Black Rose ♥ Karina Halle ♥ The Dracula Duet #2

Published March 2023 ♥ Independently Published by Karina Halle

❥ Dark Academia

❥ Fantasy Romance

❥ Vampires & Witches

❥ Dracula Retelling

❥ Completed Duology

Trigger Warnings : graphic violence, gore, blood, horror, harsh language, mild BDSM elements, sexually explicit situations, ghost of an unborn child, talk of suicide and pregnancy loss, death and grief.

My Thoughts on Black Rose by Karina Halle

I read Blood Orange back in the fall. I remember liking the Dracula retelling, but not really loving it. It was the reincarnation twist that has me reading Black Rose now. I had no idea that The Dracula Duet took place in the same world as Halle’s Dark Eyes Duology and Nightwolf. As per usual, there are probably spoilers within the random chaotic thoughts I had, so if you would like to avoid that, skip on down to My Final Thoughts.

1. The thing I dislike the most about ebooks is missing out on the artwork.
2. Bellamy. Oddly enough I just finished rewatching The 100. And no, I haven’t read the books.
3. The devil rest his soul. I like it. 
4. Who were the twins?
5. So Dahlia is now Rose, who has just gone through The Becoming and discovered she is really Mina/Lucy. 
6. Oh Mommy and Daddy dearest have a secret. 
7. This is an exceptional way to rehash what happened in the last moments of Blood Orange. 
8. These parents are definitely hiding something else. 
9. Right, Saara and Aleksi must be twins. 
10. I like Rose’s rage lightning. And Dylan. 
11. I’m also liking the flipping back and forth between what happened after Dahlia’s death and Rose going through The Becoming. 
12. A Psychiatric Department is exactly where Aleski and Saara should be. 
13. I love that they have Plague Doctors. 
14. Baiting Valtu in his current mood is not the best idea. It’s unfortunate we know that Aleski is dead from a Rose chapter.
15. Damn and here I thought Valtu killed Aleski. 
16. Slow down, I thought Saara was alive?
17. Amethyst had another son? 
18. I was not expecting the book to talk. 
19. Dahlia Rose. 
20. A twin! Poor Dylan. 
21. And this time he’s consumed by some book demon. 
22. Lenore knows what’s up. 
23. Van Helsing knows how to make a sign. 
24. Honestly, I would have been pissed if Valtu remembered Rose right off the hop. 
25. I mean, Valtu’s friends did warn you. 
26. I wonder if the book will give up more secrets now that Rose is there. 
27. Has this always been one of the demons or is this just what it’s choosing to look like for Rose? Either way creepy af. 
28. Like it’s heading back home. 
29. Is the demon going to tell Valtu?
30. Christ on a bike indeed. 
31. I can’t help but think about the demon watching them fuck. And I literally thought for a second it was going to become fact.
32. Uh what now?
33. The Rage Lightening 
34. I feel like Valtu is going to die saving Lief. 
35. That ambush went horribly. 
36. Come on Valtu, seriously? You’re just going to fall in love with her again. Or die. 
37. You tell him Rose. 
38. Lightening Rage Attack ! 
39. Damn, these immortal witches come prepared. Fun fact, when I think about the apocalypse I often think about emps.
40. Lief is definitely not okay. Physically probably. 
41. That ended way happier than I thought it would. 

Final Thoughts on The Dracula Duet

I enjoyed Black Rose more than Blood Orange. I really don’t remember loving Blood Orange. I rated it two stars but I read it during a dark period in my life. I wonder now if my two-star rating was too harsh. Or perhaps, Black Rose really is the better book.

During the first half of Black Rose, we find ourselves moving from Rose to Valtu’s point of view. Rose has just gone through The Becoming and with that, the knowledge of her past lives. In Valtu’s chapters, we learn what he went through after the death of Dahlia. All that comes to an end when Rose and Valtu meet again and Valtu’s chapters move to the current timeline.

I don’t have any notes for Blood Orange, though I remember it being very spicy. I feel like Black Rose is even spicier. It also seems darker, with more horror elements. Hello creepy baby demon, I’m talking to you. However, I found the ending to be slightly disappointing. It was far too happily ever after for me. Although that happiness is well deserved.

That said, I would definitely recommend The Dracula Duet. Particularly now with the series complete.

Finding our “authentic, true selves” means we will finally find peace. It’s a lie, like all the other lies that our identity-obsessed society tells us.

Always in motion, never in stasis.

I always felt there were different people locked inside me and I kept pinballing between them all, not knowing where I’d land.

A name that hadn’t meant anything to me for the last twenty-one years and now, now that name means everything to me.

I feel like a ship being slammed by waves, water pouring in through the portholes.

I just feel an emptiness so vast I fear I’ll disintegrate into nothing.

Perhaps they scare me because they remind me of myself. I’m nothing but a ghost.

I’d burn the world down for her if it meant bringing her back.

It’s large, its hide so black and fathomless it’s like looking into the abyss and I feel like I’m screaming.

…and I’m slowly losing consciousness, being dragged into the depths of the abyss, a world of nothing but death.

There’s this dark energy about him, radiating from him and circling around him.

My heart found his again. But his heart doesn’t know mine.

Just this void where his soul used to be.

The darkness in me calls to the darkness in you.

A cold trail of fear rolls down my spine.

The baby looks at me, one eye popping out, its mouth crooked and drooling blood.

The creature looks at my foot and extends its bony leathery hand, the long black curved claws like a demonic bird’s.

We are primal, we are raw, we are destined.

My thoughts eat away at me like termites.

The demon raises its oblong head and fixes its beady crimson eyes on me.

I scream and let the pain and the anger churn through me like waves, creating chaos in my veins.

Some of Halle’s books are available through Chapters/Indigo & Kobo – unfortunately, NOT this series, not yet anyway. Feel free to check out their selection of Halle books below.

Chapters/Indigo ♥ Kobo

The Dracula Duet is available through Barnes & Noble : Blood Orange ♥ Black Rose

Halle’s books are available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited and for purchase through amazon

❥ Karina Halle Goodreads ♥ Webpage ♥ Twitter ♥ Instagram ♥ Threads