#Blog Tour #Heart of the Impaler by Alexander Delacroix #YA @Xpresso Book Tours

Heart of the Impaler
Alexander Delacroix
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: December 7th 2021
Genres: Historical, Young Adult

Alexander Delacroix’s darkly romantic debut Heart of the Impaler is perfect for fans of Kiersten White’s And I Darken.

Vlad Dracula has long lived in the shadows cast by his bloodthirsty father, the voivode, and his older brother, Mircea. Despite their cruelty, Vlad has yearned to prove himself worthy of the throne his whole life. In the cold halls of the voivode’s palace, Vlad can only rely on his cousin and closest friend, Andrei Musat.

When Vlad and Andrei meet Ilona Csáki, the daughter of an influential boyar, they each find themselves inextricably drawn to her. But then Ilona is betrothed to Mircea as part of a political alliance, and Vlad’s resentfulness of his brother begins to seethe into something far darker.

Ilona has no desire to marry the voivode’s eldest son, but love and marriage are the least of her worries. The royal family’s enemies have already tried to put an arrow through her back—and if anyone discovers her blossoming feelings for Andrei and Vlad, she may just wish they’d succeeded.

Beneath the shadow of impending war, the only battle that will be deadlier than the one for Ilona’s life will be the one for her heart.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

Author Bio:

Alexander Delacroix earned Masters degrees from Brigham Young University and Western Governors University. As an undergraduate he majored in French, Russian, and German but ultimately became a Language Arts teacher. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and writing. Heart of the Impaler is his debut novel.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hosted by:

My thoughts:

I'm always interested in discovering new authors and Alexander Delacroix is definitely one to watch out for. His debut novel Heart of the Impaler sets out to explore  the dark, dark world of Vlad Dracul's Wallachia and Transylvania before this notorius historical character came into power.

I loved the premise and really enjoyed delving into the emotional side of Vlad's descent into his madness. Some readers hate love triangles, but the truth is they do make excellent plots and allow the author explore the characters' complex feelings-jealousy, loyalty, gratitude, embarrassment, confusion...In Heart of the Impaler we're thrown into this emotional landscape from the word go, when we meet Ilona Csaki, the elder daughter of an impoverished Transylvanian noble, as she is observing an impromptu sword fight between Vlad,, the younger son of the great Vojvode, and his cousin Andrej, and the battle for Ilona's heart begins. Ilona might come across as slightly passive, limited in her autonomy and decision making, but this rings true to the historic reality of the role of women who were forced to stay behind the scenes.

It is obvious that the author did a lot of research and added lots of details to help the reader imagine what life was like in this historical period, but my favourite part is the evolution of Vlad's character (after all, wasn't this why I picked up the book?) from a confused second in the line, 'a spare' to his elder brother Mircea into the power hungry, ruthless politician and ruler the whole world has heard about.

Overall, Heart of the Impaler is an interesting debut and I would really like to read more from this author in future.

Thank you to Giselle from Xpresso Book Tours, Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy, provided in exchange for an honest opinion.