Arguably, my most popular blog post ever is my absolute evisceration of Zodiac Academy. I hated it. A lot. I thought it was because I hated the tropes—but turns out I just hated how the tropes are done in those fateful first few books. Now I’ve found a series that does a lot of the same stuff Zodiac Academy does, just…better.
This review is spoiler-free.
Being the sole survivor of the Van Helsing family was never a burden I wanted to carry.
Yet here I am, an orphan with a score to settle against Dracula for orchestrating the near genocide of my bloodline.
One small kink in that plan: I was turned into the blood sucking creature that I was born to destroy.
Being admitted into the Dark Imaginarium Academy to hone my new skills as a vampire, and to survive the blood lust, is the first step towards achieving my revenge.
No one is prepared for me to infiltrate their ranks, but I know they aren’t going to let me get my revenge without a fight.
But what I’m not ready for is the three vampires that make my blood burn for an entirely different reason.
Luckily, I’m okay with coating my nails with the entrails of anyone who stands in my way.
My name is Alina Van Helsing and I’m out for blood.
***
Bite of Loyalty is the first book in the Blood Oath series. It is a paranormal romance featuring a female lead with a backbone made of steel and three men who will fight her tooth and nail as she is on her path of vengeance. If you love enemies to lovers romance, dark secrets, sassy and strong heroines, plus forbidden love- look no further.
DARK IMAGINARIUM ACADEMY FEATURES CHARACTERS THAT ARE ALL 18+. THIS IS NOT A HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMY SETTING AND THE CONTENTS ARE INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES.
TROPES DONE RIGHT
Everybody loves—LOVES—Lance Orion. Let me introduce you to Lincoln, who as a character is the same exact vibe, just far less rapey and much better written. Without giving too much away, Caulder manages to write a teacher-student relationship that plays with power dynamics in a safe, consensual, hot way that shows, at the very least, good, er…research. Did I mention he’s also a vampire?
You also get the university aspect that seemed so silly and cringey in Zodiac Academy done really well. You still get university drama—the main character is a new student and a bit on the outside for various reasons. But I love the main character’s personality, because while most of the time she’s hot and badass, she has her moments as does anyone else.
One trope that this series gives that ZA doesn’t is reverse harem—so instead of a pair of twins whose main defining differences was one has blue hair and one is slightly more badass, you get one awesome main character, and she gets all the boys (there are 3). The boys are genuinely such dupes for the ZA boys: Lance and Lincoln, Andrei and Seth, Drake and Darius (this one is a bit of a stretch, since I’d call Drake more of his own character along the lines of, you know, Dracula, thousand-year-old king of the vampires).
I’m not saying this series reinvents any kind of wheel, or even does the wheel particularly well. In fact, I’ve only given it three stars, because it’s not something I necessarialy think will stick with me too long.
The thing that really surprised me was how much I liked the dynamic with Lincoln when I hated the dynamic with Lance—which whenever I tell anyone who loves ZA that I don’t like that dynamic I get shock and horror, but go figure. I won’t go on my those-college-boys-brutally-bully-and-SA-the-MCs rant again. At the end of the day, this is a smutty paranormal romance series that is arguably more classic and common than the absurdity that is ZA, and it doesn’t have seven or eight or nine books for you to get invested in. But it was satisfying enough for me to find it worth it to write out the comparison.
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