Book Review- Hearts at Stake

I just finished reading Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey for an Around the World Tour.

From Goodreads:

On Solange’s sixteenth birthday, she is going to wake up dead. As if that’s not bad enough, she also has to outwit her seven overprotective older brothers, avoid the politics involved with being the only daughter born to an ancient vampire dynasty, and elude Kieran Black—agent of an anti-vampire league who is searching for his father’s killer and is intent on staking Solange and her entire family. Luckily she has her own secret weapon—her human best friend Lucy—who is willing to defend Solange’s right to a normal life, whether she’s being smothered by her well-intentioned brothers or abducted by a power-hungry queen. Two unlikely alliances are formed in a race to save Solange’s eternal life—Lucy and Solange’s brother Nicholas, and Solange and Kieran Black—in a dual romance that is guaranteed to jump start any romance-lover’s heart.Even fans of the genre who’ve seen it all will find a fresh read with kick-butt characters and family dynamics that ring true for all brothers and sisters—vampire or otherwise.

This was a fun book in a new vampire series, The Drake Chronicles.  I just can't seem to get enough of the vampire books, especially YA ones.

I really liked all of the main characters--Solange, Lucy, Nicholas and Kieran.  They all had just the right amount of spunk and real-ness to their personalities.  Solange and Lucy seem like the type of girls that I would have been friends with when I was in high school.  And Lucy, the human seemed much more hard ass than Solange, the vampire, which played great togehter.  And Nicholas and Kieran both had this love/hate thing going on with the girls that is hot.

I enjoyed the plot.  I did get a little lost with the different groups and who was warring with who but overall it was great.  And I liked that the story varied between the viewpoint of Solange and the viewpoint of Lucy.  The ending was great and I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Blood Feud.

I gave this book a rating of 4/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 43
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 32

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.