The Dark Heroine

The Dark Heroine is a series of vampire-themed fantasy romance novels written by English author Abigail Gibbs, published by HarperCollins in 2012. The first novel in the series, Dinner with a Vampire, revolves around London-born Violet Lee, who is kidnapped and held hostage by a Royal Family of vampires known as the Varns. The series is told from both Violet Lee and Kaspar Varn's perspective, the latter being heir to the Vamperic Throne in the novel.

Dinner with a Vampire, the first book of the Dark Heroine series, was first published under the pseudonym Canse12 on a website called "Wattpad" - a website that is dedicated to the reading and sharing of stories from around the world - but under the name of "Dinner with a Vampire". Did I mention I'm a vegetarian? (This was later shortened by Gibbs, although Violet Lee's vegetarianism plays a large part of the book). Throughout the duration of the time Dinner with a Vampire was available to read online with chapters of the story still being uploaded, Gibbs' popularity began to rise as her story was read and spread worldwide. With a fanbase of 20,652 users to date (with the figure rising every day), Gibbs' story was spreading all over the world and Gibbs herself was offered deals regarding publication of the story. It wasn't until 2012 that Gibbs announced to her fans that Dinner with a Vampire was, in fact, finally being published.^[1]

Dinner with a Vampire

Plot

Violet Lee is a London-born teenager who is subsequently kidnapped in an act of unexpected mercy by a group of vampires in Trafalgar Square after witnessing the mass-murder of a group of men at the hands of her kidnappers. This group of vampires in particular are Vampire Royalty, their family being the Varns. Violet is taken to the Varns' home, known as Varnley in the novel, where she is held hostage involuntarily for several months. In the time that Violet is held captive, she unwillingly finds herself attracted to the heir of the Vamperic Throne - Kaspar Varn. With this attraction comes great consequences, as Violet learns towards the end of the book.

Upon arrival the Varns present Violet with a choice: allow them to turn her into a vampire, or be forever stuck at the kingdom against her will. In a state of disbelief and disgust (more so because she is a vegetarian and knows they drink human blood), Violet objects to being turned a vampire almost immediately.

Shortly after Violet's arrival it is revealed that her father, Michael Lee, is the Secretary of State for Defence, and Violet finds out that her father had known about vampires and other "dark beings" all along, and also knew exactly who had taken her.

The novel focuses on the nature of both Violet's world and the Varns' world - two worlds that, Violet learns, should never be mixed. The name of the series The Dark Heroine comes from a prophecy in the novel, known as The Prophecy of the Heroines, which is one of the most major themes in the series as a whole.

Characters

• Violet Lee - She is in her late teens, is London-born and a vegetarian. She lives with her mother and her father, the latter being Secretary of State for Defence and who knows about the reality of Dark Beings, and also her thirteen-year-old sister Lily, who suffers from Leukemia. Violet is the sole-witness the mass-murder of a group of men (who ultimately are revealed as Vampire Hunters) and it is for this reason that the Varns show her unexpected mercy and decide to kidnap her instead of kill her. And she was described in the book for having violet eyes.
• Kaspar Varn - He is fourth son of Vladimir Varn and Queen Carmen (The latter being desceased) and ultimately the heir to the Vamperic Throne. We discover at the beginning of the book that although he is described as being very attractive, he is also a womanizer, which is one of the reasons why Violet does not "give in" to him to begin with. Throughout the novel we see the relation and attraction between Kaspar and Violet build to romance, despite his need to appear cocky, obnoxious and somewhat horrible, particularly towards humans.He says in the book that he is 197 years of age which causes violet lee to be alarmed
• King Vladimir Varn - He is the King of the second-dimension vampires, and also rules over Varnley. His recently desceased wife, and is father of Thyme, Cain, Kaspar, Lyla, Jag and Sky Varn. Throughout the book the King's different personalities are captured from different perspectives, but at the end of the book it is revealed that he knows Violet Lee's father, Michael Lee, was responsible for his late wife's death, and for a period of time shows disgust, distaste and dislike towards Violet.
• Queen Carmen - She is the deceased wife of King Vladimir. She was murdered by a group of Vampire Hunters in Romania, where she had originally gone to sign a Peace Treaty that meant Vampires would not interfere with humans. Contrary to the belief of the majority of the Kingdom, it was revealed that Queen Carmen knew she would be going to her death.
• Michael Lee - He is the Secretary of State for Defence and is the father to Violet and Lily Lee. It is revealed that he knows about vampires and other dark beings when Violet questions why her father has not yet sent out a search party. Violet also finds out - after hearing a story from Fabian of how the Queen died - that her father was the man who ordered and caused the King's late wife's death.
• Cain Varn - He is the younger brother of Kaspar, Lyla, Jag and Sky.He despite his species is quite nice and relaxed,and does not show disdain to violet like his brother kaspar
• Fabian - He is known to be good friends with Kaspar. Fabian shows strong romantic feelings towards Violet throughout the book, however when he realises the feelings are not mutual, he begins to show disgust and disliking towards Violet that doesn't seem to change for the rest of the book, mostly because he realises that Violet did in fact choose Kaspar. Fabian later becomes involved romantically with Lyla, although the relationship on his part seems to be a motive of spiting Violet rather than love or romantic feelings towards Lyla.He also points out his age which is 201 which is older than kaspar yet he still takes orders from the prince/at some point to become king.he is mention by sir and second to kaspar
• Lyla Varn - Lyla is one of the Varn children. Although to begin with she is kind towards Violet and seems to help her in terms of surviving at the kingdom and having clothes to wear, Lyla soon begins to blackmail Violet over Violet's relationship with Kaspar. This was due to strong feelings of love and lust she had towards Fabian and strong feelings of jealousy and hatred towards Violet because of the attention she was getting from Fabian. By the end of the book she and Fabian are romantically involved with one another and do not play large roles in the book compared to the beginning due to the shared hatred and disgust they had for Violet.
• Sky Varn - He is one of the older of the Varn Children.
• Jag Varn - He is one of the older of the Varn Children.
• Thyme Varn - She is the youngest of the Varn children.
• Declan, Fabian, Charlie and Felix - Friends of Kaspar who largely base themselves at Varnley.
• Charity - Charity is known to be a "playmate" for Kaspar. She is mentioned and regarded as a "whore" in not just Violet's eyes, but the kingdom's. It is only when Violet is seriously injured when Kaspar informs her that he no longer wants to "see" her.
• Ilta Crimson - He is the son of Valerian Crimson. He attends a dinner with the vampires, Violet included, at Varnley and later attends the ball that is held at the Kingdom. It is on the night of the ball that he abducts, beats and attempts to rape Violet, who is saved by Kaspar once he'd realised the two were both missing (for Kaspar had suspicions about Ilta and tried warning Violet before hand). Although Ilta escapes during the attack as Kaspar comes to save Violet. Ilta comes back later in the book to "finish what he started with", but is brutally murdered by the Varns before he can hurt Violet.
• Autumn Rose - Autumn Rose is a Sage, a firm of dark being originating from the first dimension. It is later revealed in the book that Autumn Rose is in fact extremely powerful since she is the first Dark Heroine of the Prophecy. She is the one who informs Violet that the "voice" inside her head that speaks exactly the way Kaspar does (i.e. calling her "Girly.") is because she and Kaspar are tied. She is also the one who must "unleash" the other Heroines of each dimension, as she is the first. The second book of the Dark Heroine series, named Autumn Rose, will revolve mostly around Autumn Rose herself, as it will be written mostly from her perspective.
• Fallon - Is Autumn Rose's companion, but also very powerful. He also comes from the Kingdom of Athenea.

Critical Reception

The first novel of the Dark Heroine series was met with positive reviews, particularly from fans who had been waiting for the day the book got published.

Meg Cabot, bestselling author of The Mediator and The Princess Diaries, reviewed the book, saying, "Abigail Gibbs will make you fall in love with vampires all over again... but look out: these vampires will bite."

The novel was also dubbed "The sexiest romance you'll read this year."

Autumn Rose

Autumn Rose is the name of the second book of the Dark Heroine series. Before the book's release on the 30th January 2015, Gibbs had not yet released information regarding the plotline for her second novel. She had only informed fans that the story would be written primarily from the point of view of Autumn Rose - one of the major characters from the first novel, Dinner with a Vampire - but in the style of Dinner with a Vampire, meaning the novel may be written from different perspectives throughout. Gibbs also informed fans that "The story of Violet and Kaspar is not over," which answered many fans' questions regarding the end of Dinner with a Vampire and the fact that the second novel in the series is no longer written from Violet and Kaspar's point of view.

Book #3

The next book in the series, mostly referred to as 'book #3' since no name has yet been revealed, was set for release in 2015.^[2] However, the book has not been published in 2015, and has still not been published as of the end of August 2016. Nor the UK publisher HarperCollins, nor Abigail Gibbs have shared information regarding the book's (new) expected release date. On Abigail's website you can find the summary of book 3 with the title "Coming 2016".^[3]

References