Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Review: Beautiful Creatures
Series: Caster Chronicles – Book 1
Author: Kami Garcia; Margaret Stohl
No of Pages: 563
Release Date: 1 December 2009

In Ethan Wate’s hometown there lies the darkest of secrets...

There is a girl.
Slowly, she pulled the hood from her head...green eyes, black hair.
Lena Duchannes.

There is a curse.
On the Sixteenth Moon, of the Sixteenth Year, the Book will take what it’s been promised.
And no one can stop it.

In the end, there is a grave.

Lena and Ethan become bound together by a deep, powerful love. But Lena is cursed and, on her sixteenth birthday, her fate will be decided.
Ethan never even saw it coming.

My Thoughts:

Five hundred and sixty three pages later and I still don’t know what is going on.

Beautiful Creatures follows the story of Ethan Wate a boy living in a small town called Gatlin. He meets a girl at school and is in a way attracted to her. He feels he should help her because she has been shunned by the entire town for being the niece of Macon Ravenwood, a decidedly crazy shut in who hasn’t been seen in years.

One afternoon whilst spending time with Lena, Ethan finds a locket near her house. When they both touch it something weird happens and they are shown a memory from a different time. Ethan and Lena must figure out what the locket is trying to tell them before Lena’s sixteenth birthday.

That little narration is about as much as I can discern from reading Beautiful Creatures. It took three hundred pages for us to be told that Lena is a Caster (witch) and for the entire novel we were walking up and down Gatlin’s eight streets skipping school and playing with lockets they were told to bury.

Ethan’s narration is boring. How can a book so long contain so little? If you chop out the first four hundred pages I would have loved it because then Lena’s family comes to town, her completely dysfunctional half crazy, half evil family. Only then does anything happen and even that doesn’t really add too much to furthering the plot.

It has honestly taken me so long to write this review just because I am wondering what to say about Beautiful Creatures at all.

Gatlin is a backwards country town full of intolerable people unwilling to change or even budge in their views. It reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird. Beautiful Creatures was an updated version of TKAM with a paranormal aspect thrown in.

Lena is a moody drama queen. She’ll lose her temper and blow up a window and then go on for days about how she thinks she is going to go Dark (evil). And yet I still can’t get a clear picture of what she looks like in my head, because throwing tantrums and running off was all she ever did.

I couldn’t see how Lena and Ethan developed a “deep, powerful love” it just wasn’t written in there. He chased her around for most of the book, annoyed her uncle by letting himself into their house uninvited and caused more trouble than what was needed by not listen to Amma his caretaker and getting rid of the weird obviously evil locket that kept showing him clips from the past.

Beautiful Creatures has been raved about constantly but I am seriously finding it hard to see the attraction. Nearly 600 pages and nothing has been answered, and I am not keen to find out.

Also in this series:

Beautiful Darkness

My Two Cents: When Books Make You Sad...

I posted my review of Forbidden the other day and this post is stemming off that. Please note that this post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma, do not read any further if you do not want the end of Forbidden to be ruined for you.

You have been warned...

I said that by the end of Forbidden I was a mess. I was...a crying, depressed, needed to be held and rocked to sleep mess.

Why? Not because Lochie and Maya fell in love with each other, not because they had a stupid mother, not even because of the incest. Nothing contraversial about the book actually affected me. It was the second last chapter...when they got caught.

Even that didn't affect me.

It was the detail with which Lochies arrest was described.

That affected me the most throughout this whole book...why? because it forced me to remember my own past.

It forced me to relive the day in which I watched someone extremely close to me get arrested for something I was willing to swear in court that they were innocent for. As Kit ran down the street after him it forced me to remember the fight I put up as I attempted to go after the police.

For the rest of the story I was a mess. Him dying didn't bother me, her nearly killing herself kind of bothered me...because I felt it was a waste.

I knew that was going to happen, I knew they were going to get caught...It was inevitable. I knew it was going to be sad, I will be honest and say that I didn't know it was going to affect me like it did...but I knew it was coming.

So I ask...

Why do we read books that make us sad? Why do we read books that make us question what we believe, bawl our eyes out or make us so angry that we are tempted to throw the book across the room?

If reading relaxes you, helps you get away from your daily life, makes you happy with all the wonder it holds, takes you on a journey to a new and magical place...why do we read books that make us sad?

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of reading? Doesn't it defeat the purpose of doing something that makes us happy...if we need a box of tissues next to us because the story is so heartbreakingly powerful that we are going to end up snot faced and red eyed.

About halfway through Forbidden, I knew I should stop, I knew I should have just put it down and walked away because I knew it wasn't going to end pretty.

And yet I didn't.

Why?

I know I won't stop reading sad books...I don't know why, but I won't. It is why I deliberately keep a stack of "extra happy" books on hand. After Forbidden I have read two "happy" books one that was so funny I nearly wet myself laughing. I am still not over Forbidden, I still need that hug, and I am going to need a few more happy books before I go anywhere near another sad book.

Vampires Suck!

Now I love Vampires...and I also love making fun of Twilight...

This is no doubt going to be my favourite movie of the year!!!



Vampires Suck Trailer

Book Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Review: Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
No of Pages: 418
Release Date: 27 May 2010

“You’ve always been my best friend, my soul mate, and now I’ve fallen in love with you too. Why is that such a crime?”

She is pretty and talented – sweet sixteen and never been kissed.

He is seventeen, gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future.

And now they have fallen in love. But...

They are brother and sister.

My Thoughts:

That was possibly the most horrifyingly moving book I have ever read.

The Whitely kids don’t have it easy. Their dad has left. Their mum is an alcoholic with the temperament of a sixteen year old and barely makes it home at night. The responsibility has long since fallen to Lochan and Maya the two eldest children. At just seventeen and sixteen respectively they have managed to keep together their family of five, successfully taking care of their three younger siblings.

Things start turning more pear-shaped than usual. Kit, the thirteen year old middle child is lashing out, staying out until all hours of the night, smoking, drinking and hanging around with a gang. Tiffin and Willa, the two youngest of the clan need constant supervision and attentiveness.

Lochan is trying to study for his final year of school and Maya is only a year off that herself. In troubled times they have always turned to each other, always supported each other and been one another’s rock. They have always been the closest, the best of friends, the surrogate parents to the little ones, the team.

Lochie has always had trouble talking to anyone outside of his family, painfully shy and afraid of speaking in public after nearly losing Maya to another boy at school he realises why he has never wanted anyone else. He loves her, more than a brother should.

Maya has felt the same way and when given the opportunity to finally express herself, she willingly takes the chance.

Forbidden was in a way painful to read. There was no excitement at the unknown, no daring anticipation at the fact that they could be caught at any second. You start out thinking ok, well this will be a standard story about traumatised kids finding comfort in each other, but it is so much more.

You weren’t made to like the idea of incest, even Lochie and Maya hated it at first, you couldn’t sympathise with them, but you could understand what was happening. After their first kiss I had to put the book down and walk away, to be honest, I was disgusted.

You didn’t want them to succeed in finding a way to make their love work, but you almost didn’t want it to end. You didn’t want to continue reading because about halfway through it is easy to see the outcome but you couldn’t put it down.

Suzuma in a way forces you through their pain, by completely consuming you with their lives even though you don’t want to keep going, just like them, somehow you find a way to continue. By the time Forbidden was finished, I was a mess because it forced me to think of things that I didn’t want to think of. You want to write off Lochie as a nutcase, consumed by his own madness but that’s not fair to him, because he fought for so long.

I almost can’t bear to give Forbidden top marks, but it has to have them. I hated Suzuma for what she did to me, what she made me feel. I have never felt so depressed after reading a book, but that is what I want in a book, to be consumed, to be lost, to be pounded, to feel. I am honestly terrified of reading anymore of her work purely because of what Forbidden did to me. So, as her characters had to do; it will just be one step at a time.

July Releases

In bold are the books that I really want.

• 1: Wicked Girls - Stephanie Hemphill 
• 1: Sell-Out - Ebony Joy Wilkins 
• 1: What's Your Status? (A Top 8 Novel) - Katie Finn 
• 1: Shadow of the Vampire - Meagan Hatfield 
• 1: The Other Countess - Eve Edwards 
• 1: Dark Goddess - Sarwat Chadda
• 1: Sacrifice (Mortal Path #2) by Dakota Banks
• 6: Dark Flame (The Immortals #4) - Alyson Noel 
• 6: The Ghost and the Goth - Stacey Kade
• 6: Remember Me - Christopher Pike 
• 6: A Devil in the Details - KA Stewart 
• 6: Still Missing - Chevy Stephens
• 6: Legacies (Shadow Grail #1) - Mercedes Lacke & Rosemary Edghill 
• 6: Dark Embers (Dragon's Heat #1) - Tessa Adams 
• 6: In Other Worlds - Sherrilyn Kenyon
• 6: Discord's Apple - Carrie Vaughn 
• 6: The Season of Risks (Ethical Vmapire Novels #3) - Susan Hubbard
• 8: Betti on the High Wire - Lisa Railsback
• 13: Sleepless - Cyn Balog
• 13: Shadow Hills - Anastasia Hopcus
• 13: How To Be a Zombie - Amy Gray
• 13: Siren - Tricia Rayburn 
• 15: By Midnight: A Ravenwood Mystery - Mia James
• 20: Forget You - Jennifer Echols
• 20: Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) - Maggie Stiefvater
• 20: Take Me There - Carolee Dean
• 20: One Night That Changes Everything - Lauren Barnholdt
• 20: The Poison Diaries - Maryrose Wood 
• 20: Dirt Home Road - Watt Key
• 22: Holy Warrior - Angus Donald 
• 22: The Lion of Cairo (Emir of the Knife #1) - Scott Oden
• 27: Eternal Kiss of Darkness - Jeaniene Frost - OMG!!! It's here!!!
• 27: Outside the Ordinary World - Dor Ostermiller
• 27: Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love 
• 27: Echoes (Fingerprints #1-#3) - Melinda Metz
• 27: Dark Warrior: Untamed (Talion #3) - Alexis Morgan 
• 29: Black Dust Mambo - Adrian Phoenix

TBR Drawer: August

At the start of August:

• Just After Sunset by Stephen King
• The Host by Stephanie Meyer
• Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
• Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
• Enchanted. Inc by Shanna Swendson
• Night Rising by Chris Marie Green
• Water Song: A Retelling of the Frog Prince by Suzanne Weyn
• Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
• Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
• Darkborn by Alison Sinclair
• Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
• Need by Carrie Jones
• Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance
• Jessicas Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
• Original Sin by Allison Brennan
• Blood Magic by Eileen Wilks
• Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz
• Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham 
• Elizabeth's Wolf by Lora Leigh 
• Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks 
• Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin
• The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K Hamilton 
• Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton
• Circus of the Damned by Laurell K Hamilton
• Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
• What's a ghoul to do? by Victoria Laurie
• Soulless by Gail Carriger
• Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead
• The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols
• Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper
• Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian 
• Shades of Midnight by Lara Adrian
• Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
  
• Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning
• Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
• Bloody Jack by L. A Meyer
• Thicker Than Water by Carla Jablonski
• The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong
• The Vampire Queen's Servant by Joey W. Hill
• Dark Beginnings by Gena Showalter
• Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison
• Tracking the Tempest by Nicole Peeler
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
• Stolen by Kelly Armstrong
• 13 to Life by Shannon Delany
• Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready  RC
• A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler
• The Taken by Sarah Pinborough
• Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
• Lover Revealed by J. R. Ward
• Bloodlines by Lindsay Anne Kendal
• A Season of Eden by J. M. Warwick   R
• The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer

August Arrivals:

Monthly Wrap-Up: July 2010

July: freedom, Sims 3, lack of reading, sickness, happiness, stress, relief. July was an odd month. It went far too quickly. I had something in my hands to read every day...and yet look at the abysmal effort on my part. Four book. Four. I pride myself on reading a book a day and in 31 days...I read four.

I am contemplating a read-a-thon, I am not currently working (yeay!) and am currently sick, which means confinement and lack of requirement to do anything. Although the drugs do make me a little drowsy...I can still deal. So in the next couple of days we may be seeing a 48 hour read-a-thon.

My Favourite book for the month would have to be: White Cat by Holly Black

In July I read 4 books.

• Stray - Rachel Vincent 
• Blood Song - Cat Adams
• White Cat - Holly Black
• Forbidden - Tabitha Suzuma

I reviewed 6 books.

• Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler
• Stray by Rachel Vincent
• Blood Song by Cat Adams
• Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
• Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol. 1 by Stephanie Meyer; Illustrated by Young Kim
• White Cat by Holly Black
  

I am setting myself a personal goal in August, READ MORE. For some reason my ablity to fly through books is failing, probably with the reintroduction of computer games into my life once again.

My TBR Pile at the start of the month was 1,013 At the end of the month it is 1,037 - might have to do another cull soon.

2010 SAB Challenge - Post your AUGUST Reviews

This post is for bloggers to post their AUGUST reviews for the 2010 - Stand Alone Book Reading Challenge. Please DO NOT put your blog's URL in below. Put the link to your review.Click here to sign up for the challenge.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Name: Title of the Book (author optional)
Your URL: The Link to Your Review

NON-BLOGGERS:

You can post your titles in the comment section.

Posting reviews is optional.

Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Review: White Cat
Series: Curse Workers – Book 1
Author: Holly Black
No of Pages: 310
Release Date: 4 May 2010

CASSEL IS CURSED

Cursed by the memory of the fourteen year old girl he murdered. Life at school is a constant trial. Life at home even worse. No-one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer. No-one at home is ever going to forget that he isn’t a magic worker. And now he is being haunted by a white cat...

Cassel’s family are magic workers. Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground and into crime. And while people still need their touch, their luck, their curses, their magical killings, their transformations, times have been hard. His grand-dad is a black fingered death-dealer, his mother is in prison and his brother’s detest him as the only one of their family who can’t do magic.

But there is a secret at the centre of Cassel’s family and he’s about to inherit it. It’s terrifying and that’s the truth.

My Thoughts:

After getting past the initial confusion, White Cat became quite interesting.

White Cat follows the story of Cassel, a non-Worker in a family of Workers. Workers are basically magic wielders each Worker has a gift whether it be Memory Working, Luck Working or even Death Working.

Cassel feels left out in his family, not only is he a non-Worker, and the youngest. He is also a murderer. When he was fourteen Cassel killed his best friend, who also happened to be the girl he loved.

Now he is trying to fit in, in the “normal” world. Workers have been outlawed throughout the world. Everyone must wear gloves and laws are trying to be passed to document every known worker. Workers are feared and hated and are treated as criminals. It doesn’t help though, that most of them are criminals.

Cassel may not be a worker, but he is a very talented con man. At the tender age of seventeen he already has his own illegal betting pool at his private school. He is trying desperately to fit in, even though he knows people don’t consider him a friend, they do trust and almost in a way, respect him, something he has been longing for his whole life.

It was wonderful having a singularly male viewpoint in a YA novel. Cassel is a little self-centred, and a little bit depressed which makes him annoying at times, but he is also extremely intelligent. He works things out very early on, and although he is continuously questioning his theories he also expands on them.

We don’t get too much into the secondary characters. His mother is in prison for Working a man and making him fall in love with her, and then signing over his wealth. His grandfather is a death worker and one of his fingers rot every time he kills someone with his touch. We also get to reminisce about Lila, the girl Cassel killed. To be honest, she doesn’t seem like the nicest of people, more like a spoiled, over excited bully.
There were two things that I absolutely loved about White Cat: The Mystery and the Magic. The Mystery actually kept me guessing. Although some of it was an easy guess there were things that came out even halfway through the book that turned it onto a completely new track.

The Magic, was real magic with everything having a balance. If you were to kill someone, part of you was also to die. If you were to give someone good luck, you in return would receive it. If you were to take someone’s memory, one of yours would also be lost. Magic had consequences, so people weren’t just running around with the ability to do whatever they wanted to when they wanted to do it.

White Cat was an intriguing read and built up a world that I can’t wait to get back into.

Book Review: Twilight: The Graphic Novel - Volume 1 by Stephanie Meyer; Illustrated by Young Kim

Review: Twilight: The Graphic Novel – Volume 1
Series: Twilight Graphic Novel – Volume 1
Author: Stephanie Meyer, Illustrated by Young Kim
No of Pages: 224
Release Date: 16 March 2010

I’ve never given much thought to how I would die – though I’d had reason to in the last few months...
Surely it was a good way to die...in the place of someone else, someone I love.

When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret...

My Thoughts:

Ah, the world of Twilight, now in pictures. I will make no secret of the fact that I too am affected by the Twilight Haze and going back into that world once again is just as enchanting in pictures as it was in words.
Yes, the vampires are all wrong, yes Bella is annoyingly boring and Edward is a controlling, stalking weirdo but you just can’t help yourself.

I read this every morning before work for a week until I was done, and I will admit that I was slightly late a few mornings.

Now, Twilight is my first ever graphic novel so I don’t know if this is standard, but if I hadn’t read the book, I wouldn’t have had a clue about what was going on. Even having read it, I was still confused at times.

You really can’t get the same detail through pictures as you can words. So for those thinking of reading it, definitely read Twilight (I can’t believe I just said that) before you read this.

Droolworthy Covers: Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Isn't it gorgeous? I don't know which one will be available to me, but I really, really like this one! The first thing I thought about this cover though was....True Blood. The chick doesn't resemble anyone but look at the two guys...

<< Luc from Personal Demons



    Luke from True Blood >>

<< Gabe from Personal Demons


 Jason from True Blood >>







Now, I am not saying this is a bad thing (because it's inevitable that someone will take it that way) all I'm saying is that, that's what I thought when I first saw it. I think it's a gorgeous cover. Can't wait to read it.

My Two Cents: The worst reason not to read a book...EVER

Feet on the cover.

*shudders*

I hate feet, any feet. The only feet I don't hate are my cats feet, because they are paws and don't count.

 This might be the most awesome book in the world, but I will never ever read it because it will mean having to touch the feet on the front.

Some say this is the most awesome book in the world...I almost feel bad that I am missing out.

And then comes it's sequel which brought on this post, because it reminded me of the former and how I reacted to it. I will admit though, this one isn't nearly as bad as the first two pictures I posted, probably because you can't really see the toes.

I hate toes.

I hate the freaky long toes (you know the ones) that are longer than the big toe. I hate the big toe altogether because it just looks weird, especially when people have meaty toes and the nail looks too small...or they have ingrowns...ewwww.

I hate looking at feet, hate touching them, even this post is making me grossed out. And I hate when people touch my feet.

My boyfriend often calls me weird because I have come close to kicking him in the head when he went near my feet.

I have given someone a concussion after holding me down and tickling my feet.

That is how much I hate feet.

I even hate the word feet.

I don't know where it came from, but my disgust with feet comes close to my fear of spiders (only spiders are way more evil).

So yes, now you know a little bit more about how weird I am and also why unfortunately I will never read the above books, or most books with feet on them.

Question of the Week: Do you read the book before the movie?

This question comes from Eleni at La Femme Readers

Question: When a book is made into a movie or TV show, do you read the book before watching it? Or it doesn't matter either way?(Thanks to The Book Vixen for question idea!)

My Answer: This is definitely one of the tougher questions to answer for me so I will put it this way, if the book is paranormal, I have more than likely read it before the movie came out. 

I am the type of person who doesn't watch a lot of movies. When I do though I usually don't know if it's been a book in another life eg The Notebook, The Devil Wears Prada.

If I watch the movie and then I find out that there is a book before it, I might read it, but it's unlikely. Books are books and movies are movies in my mind. And when you take a series like True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse, well, you really don't even need to read the books because they are so different.

So I don't know if I even answered this question, but the majority of the time...no, I think.

I will say that if there is a movie I want to see and it's coming very soon eg Tomorrow When the War Began, I won't force myself to read the book first...man I have enough "urgent" books as it is.

My Two Cents: Why I Love Blogging

I am very bandwagonny when it comes to blogging, so I'm going to participate in this Thanksgiving blog doody that seems to be going around.

I love blogging first and foremost because it combines my two favourite pastimes: reading and writing.
I love blogging because it validates my book addiction.
I love blogging because it gives me something to do when I'm bored at work.

There are my three selfish reasons for blogging. Now here are the rest.

The Community
I love the community that comes with book blogging, the companionship that comes from reading. I love how I have exchanged emails, comments, debates, well-wishes and condolences all to people who I might never ever meet in "real" life, but who I consider friends.

I love the fact that I am not looked down upon here, no matter how much I read, rant and rave about books, blogging and reviewing there will always be someone that says: I agree with you. Because we are a diverse community.

I also love the fact that we (most) are able to take a nasty comment every once in a while without it turning into a massive fight, I also love the fact that we (most) can understand that people have a difference of opinion and can have mature debates about the topic at hand.

And most of all, I love all of the new books that blogging has introduced me to.

Book Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Review: Dead Until Dark
Series: Sookie Stackhouse - Book 1
Author: Chralaine Harris
No of Pages: 326
Release Date: 1 May 2001

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of ‘disability’. She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the kind of guy she's been waiting for all her life.

But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire. Worse than that, hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble - of the murderous kind.

And when one of Sookie's colleagues is killed, she begins to fear she'll be next.

My Thoughts:

Sookie Stackhouse is definitely odd, but I like her.

Sookie has grown up being thought of as either crazy or slow. Not because she is though, it is because she is constantly trying to stop the stream of chatter from people’s minds. Occasionally Harris gives us a peek into what Sookie is ‘hearing’.

Sookie is a down to earth lovable character. She is a little bit annoying and very helpless, but it only concretes the fact that she is realistic. A human among vampires who accepts that fact and uses it, somewhat, to her advantage.

Bill is definitely tall, dark and handsome (nothing like the character on True Blood). After getting into a spot of trouble at the beginning of Dead Until Dark he goes on to introduce Sookie to the vampire world, dangerous as it may be.

I love that Sookie isn’t some swooning woman infatuated with Bill, if he cheeses her off she leaves and will not talk to him until he apologises. She doesn’t put up with anything that’s not warranted and isn’t always the first to call.

For being so physically fragile, mentally she is one tough chick. Dealing with death threats, a whole new world with a different set of rules and the constant stream of chatter Sookie also holds up against all the death suddenly surrounding her and not just in the form of vampires.

Sookie's workmates are being picked off one by one and her brother Jason is a prime suspect, so it’s up to Sookie to help clear his name.

I love Harris’ vampires. They are very traditional in that they don’t like the sun and can be staked. They are also pretty evil with their loss of humanity and therefore don’t see death or horrifying wounds as anything worth worrying about anymore, unless of course they are the ones in danger.

Harris’ writing style was odd at the beginning, almost simple in a way with far too many words and then she fell into a good rhythm about half way through which helped the story flow much easier. I loved her use of southern language even though it wasn’t always consistent and her world building was clear and painted a beautiful picture.

Dead Until Dark threw me back into the world of mystery and suspense with a beautiful touch of old fashioned vampires to spice things up. Once it had me in the grips of having to know what happened it wouldn’t let go until the final page, and even then I can’t wait to get into Living Dead in Dallas.

Others in this series:
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone
Dead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: Blood Song by Cat Adams

Review: Blood Song
Series: Blood Singer – Book 1
Author: Cat Adams
No of Pages: 364
Release Date: 8 June 2010

Bodyguard Celia Graves plies her trade in a world where vampires roam the alleys of Tinseltown and movie stars openly practise witchcraft, where street corner psychics have real powers and cops use memory enhancement spells on witnesses. An ordinary human, Celia relies on street smarts and charmed weapons to protect the rich and famous from mortal and supernatural threats.

She’s landed a plum job protecting the prince of a small but politically vital nation while he tour’s Los Angele’s least savoury hot spots. But what should be a routine assignment goes badly wrong: Celia is attacked by a master vampire and knows she is about to die.

To her shock, Celia wakes on a cold metal table in a university lab. Celia Graves has become an abomination, neither fully mortal nor fully vampire. Her “master” is hunting her, to destroy her or finish what his bite began. She’s accused of murder, and the cops aren’t sure whether she should be locked up or staked. And then there’s the demon she glimpsed during the vampire attack....

Struggling to cope with her new powers and trying not to terrify everyone she meets with a flash of fang, Celia reaches out for help from her once (and future?) lover, a powerful mage; his warrior-priest brother; a handsome werewolf who keeps his lupine nature concealed from the world; an elderly clairvoyant; and one trustworthy cop.

Celia Graves has three days to save the world, her sanity, and her soul.

My Thoughts:

Blood Song was definitely not what I expected, but I am in two different minds about whether or not I like it.

Blood Song follows the story of bodyguard Celia Graves. On a very high profile assignment, she is attacked and turned into an abomination a partially turned vampire. She can still go out in daylight, but the sunburn is terrible, isn’t affected by holy items but can only consume liquids.

Celia is tough; there is no questioning that, she has the training, the knowledge and the intelligence to put it to good use. Yet I didn’t connect with her at all. I think this was my main drawback with Blood Song. We were told that she was traumatised as a child, but that was it, no depth to that, no details no show of emotion. Instead of feeling what Celia was feeling, we were just told. For a good chunk of Blood Song I thought she was a weak minded whinger because we weren’t told anything.

Blood Song was a shallow read, even though it kept me coming back for more. There was an extremely funny part that had me laughing out loud, but I can’t actually remember it. There was a smattering of secondary characters that made no impact on me and I had a hard time remembering who they were when they were mentioned later on.

I loved Adams version of vampires though. They are the old-fashioned truly evil mind controlling kind. Not sexualised with people wanting to join their ranks, but with people holing up in Holy places just so they feel safe.

The world of Santa Maria de Luna was interesting enough. Adams created it from scratch, although not everything made sense, it was easy to picture and the strongest imagery was created when they described the ocean through Celia’s eyes. I could hear the gulls and taste the air as well.

From the description, you expect a story about a bodyguard. You don’t get one though, you get a half vampire chick that is constantly driving somewhere and losing weapons. But that in itself is realistic in an odd way. The way Celia reacted, fought and dealt with the situation – sometimes crumbling, trying to keep it together, looking for help – was realistic. I think that was the draw point for me. She was playing tough chick, but not to the point where you thought you wouldn’t do it yourself.

Although I had trouble connecting with Celia, or really feeling much of what was going on for the duration of the story. I want to go back into that world. I want to find out what happens even though we seem to be taking a completely different turn. I want to find out if anything will ever happen with the obviously forming love triangle.

Blood Song draws you in, and doesn’t let go even if you are confused for a good chunk of the story. It becomes a need to find out what will happen, and I intend to find out.

Also in this series:
Siren Song