Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

“Next stop, Bran Castle. And all the delightful miscreants who study there.” “We’re about to study there,” I reminded him. He sank into his blanket, doing a poor job at hiding his smile. “I know.”

Hunting Prince Dracula was such an amazing book. I loved Stalking Jack the Ripper so much; especially because of Thomas. Thomas is literally wonderful; don’t fight me on this, okay? Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper's true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe's best schools of forensic medicine...and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend. But her life's dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school's forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again. Beyond Thomas, though, Audrey Rose has achieved her forensic dreams by studying at a Romanian forensics academy. However, she is still haunted by the Ripper case and is struggling to move forward in her forensic career. But when strange murders start popping up, she still can’t quell her curiosity. Doesn’t help that the forensics academy is housed in Dracula’s old castle in the middle of a reportedly haunted forest. To complicate things, her relationship with Thomas is becoming strained as well.

Honestly, Audrey Rose has grown so much as a character; she changes so much through these two books. She doesn’t let the horrors of the Ripper case stop her; no matter how brutal it was on her. She doesn’t let the demons overcome her, but fights them as much as she can. She breaks sometimes, but she pushes on more than she lets up. The literal opposite is happening to Thomas. He starts off cold and clinical; but Audrey Rose twists him into an emotional mess, and he starts messing up the things he’s the best at.
Both Audrey and Thomas are kind of in a mess, and things get even more messed up in Hunting Prince Dracula. But by the end of the book, they’ve still decided to focus on the bright side. God, they’re amazing.
 The plot itself is pretty interesting. The murders compel you to find the killer; you have to figure what on earth is going on. Audrey’s curiosity is contagious and you get swept up in the mystery. Maniscalco manages to keep the story from becoming too dark. She balances the brutal murders with banter between Audrey and Thomas, and lighter moments that Audrey shares with her friends.
Speaking of friends, Audrey struggles to fit in at the academy, but embraces the few friends that she does make. Competition between the students is fierce, and the others look down on her already. The headmaster is awful to her, and her investigations keep getting her in trouble. There’s quite a few characters, but not enough to be confusing. Most of them are unimportant, but they add so much to the story. (Although I love Thomas, it’s nice to see Audrey interacting with other people as well.)
All in all, Hunting Prince Dracula carries on the legacy of Stalking Jack the Ripper splendidly. There are so many Thomas moments that I used up all my sticky notes marking them.