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Drake Chronicles #4.5

A Field Guide to Vampires: Annotated by Lucy Hamilton

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Every new recruit to the Helios-Ra Society is issued this guidebook, with secrets to the inner workings of the League the vampires they are hunting. But when new recruit Lucy Hamilton gets her hands on a copy, she can’t contain her inner snark-especially because she has first-hand knowledge of the various vampire societies that sometimes contradicts the conventional wisdom of her new academy.

98 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 16, 2012

3 people are currently reading
1108 people want to read

About the author

Alyxandra Harvey

61 books3,158 followers
www.alyxandraharvey.com

Alyxandra Harvey is the author of The Cinderella Society, The Dainty Devils, The Drake Chronicles, The Witches of London, Haunting Violet and more!
She likes chai lattes, tattoos, and books.
Sometimes fueled by literary rage.

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5 stars
147 (31%)
4 stars
102 (22%)
3 stars
134 (29%)
2 stars
63 (13%)
1 star
16 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Profile Image for Amelie.
Author 11 books559 followers
January 5, 2016
It was really hard to rate this, because it was exactly what it said it would be. Nothing more and nothing less. I just think that you don't need to read this, if you've read the whole series, because there is not so much more additional information in this. Lucy's comments also kinda failed to be as amazing as I hoped they would be. They weren't bad or anything, but they were just... exactly what I suspected.
Profile Image for Sarah.
3,363 reviews1,239 followers
April 19, 2012
Alyxandra Harvey has recently written several novellas to go along with her Drake Chronicles series, they are all quick reads and available for a reasonable price via Amazon for the kindle. If you don't have a kindle there are options to read the story on your computer or through various apps for other devices.

A Field Guide to Vampires: Annotated by Lucy Hamilton is the guidebook given to all new members of the Helios-Ra but with added snarky comments from Lucy. It does contain minor spoilers for the rest of the series so I wouldn't recommend reading it until after the 4th book (Bleeding Hearts).

The guide includes everything that the Helios-Ra know (or think they know) about the different vampire groups and the Drake family. It also gives you some interesting snippets of the Helios-Ra history and information about some of the most famous vampire hunters since the society was first formed. Considering this is Lucy's personal copy of the guide she obviously hasn't been able to resist adding her own sarcastic comments and I'm sure any Lucy fan will enjoy reading them. Although I enjoyed reading this I have to admit that it was shorter than I expected it to be, I would have liked it to have been longer and had expected to see more of Lucy's comments. It was still a fun read though and worth picking up if you're a major fan of the series.
Profile Image for Amanda.
695 reviews
September 29, 2020
I almost always enjoy guidebook stories set in a series world, and this one was no exception. Ever since Lucy and Solange got their hands on Kieran's guidebook in the first Drake Chronicles book, I've been wondering what that book contained. All of those questions were answered when reading this novella. However, I gave this story 4 stars instead of 5 because I thought there were quite a few missed opportunities with Lucy's annotations.
Profile Image for Victoria Pring.
1,044 reviews2 followers
April 1, 2023
Such a fun addition to the series. The famous handbook. Lucy's comments are brilliant and really add something to what would otherwise be a fairly dull book. I would advise reading this book after the main series as otherwise there are a few spoilers. It was interesting seeing some of the things the hunters are taught and also noting some important information that wasn't included. A good book to read after the main series.
Profile Image for Courtney K.
1,808 reviews25 followers
December 21, 2018
I've liked the other novellas, but this one was dry with too little Lucy. There were a few interesting tidbits, my favorite was the summary of Cass. I don't typically enjoy reading textbooks, though.
Profile Image for Marija P..
306 reviews1 follower
December 17, 2023
Don't expect much, it's just a guide book for Helios Ra students. The only enjoyable parts are things Lucy added.
Profile Image for Stephanie (Bookfever).
1,112 reviews198 followers
April 23, 2012
Another amazing e-novella by Alyxandra Harvey. Wether it's physical books or e-novellas, she always manages to write delightful page turners.
This one is Lucy's guidebook, which every new recruit at the Helior-Ra gets. Of course Lucy can't help herself and writes notes on some pages of what she really thinks. And isn't that how we know Lucy and why we love her?
I really liked this guidebook because not only we get more information about anything from the Drakes world, it's also hilarious with Lucy's notes. It's funny to see how her actual experiences sometimes contradict the Helios-Ra guidebook.
Lucy is one of my favorite female characters in the Drake Chronicles so of course I love this book and gave it 5/5 stars!
Now I'm waiting for the next Drake book "Blood Moon" which I bet will be fantastic as always.
Profile Image for Theresa.
4,196 reviews16 followers
July 12, 2015
This is supposedly the handbook given to every student at the academy with remarks from Lucy as she reads for the first time. But only the first third is actually the field guide and is made up of the information we got in the previous book. Now really anything new, except maybe Lucy’s class schedule. Even her remarks are not anything special.

The next third we get in depth synopsis of each of the previous books. While the last part are synopsis (and whole first chapters) of other books that Ms. Harvey has written. It’s a good way to see if you’d like to read then before you buy. The only one that interested me was ‘Haunting Violet’ but not enough to get me to read it.

So the book could probably be inserted in one of the other books and saved us money.
237 reviews
July 8, 2023
I am only going to give this 3 stars for 3 reasons.

1. Way to short......

2. Lucy only commented on half of it, if even that

3. This should be read after book 4, that being said I did not need a refresher on the books 1-4 (the refresher being the back of each one of those books)

I did like the new info though and of course Lucy's take on things.
Profile Image for Amanda.
1,579 reviews72 followers
November 17, 2012
First and foremost -- Lucy, I love you, and your snark.

Most of this we knew, but it was fun to see it all put together like a text book. My own Drake version of the Harry Potter texts. Color me happily reading through this, pouring over all the details grinning like a little kid, at my favorite series, even through the blatant bias of the 'text book writers.'
Profile Image for Rika - (The Unpretentious Reader).
281 reviews55 followers
February 20, 2013
I had hopes for this to being a bookful of Lucy-esque commentary and hilarious facts and antidotes..

There was that.. but not as much as I hopes.. and there was a couple of passages I didn't think could go by Lucy without a snarky comment.

I found Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.. fare more hilarious and entertaining.

That being said.
It was mildly OK.
Profile Image for Myndi .
1,584 reviews51 followers
January 7, 2013
I wish there had been MORE of this. I loved what was there though. An insight into Lucy's class schedule was appreciated! And I liked reading her little annotations through out the field guide. I'm just greedy even with my novellas and wanted more! :)
Profile Image for Erika.
453 reviews34 followers
August 5, 2024
It was an okay attempt at a textbook, but the "quirky" annotations were sparse and not that quirky. Then the rest of the book was previews of the author's work, where her writing seemed stronger, but since they were excerpts, I just skimmed them.

Not what I thought it would be.
Profile Image for T.K..
Author 3 books111 followers
March 23, 2013
Meh. After all of Lucy's references to this manual's silly fallacies, I thought there would be at least one, but no. This is a straight-up text book, and Lucy's occasional wry comments are no where near enough to save it.
Profile Image for Natalie.
2,116 reviews
July 17, 2012
Only about thirty pages of new content. Over half was summaries of the books so far and excerpt from the first book.
Profile Image for Bethe.
6,991 reviews69 followers
July 22, 2012
Bookaday 62. Lucy's textbook for the Helios-Ra academy, love her usual fun, snarky comments. More Drake Chronicles please!!!
Profile Image for Clary.
33 reviews2 followers
April 9, 2013
The annotations could have been more but I liked it nonetheless! :)
Profile Image for Regina.
437 reviews9 followers
September 2, 2012
Not bad if you have 99 cents to spare. Its very short but if you like vampire lore or a refresher on the world of the drakes its worth it. I wish it was longer and had more commentary from Lucy.
Profile Image for Beka.
395 reviews6 followers
June 23, 2014
I really enjoyed this book especially the added notes. I felt they added quite a personable tone to the book.
Profile Image for Lissa .
861 reviews
February 1, 2014
The manual was a bit drab (but aren't they all?), however Lucy's notes did make it somewhat entertaining. 2.5 Stars
Profile Image for Edith.
269 reviews14 followers
April 30, 2018
*3rd Re-read August 2017*
I absolutely love Lucy, she's so sassy and amazing.

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*2nd Re-read June 2015*

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*1st Read in 2014*
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews

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