As Vital as Blood (Victorian Vampires #1)

An exciting new series of novellas by the author of the Daphne Award-winning With This Curse begins. In 1881, an innocent young Englishwoman who ventures into mysterious Baron Dalca’s Romanian castle may lose her life, her soul...or her heart.

Miss Michael Cargrave is desperate when the death of her bookseller father leaves her in a dire financial state. When she finds a letter from a mysterious foreign aristocrat, Baron Dalca, requesting that her father come work for him, she decides to risk everything by traveling to the Carpathian Mountains and claiming the position herself.

Her audacity wins over Baron Dalca. But as rumors of vampire attacks reach her ears, and as she daily grows more fascinated by the enigmatic baron, she begins to dream of a strange predator that visits her at night.

Vasile, Baron Dalca, expected an elderly gentleman scholar. Instead he finds on his doorstep a vibrant, courageous young woman who stirs him in a way that no woman has since the long-ago death of his wife. But for her sake, he can’t fall in love. He can bring nothing but danger to Michael Cargrave.

When he realizes that she is being stalked by a creature of the night, however, he must find a way to keep her safe without shattering her sanity, even if that means taking a desperate step like sending her away forever—or proposing marriage.

“As Vital as Blood takes the reader into the heart of Dracula country for a tale of dark romance and suspense. Amanda DeWees deftly blends classic vampire lore with Gothic romance, mystery, and thrills. ” --Dacre Stoker, author, great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker

“Amanda DeWees is an authority on vampire literature, a devotee of the Gothic romance, and a prose stylist of admirable skill and passion. She is, quite simply, the perfect storm of vampire romance author. ” --Charles R Rutledge, co-author of Congregations of the Dead

“Amanda DeWees creates a a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ tale by way of Bram Stoker in this romantic reinvention of the classic vampire tale. With sensitively drawn characters, As Vital as Blood delivers romance and suspense in a delightful package.” --Raven Hart, author of the Savannah Vampires series