I recently found out that you can get a whole bunch of older young adult books for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. If revisting the Point Horror novellas that were a staple of your youth isn't reason enough to sign up and subscribe, I don't know what is. #notsponsored
BLOOD CURSE is about-- you guessed it-- vampires. Rina is a vampire who was turned as an innocent young waif by an opportunist (and sexy!) vampire named Vlad. Now she's curious about the high school experience because she's fallen for a teenager named James. Rina will do whatever it takes to possess James, be it seduction or murder, which is unfortunate, because James has a girlfriend...
While reading this book, I kept thinking about how it was giving me L.J. Smith vibes. I was really enjoying it! So, naturally, I checked out the author's backlist to see if she had any other goodies I could enjoy once I finished with this one. While checking out the synopsis for TEMPTATION, I couldn't help but notice the blurb: "From the creators of the bestselling Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle."
Say WHAT? Is Janice Harrell a ghost-writer or pen name for L.J. Smith? COLOR ME YES. I mean, I have no idea and can't confirm, but the blurb seems to imply a relation between the two authors. Having finished BLOOD CURSE, I would say that Janice Harrell is probably an author you will love if L.J. Smith is a favorite of yours. Her books have that same breathless, yet, repressed vibe of sexuality, with surprisingly deep emotional arcs and some truly good scenes of horror.
I really enjoyed this horrific vampire romance between a young female vampire and a teenage boy. Word of warning is that it ends on a mega-cliffhanger, so it doesn't really work as a standalone. I know if I had read this as a kid growing up and had the book end there, I'd be mad as shit.
When I was a teenager, one of my favorite websites in the whole wide world was Quizilla. It was a magical wonderland of user-made quizzes and bad fic, where you could spend the day finding out what anime girl element you were (with ~beautiful pics~) or you could spend the day reading smutty fanfic about Louis and Lestat. Or, if you were so inclined, you could browse original fic submitted by users, often written in the second person, where "you," the heroine, were some kind of hybrid angel-vampire-werewolf-faerie combination and had a veritable reverse-harem of male love interests to chose from, distinguishable only in the colors of their hair and the way they demonstrated their instant love for you.
The Kate Daniels series is leagues above the kind of trash I used to read on Quizilla (which is now sadly defunct), but it taps into that same insatiable craving for fun, addictive stories that balance action and romance. Set in a world where magic is at constant war with tech, Kate Daniels is that hybrid Mary Sue like character from my childhood-- only now she's all grown up and sporting big girl pants and a pretty intimidating sword named Slayer.
In this book, an arson case ends up leading Kate down a rabbit hole of missing witches, undead mermaids, and evil cauldrons. Every time there's a magic flare, something sinister happens, and it's dark and ancient magic. People are playing with deadly gods. Naturally, the Pack ends up being involved, and Kate clashes against the attractive werelion, Curran. But there's other attractive dudes, like the so-bad-he's-good thief, Bran, and Saiman, the seductive shape-changer. Basically every guy Kate meets in this book has some kind of interest in her, which should have been annoying-- but the way she's written, you can kind of understand why she's so magnetic. I found her compelling.
As always, the book is a little slow to start, but as soon as the action picks up, I'm questioning any doubts I ever had about this wife-and-husband writing duo. They've yet to truly disappoint me with any of their books and MAGIC BURNS was no exception. Luckily I also own books three and four, and I just checked out book five in ebook from the library, so I'm all set to binge read this series!
Me before reading this book: ROGAN IS MY ONE AND ONLY, NO ONE WILL EVER REPLACE ROGAN IN MY HEART
Me after reading this book: ROGAN WHO
My first five star rating of 2023?? HECK YES. And well deserved. Oh my GOD. So EMERALD BLAZE kicks off where SAPPHIRE FLAMES ended, with Catalina fulfilling her new duties as Warden and boy are they tricky. Shady shenanigans are happening in a place called the Pit, a swampy sinkhole where a Prime has just been murdered. Catalina has been charged with finding out the culprit and playing Cluedo with the suspects, to see who did it, in the swamp, with the flamethrower-- all with Count Sagredo's help, of course.
I have so much envy for these authors. They churn out book after amazing book, creating a world that is addictive and compelling. As a young girl I loved superhero movies but I didn't love the lack of strong female characters that weren't just there to be eye candy. Nevada and, now, Catalina, are such amazing heroines. They're strong but a big part of both their arcs is learning how to grow and develop their powers as they grow and develop as people and grow and develop their relationships. ALSO, all the side characters are great: they have a big, lovable family, there are memorable and frightening villains, and the love interests are SO SWOONWORTHY.
I think I might love Alessandro even more than I loved Rogan-- although I loved Rogan a lot. There's just something about the icy playboy with a heart of gold that melts for only one woman that does it for me. He's perfect for Catalina, and she for him. Although that said, I loved the Rogan cameos in this, and how they reminded me that he and Nevada were perfect together, too. Also, I love that he just floats his coffee alongside him as he walks around. Laziness + power display? Classic Rogan. He'll make the perfect brother in law for Alessandro, hee hee. I want to say more about how great this book is, but I'll just be fangirling even more than I already have. That cliffhanger was WICKED and thank god I already own book three because otherwise I'd be pulling my hair out and crying.
I have been wanting to read this new trilogy about Nevada's younger sister for years, and when the first book went on sale ages ago, I may have screamed. But then I remembered the agony of reading the original series as they came out, and through a truly Herculean effort of will, I forced myself to wait until I was able to binge the entire trilogy all at once before starting SAPPHIRE FLAMES. Which was agony itself, but also HOO-BOY, after that cliffhanger, boy am I glad I waited.
I've seen some of my friends saying that they preferred the original trilogy but I actually think they're equally good in different ways. Catalina is just as vulnerable as Nevada in her own way, but she has a different set of problems. With siren powers that make people fall in love with her, she's always second-guessing whether people really love her for who she is, or if that's even possible. I think that's something a lot of people with anxiety and impostor syndrome relate to, with or without powers, and Catriona is so sheltered that being the new Head of her House comes at such a draining psychological cost that you can really feel the toll it takes on her, and part of the fun of this book is seeing her grow stronger for it.
And I LOVED Alessandro. I loved that his powers work in opposition to hers and that she has a sort of teenage crush on him that she thinks is unrequited. I loved the juxtaposition of his suave European playboy persona against his cold mercenary one. He's more dapper and dashing than Rogan but no less dangerous, and I think the real difference between them is that Rogan is more of a traditional alpha hero whereas Alessandro skews a little more gamma. They're both wonderful love interests, though, and in both subseries, I think that the authors did a great job creating chemistry and sexual tension.
What to say about the plot without spoiling? Well, as with all books, they end up involved in House turf wars, but unlike previous books, House Baylor is past its probationary period and now they're all sitting ducks. There's a truly terrifying villain in this book and evil monsters that wouldn't be out of place in the Kate Daniels universe. I'm honestly truly shocked that these books haven't been picked up for a TV show, yet. Some Netflix exec working for their acquisitions department must be zonked out at his desk because I can't imagine any other reason why someone would be sleeping on the movie rights for these books. I read most of SAPPHIRE FLAMES with my heart in my throat, and if you're thinking that that pretty dress on the cover probably doesn't even make an appearance, THINK AGAIN.
I read these books ten years ago when I was going through the same paranormal frenzy that everyone else was, characterized by those "girl in a Gothic dress" covers that were so popular in the early 2010s. Most of them were crushing disappointments, but the Vampire Academy series blew my expectations out of the water and basically ended up being the cracktastic fun-fest I expected.
The best way to describe it is to say that it's like you took Harry Potter and infused it with high school scandal and backstabbing, with all of the doomed romance and girl-on-girl Machiavellian plotting of a K-drama. It reminded me a lot of Peach Girl, too, in that the heroine is sexualized by her peers because of the way she looks and spends the whole book struggling to save her friends and prove her character, despite everyone constantly judging her.
Rose is a damphir, which means she's half-Moroi (good vampire) and half-damphir (hybrid). Moroi are vampires that can do elemental magic and they're very good looking, but they're physically frail. Damphir are faster and stronger, but they're also infertile, so in exchange for protection and sometimes providing blood, Moroi hire Damphir to be their bodyguards, and Damphir use Moroi to keep the bloodline alive. It's very symbiotic. The main thing that Damphir protect their charges against are Strigoi, which are bad vampires who like to kill.
Rose has a bond with Lissa, her Moroi friend, which allows her to sense when she's in danger, as well as read her thoughts. It was one of those moments that led Rose to spirit Lissa away from their academy, and neither of them are very happy when they're both brought back in disgrace. Rather than be expelled, Rose is given extra lessons to keep her in check with the man who brought her back in, a very hot guy named Dimitri, who is a Damphir just like her, and the acting guardian of her friend.
It seems like it should be a normal year, but someone is trying to chase Lissa away from the school, putting dead animals in her bed and making her life miserable. Through their connection, Rose sees her friend losing control, succumbing to depression and acting out in increasingly violent and irrational ways, including using her compulsion spells to use things against their will and hanging out with the resident bad boy, Christian, whose parents were both evil Strigoi. To make matters worse, her feelings for Dimitri are getting stronger and making it hard to focus a mind that is becoming increasingly not her own, as Lissa's thoughts begin to invade hers more and more.
And then the book reaches its climax, and everything explodes in fire and blood.
This is one of the few books I've reread that completely lived up to my memories of it, and the more I read, the more of it came back to me. I loved every moment of it, even the parts that normally would have made me turn up my nose in disgust if they had occurred in another book. Rose is such a strong character and I loved her bond with Lissa. Normally I only like the main love interest, but I liked Dimitri as much as I liked Christian. The boarding school element is done so well and provides an excellent element of isolation and danger, and the magic gave it a fun Harry Potter vibe, only less hocus pocus vibes and more Wicca.
The only taint about this book for me is the movie, which sucks. I don't know what the people who made that movie were thinking but it was a fail. I think the only bigger disappointment was the spectacular flop, Boys Over Friends, AKA what happens with Americans try to take a popular manga/K-Drama idea and localize it for an American audience but end up ruining everything. People seriously need to figure out how to adapt YA books to movies without being fails, and I think reading the books might help, because I'm pretty sure a lot of those people probably just Cliffnotes it.
It shows.
If you're looking for something a little bit erotic, filled with adventure and magic and romance and all sorts of other good things, VAMPIRE ACADEMY is the perfect book to pick up. I blew through it in an afternoon, and can't wait to read the rest of the books. Especially since they're all on sale right now, so I could pick up all six for just under $12. I never actually finished the series and can't wait to see how it ends. Especially with the zinger that this one ended on. Shadow-kissed, indeed.
Edit/12/31/19: This book is $1.99 on Kindle today! It's so good, please check it out!
I just finished beta-reading for one of my author friends, and I have a love-hate relationship with beta-reading for this author because nobody else writes stories like her, so whenever I finish one of her books, I always end up in the grand mother of book slumps-- at least until I get my hands on my next fix (WRITE FASTER). I was in a gloomy and creepy mood, and wanted to read a book that was densely atmospheric, rich with erotic horror and morally grey characters. Much to my surprise, I found that in NVK, and it helped get me out of my slump because it was exactly the type of book I wanted.
NVK is one of those books that kind of feels timeless. Reading it reminded me of the vampire and supernatural horror movies from the 80s and 90s, like Fright Night and Lost Boys, where they weren't strictly horror, in that they had romantic scenes and storylines, and explored themes that had more depth than their slasher movie cousins that seemed to serve more as morality plays dressed in gore. It was so good, and the suspense was kept up nicely throughout the story.
Set in China, NVK is about a Chinese executive named Zhang who becomes enamored with a mysterious Finnish woman named Naemi. Zhang is a man that has everything, so the elusiveness of Naemi and the way she constantly keeps him hanging fascinates him. They end up dating and sleeping together, and becoming quite fond of each other, but there is something that is not quite right about Naemi. An old man recognizes her in a restaurant and thinks she's his friend from his college days, even though she's only in her twenties. One of Zhang's close friends is insistent that Naemi is a ghost with unfinished business. And Naemi herself, with her strange eyes and the mysterious scar on her upper arm, often defies human qualities, to the point that she seems otherworldly.
This book was great. I see that it's the debut work of an author and supposed to be the first in a series, which has me very excited. I would gladly read the other books in the series by this author, because this one had such a great vibe. The spare writing managed to conjure up incredibly vivid scenes, and I liked the morose sense of doom that hung over the story, from start to finish. It's definitely not a read for those who want their books to be all sweetness and light, but I really enjoyed it.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
This was a buddy-read with my friend, Deidra @ ShadeTreeReads, so make sure you check out her review, too!
I've been anticipating this one for a while because I heard it was good for people who like the Kate Daniels series and it is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy that puts emphasis on Navajo/Dine culture.
The good:
The writing is very clean. The world-building, once I figured it out, is unique among its peers (although that isn't really a "positive," since, you know,: more rep of different cultures in UF would be nice). I thought the climate change event that triggered the undoing of life as we formerly knew it was interesting and love that the story revolves mostly around other Native American people. The heroine is a bad-ass who takes no prisoners and has cool powers and a scary knife.
The bad:
I feel like I spent huge swaths of this book waiting for Something to happen. And while that's the only bad, it was the main thing driving the story (or preventing the driving of the story), so it ended up impacting my enjoyment of the book a lot. Some people seem to enjoy the experience of just being immersed in something different, and if that's enough for you, you might like this. But by the time I finished, I kind of felt like the Kate Daniels comparisons might end up doing this book more harm than good because it really doesn't have the same pacing and the setting is totally different. KD is much more urban-centric (big cities, underground tunnels, etc.) whereas this one feels more like a remote Western. So apart from snarky first person female narrator, they really aren't so similar.
THE BABYSITTERS COVEN is one of those books that I was hotly anticipating for fall. The tongue-in-cheek title and gorgeous cover made me feel so hopeful that what I was going to get was going to be a cross between my childhood favorite, The Babysitters Club, with a dash of The Craft, and a heavy dollop of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I didn't get that, and maybe part of that is on me for having unrealistically high expectations, but part of that is definitely on the book.
First, even though this book is set in high school, it felt so immature it almost feels like a middle grade novel. There was also an element of being "out of touch." I never felt like I was reading about a bunch of teenagers. It felt like reading about a mom pretending to be a sanitized version of what they imagined a teenager was like from watching The Disney Channel all day.
Second, the magic and world-building is a bit of a mess. THE BABYSITTERS COVEN skates that fine line between a book that wants to be taken at face value and an homage/parody. The magic spells seemed cool, but the execution of them was kind of lame. And then the fact that the book basically used the plot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to explain how magic worked in this universe felt totally lazy. Don't use other universes that did you one better as a crutch to hold up your own shoddy world-building; it will just remind me that better stories exist out there than yours.
Third, the babysitting club element had a nice hook, but didn't really capture that responsibility and closeness that made the original Babysitters Club series so compelling. The girls in the original BCC were mature for their age and had a lot of interesting hobbies. The girls in this BCC aren't as invested in their jobs, are actually pretty immature, and engage in girl on girl hate. I was very disappointed. The only thing they have in common with the original BCC is that they're a club of girls who occasionally babysit and they like to create "themed" outfits, like Claudia from the original BCC did, but after a while their "themed" outfits started to seem too precious and contrived and annoying.
I'm pretty disappointed by how much I didn't like this upon finishing. THE BABYSITTERS COVEN was one of my biggest anticipated reads and ended up becoming one of my biggest disappointments. Maybe it would be good for a preteen girl who enjoys the Disney Channel, but it wasn't great for me.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
I love Gothic horror and the fact that this is set in a creepy boarding school in Patagonia with Argentinian characters seemed like a slam dunk. I'm sad that it wasn't, because I was really, really looking forward to this book and was so sure that it would be good. Here's the problem, though: good writing is like a carrot on a stick. You want to withhold enough information to keep the reader interested and make them think that they have a chance at catching the carrot; but if you hold the carrot too far away and don't reveal enough information, the reader will be bored and confused and will wander away in search of something more interesting.
The plot of this story is very difficult to explain. There are two timelines (I think, although both appear to be happening concurrently), with two narrators. One is a young teacher named Mavi, the other is a mysterious crystal being named Angel. There's a curse on the school. There's a student missing. Something creepy is happening. And don't worry, the book will keep reminding you how creepy it is; even when it isn't.
I found the timeline really confusing and the storyline was really disorganized. I kept waiting for things to click into place, but that never happened. I know people harangue authors for info-dumps, but I would actually prefer a well-written info-dump if it was interesting to keeping the reader totally in the dark. I love the cover for this book and I thought the atmosphere of this book was really well done, with regard to the arctic setting and the dilapidated mansion, and I really wanted to love it for being infused with South American folklore, but the pacing and story were just totes off.
Your mileage may vary with this one, and if this ends up being one of your top books for fall, more power to you. I guess it depends on how you feel about going into a book totally cold and-- based on other reviews I saw-- not getting to find out anything until the end. A similar book to this is HOUSE OF LEAVES, which I also couldn't get into. So if you like HOUSE OF LEAVES, you will probably like THE TENTH GIRL. I have so many other ARCs that I'd rather read than spending anymore time with this one, so I'm sorry to say I'm ghosting THE TENTH GIRL and leaving it on unread.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
NOT EVEN BONES was one of the more disturbing YA books I've ever read, but I really enjoyed the tight storyline and strong female heroine. Even though there were parts that made me straight-up cringe, I couldn't help but applaud it for being daring and taking risks in a genre that's basically stagnated, with everyone trying to outrace each other to write the next over-hyped Sarah J. Maas clone. If you like SJM, that's on you, but I can't stand those stock footage fantasy novels. Adventure, please!
ONLY ASHES REMAIN begins where NOT EVEN BONES left off. Nita has just come in contact with the person who sold her out and caused her to be tortured/almost eaten. She still bears the wounds-- physical and psychological-- of that interaction, and is eager for revenge. However, her betrayer has ties to a secret organization that holds lots of power in the unnatural community, and her new zannie friend (a creature that feeds off pain) has a dark history that's about to return with a vengeance.
This is not as dark or as brutal as its prequel, and there's a lot more running around. There's still suspense, but it didn't have the high stakes of the previous book. On the other hand, we get to meet some cool new characters, like a kelpie named Adair and a ghoul named Diana, as well as some INHUP agents and Nita's mom returning to act like the savage meanie she is. I think I liked the prequel more than this one in terms of plot and pacing, as this book definitely suffered from a mild case of second book syndrome. You can feel the sequel-baiting.
That said, I enjoyed ONLY ASHES REMAIN because it's got unique world-building, morally-grey characters, conspiracies upon conspiracies, and some pretty solid writing. I'd recommend this urban fantasy series to anyone who likes grimdark or wants to read about more female characters who don't always think about looking pretty or acting sweet. The diverse cast and doomed romance are just an added bonus, especially since they're both basically villains cast in the role of reluctant heroes. YAS.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
When this book was announced, everyone was like, "Woohoo! Vampires are back!" And I was sitting there in the corner, swathed in black and clutching a glass of wine, thinking to myself, "Fools! For some of us, vampires never left." You see, I love vampire stories and always have. For many, TWILIGHT was the "gateway book" into vampire fiction, but I'd been reading L.J. Smith's Night World and Bram Stoker's Dracula and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's Den of Shadows years before it came out; Lost Boys was my favorite movie, and I was trying (but failing) to cultivate Anne Rice, as I much-preferred the chunkier books of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro with their dense historic montages, and entire paragraphs that are odes to food and fashion as written by someone with a deep and undying passion for history. So, in short, I freaking love vampires. I want you to keep that in mind, that this review is being written by someone who is obsessed and has been for a while. It is important.
THE BEAUTIFUL is about a girl named Celine who lives in a convent with a bunch of other girls in 19th century New Orleans. A beautiful terror is stalking the city, killing innocent girls. Celine is laboring under a "dark" secret that she must keep hidden at all costs. There's a secret society of beautiful people who are more than they seem. Everything is beautiful, even death-- because for some, it is not the end. *evil laughter*
(Seriously, why haven't I been hired on as a blurb-writer, yet?)
I don't want to go too deep in to the plot for spoilers' sake, but there's a love triangle between a mysterious, possibly supernatural boy and a police officer. The "attraction" between both is suspect, as Celine goes from hating both these boys to finding them charming basically overnight. There's a secret society that ends up welcoming Celine and she finds herself the obsession of a depraved and self-absorbed evil guy who likes to wax on and on about how powerful and artistic he is in his first person interludes, which had me rolling my eyes a little. Not much happens-- there's fancy dresses and some murders, but between that there's a whole lot of nothing and Celine's "dark secret" is actually kind of horrible (and not in a good way), and I honestly don't understand why it was such a big deal or why she felt so guilty about it. Celine is such a passive heroine and I really didn't like her.
Oh-- and the book with no resolution. Because there's a sequel.
Here's my person issue with Renee Ahdieh: all of her book summaries sound amazing. She writes books that, without picking them up and going only by the summary, sound exactly like the types of books I want to read. A retelling of Arabian Nights? YES. A retelling of the Ballad of Mulan? YES. A vampire story set in New Orleans and laced with Gothic elements? YES YES YES. But then I pick them up, and each time, like Boo Boo the fool from Yogi Bear, I end up finding myself betrayed all over again as I encounter not awesomeness, but very empty, pretty writing that is too busy being mired in its own overwrought nature to move the plot along; cardboard characters; and plots that literally take 400+ pages to accomplish what could have been done in 250. WHY.
The biggest problem that I personally have with THE BEAUTIFUL is that it is a conglomeration of elements that appear to be borrowed or inspired by vampire stories that already did it better, and it still isn't a good book. The hero's name, for example, is Bastien Saint Germain and I did wonder if that was taken from or inspired by the alchemist, Count of St. Germain, especially since Sebastian's uncle is actually a count. He was a fascinating historical figure who made all sorts of weird claims, like that he was actually 500 years old. You might think that would make him ripe for being incorporated into a vampire myth, and you would be right, only Chelsea Quinn Yarbro-- that author I mentioned earlier-- actually already did that, with her Saint-Germain series.
The concept of angsty and flamboyant vampires living it up in New Orleans is also not new or novel, as that was done by Anne Rice with her Vampire Chronicles series-- which then set the mode for ceaseless imitations and fanfic (despite Rice's "no fanfic" policy), especially in the 2000s, when Interview with a Vampire was made into a movie with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and everyone suddenly decided that a vampire was a nobody unless he or she spoke with a French accent and wore a ruffled and very expensive cravat. Another similarity is that Anne Rice's hero is named "Lestat de Lioncourt" and the paranormal entourage Celine encounters in THE BEAUTIFUL is called "The Court of Lions."
You also can't look at that cover and tell me that it isn't trying-- either actively or subconsciously-- to capitalize on the nostalgia and the branding of the TWILIGHT books. The black/white/red color scheme, the font choices, and the central photograph set against the black cover are all very reminiscent of the Twilight series' cover art, as well as several paranormal copycats that rose to prominence at the peak of the YA paranormal craze.
To clarify, I'm not rating low because of these similarities, but because if the author was reading and researching into all these different worlds to write her own vampire book and still managed to write something that was mediocre and uninspired, that is 100% on her. What I think Renee Ahdieh was trying to do was to write a book that would appeal not just to her YA audience, but also to vampire fans who would notice all of these vampire references and clap their hands in excitement at each bat-winged Easter egg. That, if that is what she was trying to do, is not a bad tactic in principle and it really could have worked if this book had actually been what I, as a vampire fan, look for in fiction.
I have no problem with books that were inspired by something else and have Easter eggs and clever winks and nods to their original sources if they do a good job and pay proper homage to what they're inspired by. That technique was precisely what made READY PLAYER ONE so popular. It was greater than the sum of its parts, but each individual part was also special on its own. Authors also should read, and actively, in the genres they want to write because it teaches them not just what they should do, but also what they shouldn't do. I've read books that were clearly inspired by other books but managed to do them better, case in point: Pippa DaCosta's Messenger Chronicles, clearly inspired by the paranormal science-fiction books of the 1960s and 70s, only with a strong female protagonist instead of an outmoded white guy with questionable morality.
No, I'm rating low because this could have been the READY PLAYER ONE for vampire lovers, and it ended up being a tired, washed out imitation. That's a crying shame.
If you are new to vampire fiction or like Renee Ahdieh's, um, unique writing style, then you will probably really enjoy this book. She has a pretty devoted fanbase and must be doing something right, even if I personally can't appreciate it. But if you are a veteran of books in the vampire genre and were hoping for something new or homage-worthy, or have been burned by Ahdieh's books in the past as I was and hoping that maybe she'd changed her tune, you should probably save yourself the disappointment and avoid this book.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
Whoa. That was the most addictive, fast-paced fun I've had in a while. Ever since I finished Ilona Andrews's Hidden Legacy series, I've been trying to find the next Big Thing to fill the paranormal void in my life. When I saw SHADES OF WICKED pop up as the deal of the day, replete with a sexy vampire hero who's basically a salacious playboy of the nth degree, I thought that might be it.
Ian is a master vampire who spends a lot of his time slutting it up or hanging out in brothels - that's actually where the heroine finds him in the beginning of the book, wearing a ringmaster's jacket and nothing else. Our heroine is named Veritas and she's also a vampire, but she's the face of the law and intent on using Ian as bait to capture a very evil demon who she has her own personal history with. As it turns out, Ian has a bone to reckon with this demon himself, and ends up as an unwilling pawn to help her catch him.
The sexual tension between these two is totally off the charts, and even though they come from opposite sides of the law and have about one hundred reasons to hate each other, they're more similar than either of them realize because of their dark and tortured pasts. I honestly didn't think that SHADES OF WICKED would get so dark, but some of the big reveals about Ian and Veritas hit hard. That was a pleasant surprise, settling in for just another paranormal romance and ending up with something deep. And speaking of deep, brace yourself for some of the hottest vampire sex ever.
I almost feel that SHADES OF WICKED shouldn't work, because despite the darker elements (and there are many), there is also a lot of humor, including some spiffy one-liners that actually made me laugh, and comic relief coming in the form of a fluffy flying demon dog. I didn't realize that I needed a fluffy flying demon dog in my life until reading this book, but I do. I do. Rather than dragging the book down, the inconsistent tone actually worked and made the pages just fly by. SHADES OF WICKED is my first book by this author, but it won't be my last - it's everything I love about the paranormal romance genre, wrapped up in a tidy package and tied off with a crimson bow.
The idea of a romance between an incubus and a vampire while their people were at war was so appealing. I just got Kindle Unlimited, and I've been availing myself of all the dark romance my smutty heart desires, and this was one of the romances that's been at the top of my list for a while. Incubi and vampires have been at war for a while, but now Matthew, a man who previously believed himself to be an ordinary vampire, is a key player in the sinister machinations of the incubus and succubus army.
Tarrick is a lord general in the incubi army, and Matthew's captor. The beginning of this book was so hot and I had high hopes that it would be like Ariana Nash's Silk & Steel series, which I love so much. It kind of fell apart, though, since there are lots of dull scenes interspersed with some pretty abusive sex. I'm not one to shy away from toxic romances but it has to work. Tarrick just came across as super smarmy and gross.
I'm giving this 1.5 stars because the writing was okay and I think this might work for people who like those skeevy heroes who enjoy being called "master" and throwing their power around to overcompensate for masculine inferiority complexes. I would probably rate this higher if I forced myself through it but at the moment, I can't be bothered, and if a book isn't good enough to see to the end, that's on the book.
When I was a young teen, I used to go on this website called Quizilla. In many ways, it was a lot like a cross between Wattpad and BuzzFeed's quiz section, only since this was during the early 2000s, people were writing self-insert fics w/ Gerard Way and My Chemical Romance instead of Harry Styles and One Direction or BTS, and instead of Twilight, it was Louis and Lestat from Interview with the Vampire and they all spoke in butchered French. If vampires and emo boys weren't your cup of tea, no problem, you could read anime fanfic, anime-inspired fic, take quizzes, or read original fiction with titles like Lust for a Young Girl's Blood; Help I'm a Girl in an All-Boys' Boarding School; or Would an Angel, a Demon, or Vampire Fall for You?
Quizilla is now defunct but my memories of it are not, and I'm always delighted when I come across a story that captures the zeitgeist of my Quizilla days. I was thinking, while reading THE KISS OF DEATH, that I'd never read a reverse-harem story, but that's not quite true. In my Quizilla Days, there was a veritable pantheon of fratty immortal cadres falling for human girls.
THE KISS OF DEATH stars Sienna, a human girl putting herself for college while working at a bar. She also has a jerk boyfriend named Aaron (Aaron is such a jerk name). On her first day of classes, she runs into not one, not two, but three hot guys in all her classes (hi, obligatory nod to TWILIGHT) and then they all show up coincidentally at her job later, where they all leave her really big tips. It turns out that these guys - Sam, Luke, and Nick - are Samyaza, Lucifer, and Sataniel, demons who are looking for her because their enemies, the angels, are looking for her, too. Because Sienna isn't a human girl, after all. She's a Muse, with the power to manipulate aether, the substance that souls are made of, and that borders and gates the many worlds. And people want her - or want her dead.
So, yes, it's a little bit Mary Sue-ish. A little bit. Normally this is something that bothers me, but I honestly loved it here. It's pure escapist fantasy. Sienna has cool powers, magic art skills, and a whole harem of immortal hot guys who treat her nicely and are willing to die for her. What really saves this story is the smart writing and the science and philosophy the author imbues the story with. Hadley really tries to make this more than just romance with plot, and it's damned creative.
It's also... well, some might say it's blasphemous. If you thought the movie Dogma (1999) was funny, you'll be fine, but that should be your litmus test. Can you stomach the thought of angels and, yes, even Jesus, being the bad guys? I look at Christian theology the way most Christians probably look at Greek mythology, in that I'm like, "Oh, how interesting, how dramatic, how antiquated - I'd like to learn more about this maybe, and read some books about it, but I would never believe in this." I thought the book was great, but I noticed some religious people in the reviews weren't happy with the content. So if you are very religious, and can't laugh at your doctrines, maybe you should stay away.
I honestly can't remember the last time I had such mindless fun reading something. THE KISS OF DEATH was so compulsively readable that I finished it in just over a day, even though it's long. I'm new to the burgeoning reverse-harem craze happening on Goodreads, and I don't think I'll be a stranger from now on. Not if this book is any indication of what I've been missing out on.
I loved THE COMPANION so much that I immediately set out to buy the next book in the series after finishing it. How could I not? THE COMPANION had everything I love in a vampire romance novel: it was dark, it was erotic, the hero and the heroine were likable and intelligent and had great chemistry. It was amazing.
THE HUNGER is a very different beast.
The hero, John, is a spy for England investigating Napoleon Bonaprte's activities in France. The heroine, Beatrix, is a vampire who has grown weary with her life. We meet Beatrix in The COMPANION as well, but she is much more vibrant there than here. In backstories, we learn that she was basically Asharti's adoptive sister, and that their guardian was a vampire named Stephan who traversed the boundary between guardian and lover.
John is very jaded with women and thinks they're all a bunch of simpering tricksters, but is attracted to Beatrix despite himself. Beatrix finds his defiance bemusing, and sees him as a human enigma. They don't have the deep connection that the two leads of the previous book had; theirs is a physical attraction that inexplicably morphs into love when it's convenient for the plot.
There were some good portions in this book. I liked Beatrix's flashback scenes, and that scene when John is thrown on a prison boat was good. As with the previous book, the male lead is sexually abused and tortured by Asharti, which gives this vampire novel more of a horror flavor than many of its contemporary brethren. Some of the abuse scenes are very graphic. There's a final confrontation scene that's pretty dramatic, and was the only time I actually felt anxious for the characters.
I'm sorry to say that I didn't much care for THE HUNGER as a whole. I found myself skimming large swaths of it, wishing I were reading something else. It was much, much longer than it needed to be. There were definitely times when I was asking myself when it was going to end. I'm more intrigued by the sequel, THE BURNING, which no longer appears to be sold in the Kindle store. It's the only book in the series that isn't available for individual sale, and I wondered if maybe that racy and gritty summary had something to do with it. I hope not, since that's what made me want it in the first place.
Unless THE BURNING is published again, I think I might just stop at book two.
The best thing in the world is when you find an author who really resonates with you. For me, Jennifer Armintrout is that author. It's like she peered into my mind, saw the checklist detailing everything I love to see in fiction, and then immediately set out to write a fleet of books that have every single one of those delicious tropes that I love so much.
I kickedstarted my Jenny Trout Experience with THE TURNING, which is a dark vampire erotica with an evil villain, vampires who actually behave like vampires, and enough horror to put the romance elements in their place. QUEENE OF LIGHT is a fantasy story about faeries and court intrigue, with high stakes coups and betrayals and yes, also doomed romance. How could the author write two totally different styles of books and have them both be so different, and yet so good? I have no idea, and yet she did it again with AMERICAN VAMPIRE.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE is a totally different book from her two other series done under this name. For starters, it is a standalone, which will come as a relief to those of you who want to read a good book without committing to a long-term relationship. This book is the perfect one-night stand for the impatient reader. The tone is also different. It's got a small town horror vibe reminding me of American Gothic, and it's really creepy.
Graf is a vampire who's on his way to a racy orgy party at the home of his sire. He gets lost en route, and finds himself in a small town that looks to be abandoned. When he goes into a gas station, however, he ends up finding a cowering girl and a monster. The girl is our heroine, Jessa, and the monster is this powerful and evil entity that's been holding the town in thrall for five years. Nobody's been able to get in or out in all that time, and the townsfolk have started to get kind of, well, crazy.
One thing I really liked about this book is how imperfect the narrators are. Graf is not a nice man and is a bit of a psychotic playboy who's used to getting his way. Jessa is also morally grey. She's an adulteress and has a slew of emotional issues and personal baggage. That said, neither of them are truly Bad People, and they have some pretty intense character arcs that transform them over the course of the novel as they slowly start to fall for each other despite knowing that they shouldn't.
The backdrop of horror is also really well done. It reminds me of Stephen King's older stories, the ones that took place in a small town hiding a big evil, like NEEDFUL THINGS or IT. In fact, the monster in this book is actually called "It" by the townsfolk (although nothing like Stephen King's IT), which made me wonder if that was maybe done in homage to the King of Horror himself. The way the townsfolk - and Jess and Graf - were trapped in the town gave this book a desperate, claustrophobic vibe that had me frantically turning pages, and Armintrout doesn't skimp on the gore.
If you're into horror novels with romance (or romance novels with horror), and want to read a vampire story that has an unusual plot and an even more unusual romance, you should definitely read AMERICAN VAMPIRE. I went in not expecting much and ended up being totally surprised.
Have you ever read a book that's so good that you can literally feel the book slump you're going to get after finishing it settling in for the long haul? That was me, with THE TURNING. Everyone who follows me knows that I love vampire books that are dark and twisted, with moral ambiguity, weird sex, and tons of gore. I'm not sure why it's so hard for people to write good, dark vampire fiction, but it is, and they're the exception to the rule.
THE TURNING is everything I love in a vampire novel and checks all the boxes. The heroine, Carrie, is a doctor, and is killed on the job by an evil vampire who shows up in the ER. He leaves her for dead - only he accidentally ends up transforming her. And being the naive goody-goody she is, she spends a few days in denial before going to an online forum for help that nearly gets her killed.
Instead of dying a second time, she ends up meeting another vampire who actually wants to help her. This vampire is Nathan, who is part of the Voluntary Vampire Extermination Movement, a group of vampire police who make sure that their population stays small and that rule-breakers are punished (kind of like a less lame version of TWILIGHT's Volturi). Unfortunately, the vampire who turned Carrie - Cyrus - is at the top of their list, and Nathan has a personal bone to pick with them, as they share an original sire, who is also very evil.
Unfortunately, when you are turned, you have something called a "blood tie" with your sire that creates a very close emotional and physical bond, and despite knowing objectively that Cyrus is evil, Carrie can't really resist him as much as she'd like, and ends up making a very foolish deal that puts her right in his poisonous clutches. Emotionally devastated by her betrayal of Nathan and caught between two fractious and very different sides, it seems like there's no easy resolution in sight.
And there isn't, because nothing about this book is easy.
Reading the reviews for this book on Amazon is bound to turn people away, because they appear to have been written by people who can't stomach dark fiction. That's fine, but it's also not who this book is for, and therefore doesn't really give a good representation of this book's overall quality or what it's even about. Carrie is a fantastic protagonist and very flawed and real, and she also delivers some great one-liners that actually had me giggling. THE TURNING is aware that it's a book in a genre that's fatigued by tropes, and makes a few tongue-in-fang remarks about vampires.
Normally I'm not into love triangles, but this one was SO GOOD, and it was never fully clear which of the two Carrie might end up with. Cyrus is such a fantastic villain (despite his name), and definitely one of the most memorable. There are some truly cinematic displays of horror in this book. Nathan was also the perfect tormented good guy, and he's never so good that you find yourself rolling your eyes; his flaws made him more human (so to speak), and in a way, more endearing.
I'm honestly surprised this series hasn't been made into a TV show? It's better than True Blood, in my opinion, and is so action-packed and heavy on the drama that it would be perfect for HBO. I'm making it my mission to ensure that this book winds up in the hands of all my fellow vampire-lovers, and it probably wouldn't hurt to mention that this book is only $1.99 on Kindle right now.
P.S. This book is written by Jenny Trout, and not the similarly named Jennifer Armentrout with an "e." When searching this book, just remember - it's Armintrout, and the "i" stands for iconic.
There are two types of people in this world: those who like vampires, and those who like werewolves. I've always been a vampire gal, but there's something intriguing about shape-shifters and that blurring of the line between humanity and beast. That's why I was excited to find THE DEVOURERS in the Kindle store, a book about rakshasa, or man-eaters/shape-shifters, in India. The cover was gorgeous, the summary was intriguing, and it promised to be dark and fantastical - plus, it's non-Western fantasy, and I want to try and support that, because there is not enough of that.
THE DEVOURERS was everything I thought it would be and more. Don't be fooled by the three star rating. Three stars means I liked it but probably wouldn't reread it because it has some flaws. Even so, it's worth the first read. It has Interview with a Vampire vibes from the Gothic beginning, when a college professor named Alok is approached by an attractive young stranger claiming to be "half-werewolf." He tells Alok a story that ensnares him like the first hit of an addictive drug, and Alok is desperate to meet again.
There are several characters in this book. Alok and the stranger are the foundation for the story, and the bookends that hold all the stories-within-stories together. Within the stranger's tale are many other characters, including a Muslim woman named Cyrah, a Norse shape-shifter who calls himself Fenrir, a French shape-shifter named Gevaudan, and the son of a forest demigoddess named Izrail. Even though the book is relatively short, it has an epic feel, and each story builds into the other. Sexuality and gender expression are also very fluid, which makes sense because of how these werewolves digest their victims (including their souls), and also because it seems like time would erode a lot of the hang-ups that anyone would have about sexuality and gender, anyway. I liked that a lot.
If this book has a flaw, it is that it is hard to read. The POV switches can be confusing, and even though the writing is gorgeous and it mostly works, it can be confusing at times. I think people who have trouble paying attention might have trouble following who's talking. The pacing is also uneven. Most of the story was amazing - that beginning, tho - but the middle is a major slog.
Anyone who's looking for something dark and different and who enjoys paranormal fantasy would enjoy THE DEVOURERS. It's got Indian and Muslim characters, LGBT+ characters, and a really strong and fascinating female character who has some of the best lines in this book. The story-telling and writing are reminiscent of Tanith Lee, who is one of my all time favorites. I'd love to see this author write a follow-up about vampires, or some other well-known monster with a twist.
THE SILVER KISS was TWILIGHT for the 90s set. Simon the vampire is ancient, gloomy, and obsessive. Zoe is precocious, alienated, and old-fashioned in a way that doesn't really feel realistic for a teenage girl. There are differences, of course. TWILIGHT is more of a traditional love story with vampirism thrown in for lols, whereas THE SILVER KISS stays truer to its horror roots and has a grittiness to it that the Mormon housewife-penned TWILIGHT lacks (drugs, suicide, rape, death, etc.). Even so, the similarities are hard to ignore and it is difficult to say with certainty that there was no way Meyer didn't read or hear about this book and feel inspired by it.
THE SILVER KISS is a surprisingly powerful story in how it handles its difficult themes. Death is terrifying and inescapable, and many, many books have been inspired by the cruel and beautiful concept of mortality. Without it, we would stagnate, or fester. Knowing life will end is what, for many of us, keeps everything flowing into motion. Simon, on the other hand, just exists. The years bleed into one another until they have almost no meaning. His only purpose in life is to destroy the evil vampire who turned him, and Zoe is just a footnote, a curiosity - a girl who is touched by death as much as he is, but also just as removed.
Simon was a pretty great character. Because he is more predatory, it's ironically less creepy than if he were portrayed as an ordinary romantic love interest who just happens to be a vampire (the way Edward was in TWILIGHT). His life as a homeless drifter feels much less romantic than someone who is rich and blessed with a family to socialize with whenever they need to go on the run or hunt. His desperation for contact makes his fascination with Zoe seem slightly more realistic (although there was a moment in this book that rivaled Edward's watching Bella sleep; Simon pees on Zoe's house to mark his territory). Zoe took a while longer for me to warm up to her, but her grief over her mother's terminal cancer explains a lot of her odd behaviors and her apparent coldness. It also explains why vampirism holds an appeal for her; she knows better than most that life is finite.
I'm a romantic at heart and a sucker for happy endings (although I am one of those people who believes that not all romance novelsneed to have happy endings, which is apparently very ~controversial~ in the romance community), but sometimes happy endings just aren't very realistic and are damaging to the integrity of the story. TWILIGHT ends with Bella becoming a vampire; it's about cheating death, a love that literally transcends time. On the other hand, you have books like TUCK EVERLASTING, where the romance can't feasibly work and the book ends accordingly.
Perhaps as a nod to its similarities to TWILIGHT, the rerelease has a red, black, and white cover with Gothic font that looks like it could belong in the series. That's the edition I read, although I like this one a lot better. My edition also came with two short stories. One was a prologue to THE SILVER KISS and was called The Summer of Love. The other was an epilogue and was called The Christmas Cat. I did not really care for either story. Summer of Love was good, but the climax of the story is a cat death, and I've already read two other books this week where the cat dies, so that just felt needlessly depressing. Christmas Cat was super cheesy, and felt like an excuse to bring Simon back. I was also disappointed that the cat wasn't her mother, who said that she would like to be brought back as a cat. That felt like a lost opportunity to explore - sacrificed for teen love, because of course.
THE SILVER KISS is one of the earlier teen vampire romances so I think it's a good book to read if you're interested in going back to basics or want to read something more hard-core than TWILIGHT. It hasn't aged that badly and features many themes that are still relevant today. Check it out.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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