Title: Becoming the Dark Prince (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3.5)

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Pub. Date: July 15, 2019

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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In this irresistibly-priced short story, catch a glimpse of the inner struggles and triumphs that drive Stalking Jack the Ripper’s endearing but troubled hero. 

Enigmatic, brooding, and darkly handsome, Thomas Cresswell has always been the one mystery Audrey Rose has never been able to fully solve. As brilliant partners in crime investigation, they understand each other perfectly…but as young lovers, their passionate natures have led to both euphoria and heartbreak throughout the Stalking Jack the Ripper series.

This novella features a collection of scenes that takes place during and after the pair’s horrifying Atlantic voyage in Escaping From Houdini. Experience new and familiar scenes from Thomas’s unique point of view, including an intensely personal look into his plea for Audrey Rose’s hand in marriage.

With a romance for the ages, Audrey Rose and Thomas reach the conclusion to their epic, irresistible partnership in their final adventure, Capturing the Devil.

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This will be a spoiler free review, but I won’t be censoring any details of past books if they come up as they’ve been out for a while now.

This novella came out on my birthday…who could ask for a better present than Thomas Cresswell? Move over Audrey Rose, he’s my book boyfriend now.

Just kidding, but damn, I love Thomas Cresswell and if the first novella, plus all the books hadn’t already solidified my love for him, this novella would have done it. I’m also thoroughly convinced that I need the entire series from his point of view. I want to know how he sees the world. I binged this the day it came out which was a good and bad move. Good move, because it gave me a little dose of one of my favorite duos. Bad move, because I gave me a little does of one of my favorite duos, and now I have to wait until September to be reunited.

I really enjoyed this novella, even though it did bring back some rage-y feelings towards Audrey Rose in Escaping from Houdini – you can check out my review for that book here. Thomas got the horribly short end of the stick in that book, and I nearly disowned Audrey Rose as my favorite female character and would have if the Epilogue didn’t exist – you can legit read all about it in my review.

Becoming the Dark Prince was an in-depth – albeit brief – peek inside Thomas’s head, and if it wasn’t clear, that boy is utterly in love with Audrey Rose. So much so, that he’s pretty stupid when it comes to her. I find it endearing and just absolutely love him more because of it. He’s a young man in love and just as nervous and vulnerable as she is. Reliving some familiar scenes from his point of view, shows that even though he’s a brilliant scholar, he’s not immune to jealousy and the pains of young love. For a character that is often depicted as cold and unfeeling by his peers, these scenes from his point of view, prove that he feels just as much as those around him. He’s just as human and therefore flawed in the ways all humans are. This novella made me love him even more and I’m anxiously awaiting the release of Capturing the Devil because I need to know how this dynamic duo’s story comes to a close, with perhaps a marriage?

My fingers are crossed in the hopes that one day there will be a separate physical bind up of the two already released novella’s, so that I can have them sitting on my shelves with the rest of the books. This series quickly became one of my all-time favorites, and I push it on all of my friends.

If you haven’t started on Audrey Rose and Thomas’s adventures through the streets of London in Stalking Jack the Ripper, to Romania in Hunting Prince Dracula, to the RMS Etruria in Escaping from Houdini, you need to! They’re headed for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and H.H. Holmes in Capturing the Devil, out September 10, 2019 and it’s sure to be one hell of a book as Kerri brings Cressworth’s story to a close.