Title The Lady Rogue Series --- Author Jenn Bennett Cover Art --- Publisher Simon Pulse - 2019 First Printing Simon Pulse - 2019 Category Historical Warnings None Main Characters Theodora, Huck Main Elements Magic Rings Website jennbennett.net

Some legends never die…

Traveling with her treasure-hunting father has always been a dream for Theodora. She’s read every book in his library, has an impressive knowledge of the world’s most sought-after relics, and has all the ambition in the world. What she doesn’t have is her father’s permission. That honor goes to her father’s nineteen-year-old protégé—and once-upon-a-time love of Theodora’s life—Huck Gallagher, while Theodora is left to sit alone in her hotel in Istanbul.

Until Huck returns from an expedition without her father and enlists Theodora’s help in rescuing him. Armed with her father’s travel journal, the reluctant duo learns that her father had been digging up information on a legendary and magical ring that once belonged to Vlad the Impaler—more widely known as Dracula—and that it just might be the key to finding him.

Journeying into Romania, Theodora and Huck embark on a captivating adventure through Gothic villages and dark castles in the misty Carpathian Mountains to recover the notorious ring. But they aren’t the only ones who are searching for it. A secretive and dangerous occult society with a powerful link to Vlad the Impaler himself is hunting for it, too. And they will go to any lengths—including murder—to possess it.

I read this book for free on rivetedlit.com during the month of November. I thought when I started, ah, another kind of Historian tale about Dracula, another hunt through history and archaeology only to discover that he was indeed a vampire after all, but no, it was not. And I consider that a positive, Dracula is a historical man, but not a vampire. He did however have a magical ring that gave him the power to take on the Ottoman Empire's armies.

Jump ahead to the early 1900's and you have Theodora, daughter of an archeologist, dumped in Istanbul with her teacher while her father goes off on grand aventures in the Carpathians. Let's just say she's not happy at being left out, and is bored sitting around her hotel room. When her father doesn't return when he's expected to, she knows she has to go about rescuing him.

On the whole, I didn't love nor hate it. It was fun, there was a lot of adventure, I liked the protagonists well enough, but maybe Dracula is a little overdone these days. But he wasn't a vampire so that was good. Things didn't always make sense, like "they had just enough money to stay at the hotel one more day" and next thing you know there are still there several days later and not yet starving for lack of food. Timing of events were also just a little convenient, the bad guys get to their next lead just moments before they do, and from what I can see they do get there first, he didn't follow them there...so was just an excuse to frustrate our characters by just barely missing out on getting the next clue.

On the other hand, I actually enjoyed the "is it really magic" that comes up a lot. They encounter a witch, but maybe she's just a crazy lady with crows in her house. There's a white wolf-dog who could be descended from the Dacian wolves, but maybe it was just well trained and seemed smarter than she should be. There is the man chasing them, who seemed to be able to enchant a piece of paper to use as a tracking device. And then there's the ring they are all searching for, which may or may not even be real.

There's a bit of romance, a lot of adventure, a smidge of magic, and a father that seems to get himself into more trouble tha he can get out of, good thing he has a daughter as daring as Theodora. It was a fun enough way to pass those grey November afternoons.