I wasn't ready to be done with the Cassie Palmer series when I finished Hunt the Moon. Unfortunately, for right now, that's the last book in that series. So I decided to finally start the Dorina series so I'll be caught up for Fury's Kiss in October. 
 Dorina is the 500 year old dhampire daughter of Mircea. They have quite a strained relationship to say the leat considering dhampires are considered a disgrace in the vampire world and are usually killed before they get too old. They are also prone to berserk rages in times of high stress. 
 Mircea calls upon Dorina to help capture uncle Dracula who escaped from his prison and tends to have one thing on his mind, killing his family. Dorina is not happy about this assignment, but Mircea has agreed to use the Senate to help her look for her missing roomate / friend Claire. With no other option Dorina agrees, however, instead of capture Dracula again she intends to kill him. Aiding her in her task is Louis-Cesare. We saw Louis-Cesare in the first Cassie book, but he will be a permanent fixtured in this series I believe. 
 There's a part of me that liked Dorina's book better than Cassie's. First of all, I find that Cassie's books always start off running and there's very little down time. From the first page readers are thrown right in the middle of an ongoing conflict and then we have to back up a little to fgure out what's going on. Here Karen Chance starts off with a little background information before throwing us into the search for Dracula. Sometimes in the Cassie books the time-traveling can cause confusion (although this lessens the more you read into the books, when you get used to it). With Dorina, Karen Chance cleverly gives us stories from the past with a different kind of time travel, not physically, but in dreams. I think that makes it a little easier to comprehend right off the bat. 
 Karen Chance also does a great job with the building tension between Dorina and Louis-Cesare. There was a slow build from the beginning and while things between them certainly heat up, I think it'll be a couple of books before they are completely together. 
 I also really liked Mircea. In the Cassie Palmer books I don't mind him. I prefer Pritkin (but that's for other reviews). In Cassie's world he just seems so controlling and a little closed off to her at times because he's trying so hard to protect her. Here, we see him in a different light and while I don't know if it will change my perception of him in the other series, I certainly like his character here. He's a father. We don't look at him as a lover, here he's very paternal. They have a strained relationship, but subtly his actions speak that maybe their relationship has been distorted. That maybe it's not really how Dorina perceives it at all. I hope they can build upon their relationship in books to come and we can see him be more caring towards her and she to him. 
 Over all, is nothing else the Dorina series just expands upon the world created in the Cassie Palmer series. But it really can stand on its own. I look forward to reading Death's Mistress. Until Then!