Shy, unimpressive teen geek Emily is suddenly dressing provocatively and capable of impressive feats of strength and agility, which is all kind of scary/fun until she grows fur and claws. She also quickly realizes that someone is trying to kill her and others like her as she desperately tries to figure out what's going on. Some excellent internal dialogue and Emily is a fun character. Clearly book one of a series, and I'm interested in following up. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I think the storyline was a nice change to the books out now that all have the same plot. Emily is a super geeky and reserved teenage girl. She doesn’t try to hang out or befriend anybody because of her best friend Megan. I wasn’t fond of Megan’s character. She’s incredibly bitchy when it comes to being friends with the “popular” people because of an experience she had years before. She seriously needs to get over herself. Anyways….. Emily has transformations into “Nighttime” Emily. I like this version of Emily. She has confidence, and is charismatic. She’s also extremely sarcastic which just makes her even more awesome. She’s the kind of girl I could see myself being friends with. This entire novel is told past tense, as Emily is telling her story to an investigator at Vesper Inc. You walk away from this book having more questions than answers, and I love the mystery that’s left to be unraveled. ( )

Okay, I am sorry to say, this just wasn't my book. Terrible characters, cliche plot, forced dialogue, and a setting that was totally one dimensional made Vesper a fail. Some paranormal fans may find this an enjoyable read, but I certainly did not.

Throughout the book I felt like we never got to know Emily. She is totally flat and... ugh. Also, her friend is a terrible friend. And so is her sister. I seriously cannot think of one character I actually liked. They all seemed dumb and not relatable. The plot was boring and cliche. Nothing at all exciting happened. At all. In truth, my eyes glazed over a couple of times.

The ending, by the way, is no ending at all. I think it is supposed to be a cliffhanger but it just left me feeling confused. Everything is very sudden. I also felt like time was really wierd. Sometimes it felt fast or really slow, or I wasn't sure how many days it had been since one scene. This was sorta annoying.

The paranormal aspect...feels pretty non existent for most of the book. The first half of the book was spent seeing Emily do weird things at night and then she wonders why in the morning. The paranormal aspect isn't added in until later. A little too late for my taste.

The cover by the way, is cool. But, it doesn't really match the story. There are some scenes with a window, just I imagined the windows a lot more modern than what is shown on the cover.

Overall, this book could appeal to paranormal fans, but I would never recommend Vesper to any of my friends. I know some people will disagree with me, but this is how I felt.

1.5/5 Bookcases

( )

RATING: 4 stars.

Here's another book that surprised me. Maybe because I had little to no expectations about it as the only thing I actually knew about it was that it was a werewolf story.
But now, after finishing it, I am impressed with the book. Not because it is a masterpiece, but because it just stands out among all the young adult urban fantasy I've read this year. And that is something, because with so many books of this genre coming out every month it's certainly difficult to be original.

Emily Webb is not popular. She doesn't think she's pretty. And she knows she's a geek. Most of the time she doesn't mind having only one friend and wearing loose clothes to hide her body (of which she is ashamed). Except sometimes... she wonders... how it would be like to be a confident girl, with a confident walk and even some superpowers...
But one thing is imagining and another, completely different thing is having it happen. Really happen. Because suddenly Emily doesn't need her glasses to see clearly; she is fast, strong and... confident.
What is happening to Emily? Why is she suddenly feeling like she is in a movie adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

Here's the main reason I liked this book: Emily. I could identify myself with her. She was shy and had doubts about her body and sometimes wished she had the courage to stand up to people. I think she was very human and I can imagine that many girls feel like Emily. I don't know if all of them want superpowers (I know I wanted to be a witch when I started reading Harry Potter... but it's a secret. :D), but certainly every girl in the world has at one point or another felt inadequate and uncomfortable.

So, Emily is a relatable sort of character who suffers a transformation that allows her to be as sassy, outspoken and self-assured as she wants. It's easy to see the appeal, I think. I also liked the fact that Sampson actually cared about development of his protagonist and that we can see Emily actually changing and growing.

The story wasn't anything special really. It was Emily's journey, Emily's change that drove this book and made it interesting.

There were characters that could have been introduced earlier to the story (like Spencer; we know he is there, but his role is not very prominent although he is an important character) and some parts that felt rushed (the last chapters), but overall "Vespers" was a nice read.
And as the author included parts (the transcripts) that take place much later in Emily's life, I guess I'll have to read the second book in the series to see what else happens to her: how she will find her pack and how the relationship with her "mate". Oh and everything about BioZenith. I'll just have to keep reading until I know as much as Emily seems to know in this first book.

Overall: this is an introductory book to the series, clearly. It focuses on Emily's experiences while changing and has a very simple plot that is there just to help Emily in her 'journey'. The "transcripts" that appear throughout hint at a deeper story and several plot lines that include other supernaturals and the rest of Emily's pack. These transcripts represent Emily's present while the book is a recounting of Emily's past so if the reader wants to know more he'll just have to read the other books. I think I will. :) ( )

Due to copy and paste, formatting has been lost.

When I started this one, I had no idea what to expect. I kept hearing that it was good from various people, so I thought that I would check it out. But I find that although I liked this one, I wasn't very wow'd by it. It fell a tad bit flat, in retrospect.

Emily, our main character is a barrage of different personalities and emotions at any given time. To be completely honest, I have no idea why her personality kept changing. It didn't seem important, and it just added a strange element-- I mean I understand *the spoilerific thing*, but I don't understand the personality changes. It makes no sense! Sometimes she was really shy and mousy, then she would change into like superchick or something. I don't know.

I wish that it didn't all happen so fast, you know? Why couldn't she have been some kind of happy-medium? Anywho, I'm moving on from Emily's character now.

I found some things predictable within the plot, but I could not predict what was up with Emily-- and when I found out it still didn't really make sense! I liked the added mystery element (what is she??), but I just wasn't a huge fan of the outcome.

One thing that I predicted turned out well (so adorable!), but other things just bored me. And the ending was just too open! It actually seemed really incomplete to me.

All in all, Vesper was an interesting read, but I could have liked it a lot more than I did. ( )