Hearts at Stake

Hearts at Stake (The Drake Chronicles, 1) by Alyxandria Harvey, 2009; 248 pages. Source: Contest Win.

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.

When I first got Hearts at Stake I admit I didn't have very high hopes for it, especially after being disappointed with the majority of the newest YA vampire books (like, *cough*HoN*cough*). But I ended up absolutely loving it and finishing it in just a few hours (I even read in route and right up until the lights when down when I went to see a movie while I was reading it).
There are many reasons why I liked Heats at Stake, the writing was really good, the characters were interesting, and the plot while not necessarily the most original (hello vampires) was definitely a new twist on an old story.

I really liked Ms. Harvey's version of vampires, especially the Drake's. Okay, so the reason I liked her vampires...well it all has to do with the Drake family. I liked how they had to go through the bloodchange thing so that they could garner their full vampiric abilities, and that it was hard. Why did I like that, well because it seems that lately in books that have vampires there isn't any risk mentioned when characters are changed and frankly that just makes for a very uninteresting read when things are too easy.

Another thing that really made Heats at Stake a great book was the alternating narration. I loved how the story was told from both Lucy and Solange's perspective. I think it worked because both characters were such polar opposites and reacted in different ways to everything that went on throughout the whole book.

Fight scenes, there are a decent amount of them in here...and they are good (just thought I'd let y'all know).

What I liked the most about Hearts at Stake was the family dynamic between Solange and her many brothers. It was definitely funny at times with how overly protective her brothers got and how she kept trying to maintain her freedom.

While I really loved reading this book there's just one thing that I didn't like. *sigh*
It was very easy to see how things were going to end, even though it was a bit predictable it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book in the least.

Final Verdict: Hearts at Stake will definitely leave you wanting to read more about the Drake's. Thankfully I have book two waiting on my TBR so now I only need to worry about getting book three.

It's also a really clean read, although it does have some violence. I'll right up a more indepth content rating for it in the next week or so on Rating Reads.
Hearts at Stake earns 5 out of 5 pineapples.