Nolene - Patricia Dougan's, Vrolok

The novel, Vrolok, chronicles the journey of a young vampire by the name of Isabella. As a child, Isabella lives in a harsh and cruel world, rejected by her father who cannot see past his wife's death while giving birth to Isabella. Isabella grows up with a rebellious and independent spirit that leads her to the Castle of Vampire Vlad Dracula. Vlad falls in love with her and turns her into a vampire. For about five centuries, Vlad and Isabella suffer a love-hate relationship, remaining loyal and protecting each other from their own death.

Surviving Vlad's attack and becoming a Vampire herself, Isabella, horrified at what she has turned into, embarks on a journey spanning generations. As Isabella becomes a powerful vampire, she integrates within each historical period that consists of various bloody wars, disease outbreaks, and religious persecution. Embedded in Man's bloody events, Isabella challenges the demons that haunt her. As she struggles with justifying her actions, she strives inwardly to come to terms with what she is. Her resistance to the magnetic hold Vlad has over her always leads her back to him. She fights against her fate and the love she feels for Vlad, which compels her to justify killing through her own moral reasoning

Vrolok is a well-plotted and compelling work of historical fiction. Isabella's historical journey not only reveals the demons and struggles in her own mind, but also plots the dark history of humanity entwined in such events as torture and murder in the name of religion. The brutal struggle for dominance and power, and the extent one is driven to in pursuit of eternal youth and beauty, clearly resides within the story.

As a powerful fictional account, Vrolok unveils a tale of humanity's ruthless struggle for survival that is dark and cruel, as well as the blood curdling results when both Vampire and Mankind collide.

In the eyes of a vampire struggling with her own dismal past, Vrolok tells a story of humanity's innermost demons and its moral justifications for shaping a world with such brutal and sinister events. Vrolok incorporates the techniques of early Gothic Writers but goes beyond traditional Vampire tales to produce a macabre account of humanity that delves into love, obsession, greed, paranoia, and the blind quest for eternal youth and beauty.

I highly recommend this well plotted work of Gothic historical fiction to readers who enjoy spine-chilling suspense wrapped in an outstanding vampire tale.

Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services