Review: Vampire Hearts (Bathory Academy #1) by Katie M. John

Print Length: 260 pages

Publisher: Little Bird Publishing House (September 18. 2018)

From Goodreads.com: Alexander Augustine's secret has been revealed.

He is a newly emerged vampire and almost killed a human girl. Now there's no choice but to run, and there's only one place to go. Bathory Academy, home to the next generation of some of the world's most notorious vampire families, is a college like no other.

As Alexander begins to slowly accept his supernatural life,  he is drawn towards the beautiful, but potentially deadly, Scarlett Bathory, soon discovering their history is as tightly knotted as their present.

With revolution, blood-lust, and desire for vampire world domination in the air, Alexander starts to fear he’s nothing but a pawn in a very dangerous game. WILL THEY BE EACH OTHER'S SAVIOR OR DOWNFALL?

Enter the world of Bathory Academy and find yourself enchanted by the spell of the vampire.

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I'm still not certain how I feel about this story. I've never read any of the stories this was compared to, so I went into this with fresh eyes. It seemed a bit.... harem like to me? Or in some cases reverse harem? You have your "monarchy" aka your vampires (who are both male and female), and they each have "swans" aka people (male or female in some cases both) in which they drink from. Apparently its a very sexual experience. Don't get me wrong, there is some action and some mystery also contained within this novel, but being that Alex is somehow brand new to the vampire lifestyle, as a reader I didn't buy his story. It seemed way too unbelievable that not only did he have no idea what he was, but he would rather grow weak and die than do what he needed to survive. 

There is a lot of potential here though, both with Alex's story and with the whole Saints and Renaissance story-lines that are also simultaneously playing out. I may eventually pick up the second book in this series (even though I'm not sure if its the final one or not), and I would read more from this author. My to-be-read pile is a bit too big for that right now however. 

I do believe this will appeal to those who enjoy supernatural stories with interesting twists.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                              Vampire Hearts is available from Amazon.com