Eleanor of Draculea: 3

ELEANOR OF DRACULEA By Elle HarlynEleanor wakes in a stone cell with blood dried into her dress and no memory of how she got there. The last thing she remembers is the fortress burning, a red-haired woman's hands on her, and the fall into the river. There are guards outside the door speaking Romanian, and she understands every word. No one leaves without the master's command. When she asks for Vlad, they tell her he is dead. The man who holds the castle is Vlad's brother. He has no intention of letting her die. He offers her the blood that would keep her alive and a place beside him as his bride. He calls it mercy. Eleanor knows what it is. She was born to the house of Basarab, and she will not become any man's property. She refuses him. He gives her one week to change her mind. She means to escape before it ends. Outside the cell, the country is broken by war. Eleanor's body is failing. The blood she refuses may be the only thing keeping death from her door, but taking it would change her in ways she cannot undo. If she accepts, it will not be because she was forced, trapped, or talked into surrender. It will be because the choice is hers.A brutal gothic of captivity and refusal, Eleanor of Drăculea follows one woman through war, hunger, and grief as she learns that surviving and saving what you love are not the same thing.