Allowing Thomas to still be this mysterious slightly bad boy with a heart of gold, that he doesn't often let people see.  

All in all I enjoyed it  and look forward to the sequel releasing next month.  It's a short novella only 67 pages you can finish it  in a day. 

Review of Hunting Prince Dracula

Title: Hunting Prince Dracula 

Author: Kerri Maniscalco 

Pages: 434

Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper book 2 

Genre: teen historical fiction steampunk 

Rating: 4 stars 

Hunting Prince Dracula is the second book in the Jack the Ripper series. This book opens with Audrey and Thomas on a train bound for Romania and a medical school there.  Both hope to get one of the few spots available and as a female she's looked down upon and no one thinks she can make it. 

I loved that in this second book in the series I didn't get the dreaded second book slump.  Hunting Prince Dracula had the same fast paced action and story of the first book.   While this isn't a true sequel to Stalking Jack the Ripper but a companion novel it is best if you read the books in order. The events of the first novel shape the beginning events in this novel and allow you to understand why Audrey basically ran to Romania in the first place. 

Hunting Prince Dracula combines the myths and legends behind the story of Dracula with early forensic medicine and forensic investigation to  create another unique novel. And just like with the first book in the series I look forward to the next book in the series.  

Review of Stalking Jack the Ripper

Title: Stalking Jack the Ripper 

Author: Kerri Maniscalco 

Pages: 326

Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper book 1

Genre: Teen historical fiction steampunk 

Rating: 4 stars 

In Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco we meet Audrey Rose Wadsworth a lord's daughter in  Victorian England.  She's not your typical Victorian girl she doesn't care about needle point and learning how to be a wife. She's more interested in the art of forensic medicine. A skill that she is slowly learning at the side of her uncle. She dresses as a boy to attend his lectures at the university.   It's there that she meets one of his students Thomas Cresswell who is close to her equal in book knowledge and skills. 

Then her uncle is asked by the police to help investigate the Jack the ripper killings.  Audrey wants to help  her uncle and first refuses and she goes behind his back almost gets killed and is rescued by Thomas.  Something he won't let her live down.   

Stalking Jack the Ripper puts a new spin on the Jack the Ripper story that I didn't think was possibly but yet we have Stalking Jack the Ripper.  As the Jack the Ripper murders remain one of the criminal justice systems biggest mysteries, because till this day they really don't know who did it.  I loved that Audrey Rose was a woman a head of her time.  That I would like to think that if they had had women police officers, detectives doctors, medical examiners and  forensics that weren't in its infancy they may have caught Jack the Ripper in the Victorian times. I look forward to the next book in the series.