Blood Alone

Austra Family #2

by Elaine Bergstrom

A breathtaking novel of erotic terror unveiling the epic story of the blood-cursed Austras, a magnificent family of vampires and their war against the Third Reich.

Genres: Vampires, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Romance

325 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Elaine Bergstrom is a Milwaukee-based novelist whose writing melds vampire, romance, mystery and, always, suspense.

Her first published piece of fiction was her first novel, Shattered Glass (1989). It introduced the character of the immortal Stephen Austra and artist Helen Wells, a victim of polio, along with Stephen's family of vampires who are “born not created and have an abhorrance for coffins, particulary their own.” The novel was a critical success, a consistent favorite with readers of adult-oriented vampire fiction. Bergstrom has written six novels in the Austra series, including Daughter of the Night, which featured Elizabeth Bathory as a half-breed Austra vampire. Beyond Sundown, the newest book in the Austra series, released early in 2011. The Violin, a novella, in 2012. Most are in print. All are available on Amazon kindle or through the author's website www.elainebergstrom.com

Using her grandmother's name, Marie Kiraly, Bergstrom wrote a sequel to Dracula called Mina ... The Dracula Story Continues, and its sequel, Blood to Blood ... The Dracula Story Continues, which both look at Mina Harker as a woman changed by her experience in Transylvania, struggling to find her way in the repressive Victorian society. Both were featured in the Science Fiction Book Club and Doubleday Book Club.

For the novel Madeline ... After the Fall of Usher, she adopted Poe’s journalistic style to tell a story in which the details of the last few months of Poe’s life are correct, with her own fictional story overlaid on them.


J. Gordon Melton (The Vampire Encyclopedia) notes that Shattered Glass contains "one of the most horrific scenes in vampire literature." (less)

Reviews

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the prequel to the first book Shattered Glass. Having read both books I would recommend reading this first. It seems to have explained the family better.

This book is set between WWI and WWII. It looks at the rise of the Nazi party. The Austra family come under scrutiny from the Nazi's who are hoping to use their power.

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book look forward to reading the next one

[TheVampireBookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember liking the first book in the series and I also remember my almost futile hunt for the next one. And maybe this factor, this two-year-long trying to find this book for a reasonable price including shipping, made me more disappointed in the end. Because when you want something so bad and spend so much effort trying to get it, you expect miracles. And you don’t get them.
This story takes place in the WWII Europe (eww, I hate war stories) and is crowded by spies and unlikely allies. I mean, at some point I totally lost who was who and who was bad and who was good and just didn’t enjoy reading it. I liked some aspects, though. For example, there was this super old inhuman reclusive mountain vampire whose story must have been way cooler than that of frantic people running around Europe.
I also had some “The Fountainhead Flashbacks” with the character of a young architect whose buildings were not understood by many. But all these things aside I still can’t shake off the feeling of disappointment. Maybe it really is just this not living up to my expectations, or maybe it just isn’t as good as the previous one.

[Siiri Cressey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ughhhhh...wow. How inhumane humans can be! I can tell that the "doctor" in this book is based on Mengele, which drives home how much what is done to some of the very undeserving people here is not that far from reality. Powerful stuff.

[Carol Mclamb]

One of her best!