Publishers' Weekly
June 28, 2005 - "Exotic locales, tantalizing history, a family legacy and a love of the bloodthirsty: it's hard to imagine that readers won't be bitten, too." 

USA Today
June 13, 2005 - "Kostova may have outdone Stoker or even, for that matter, Hollywood.... Before the sun sets, grab this book and take a long and satisfying drink."

TIME Magazine
June 20, 2005 (subscription) - "Stuffed with rich, incense-laden history cultural history and travelogue... a smart, bibliophilic mystery."

Salon.com
June 6, 2005 (subscription) - "For the sophisticated reader it's a fine Bordeaux to Dan Brown's overcaffeinated Diet Coke."

San Francisco Chronicle
June 12, 2005 - "A natural storyteller  [ Kostova provides]... much to savor in this intricately plotted, delicately written novel."

Denver Post
June 12, 2005 - "A masterly bouillabaisse of scholarship, history, anthropology, folklore and superstition... a blockbuster... impossible to put down."

New York Daily News
June 12, 2005 - "A tale that deserves to be savored."

Boston Globe
June 15, 2005 - "The figure of Dracula has returned in grand style: regal, evil, and well read beyond compare."