First thing, this book delivers what it promises: a cozy paranormal action romp for male readers. I can figure plenty of guys will enjoy imagining they are Josiah with a handsome face, a lot of money in his bank account, has a passionate (albeit poorly paid) job, can do the job insanely well with minimal effort, a close friend, respect from other alpha males, and women seem to swoon for him. So yes, while I am probably not the correct audience for this book, I can imagine its intended audience will enjoy it.

That said, the prose albeit not fancifully eloquent gets the job done; this is a read that might not win awards, but it can be enjoyed in the bus and it only took me around 90 minutes to finish it. In that sense, the book delivered very well and I also enjoyed the main story and the small twists to the abilities of vampires.

I feel a bit embarrased because I assumed the MC was a female from the conjecture of the first 2 pages of the book. And then things got kind of weird when the roommate Tommy asked for cologne instead of perfume.

Now, while I liked the simplistic writing style and general plot, there are some problems with the book. First, Josiah suffers from the Gary Stu curse. He is just so... perfect. He is a good MMA fighter and can get away with a lot of dodgy stuff (cops don't seem to bat an eye when he shows up with a bruised face), has a face that makes women melt at first sight, popular, charismatic, things seem to be pretty easy for him... Seems like his only defects are being hot headed and a bit misogynist. He doesn't see female fighters with respect and assumes they are automatically fragile damsels in distress.

Sadly, both Lena and Yari do not pass the Strong Woman test. Yes, Yari is a physically strong vampire chick... but 90% of her scenes revolve around how insanely hot she is and so the strong female traits are delegated to a minor add-on to the sexually active redhead sidekick trope. Yari only appears in the story because some ghosts told her to show up and... her destiny is neither chosen and the remaining scenes in the book revolve around her love life. I guess she likes doing yoga? Neither Yari nor Lena share a sentence with each other in the whole book as far as I know. I noticed zero sense of friendship or at least respectful kinship between them even though they are members of Atticai's social circle. Yup, this book will not pass the Beschel test by a long shot.

Lena is... well... she is a doormat. Yet I did like her personality a lot. She has that wholesome next door girl with some goth fashion sprinkled on top and an interesting personal backstory that doesn't get much of any screen time. We never really get to see her interactions with her family (a lot of this is due to the book being written in Josiah's POV), but I would have wanted to see at least a little bit of it. I think human/vampire pairings are real fun to read because of the unbalanced power dynamic (A powerful immortal being pairs up with a feeble human that could feed them blood? Instant source of drama!). The Vampire and the Paramedic by Jamie Davis does this pairing very well. I love Bree and her beau James. Bree doesn't want to become a vampire (which James is fully ok with) while James shows amazing self-restraint. The reader gets to enjoy lots of conflict because the human MC disapproves of her showing up to work with vampire bite marks (which is 100% consensual and never hinders her wellbeing). Thinking about this pair stands to strong contrast with the well... somewhat lacking relationship between Lena and Atticai. He seems more like a cult leader groomer than a boyfriend (yet I still didn't dislike Atticai as such, just how his pairing was written).

Wyatt is just sort of... there, while the token Latino vampire Hector doesn't get a single line in the book. Hard to know if this was a nod to the silent guy in the Nicholas Cage Gone in Sixty Seconds film or the writer was too lazy to think of giving Hector any modicum of a personality. And I think this was a waste. Is he devoutly catholic and feels self hatred for being a vampire? How did he end up in Atticai's clan and relate to them in his introverted way during their free time? Remove either Hector or Wyatt from the story and the plot would have not suffered any major changes as long as one of them remained.

Oh, the final issue I noticed in this book is a common trope in plenty of fighting books: unrealistic wounds. The fight scenes are well written and enjoyable, but we have a situation of Mr. Gary Stu suffers crippling injuries that become a non issue the very next day. Huh? He has a nice amount of money and could afford a routine x-ray of his injured back, yet this plot point that could have been a great page turner in a later chapter becomes wasted. Oh, and writers have got to seriously stop rehashing the sucking a snakebite removes the venom urban legend. It is sooooo fake. Snake bites become really nasty without antivenom real quick, the leg becomes bloated like a watermelon and stays that way. A bad bite needs up to a whopping 50 bottles of antivenom! The book actually could have rewritten this scene to both conserve the emotional tension and finding the way to apply the antidote. So, a half star gets knocked off from this tired trope alone.

In a nutshell, I did not hate this book. It was a very fun read. I would consider reading the sequel despite its pitfalls. If you want some escapist romp without caring too much about these kinds of issues, this book will deliver well. ( )

First thing, this book delivers what it promises: a cozy paranormal action romp for male readers. I can figure plenty of guys will enjoy imagining they are Josiah with a handsome face, a lot of money in his bank account, has a passionate (albeit poorly paid) job, can do the job insanely well with minimal effort, a close friend, respect from other alpha males, and women seem to swoon for him. So yes, while I am probably not the correct audience for this book, I can imagine its intended audience will enjoy it.

That said, the prose albeit not fancifully eloquent gets the job done; this is a read that might not win awards, but it can be enjoyed in the bus and it only took me around 90 minutes to finish it. In that sense, the book delivered very well and I also enjoyed the main story and the small twists to the abilities of vampires.

I feel a bit embarrased because I assumed the MC was a female from the conjecture of the first 2 pages of the book. And then things got kind of weird when the roommate Tommy asked for cologne instead of perfume.

Now, while I liked the simplistic writing style and general plot, there are some problems with the book. First, Josiah suffers from the Gary Stu curse. He is just so... perfect. He is a good MMA fighter and can get away with a lot of dodgy stuff (cops don't seem to bat an eye when he shows up with a bruised face), has a face that makes women melt at first sight, popular, charismatic, things seem to be pretty easy for him... Seems like his only defects are being hot headed and a bit misogynist. He doesn't see female fighters with respect and assumes they are automatically fragile damsels in distress.

Sadly, both Lena and Yari do not pass the Strong Woman test. Yes, Yari is a physically strong vampire chick... but 90% of her scenes revolve around how insanely hot she is and so the strong female traits are delegated to a minor add-on to the sexually active redhead sidekick trope. Yari only appears in the story because some ghosts told her to show up and... her destiny is neither chosen and the remaining scenes in the book revolve around her love life. I guess she likes doing yoga? Neither Yari nor Lena share a sentence with each other in the whole book as far as I know. I noticed zero sense of friendship or at least respectful kinship between them even though they are members of Atticai's social circle. Yup, this book will not pass the Beschel test by a long shot.

Lena is... well... she is a doormat. Yet I did like her personality a lot. She has that wholesome next door girl with some goth fashion sprinkled on top and an interesting personal backstory that doesn't get much of any screen time. We never really get to see her interactions with her family (a lot of this is due to the book being written in Josiah's POV), but I would have wanted to see at least a little bit of it. I think human/vampire pairings are real fun to read because of the unbalanced power dynamic (A powerful immortal being pairs up with a feeble human that could feed them blood? Instant source of drama!). The Vampire and the Paramedic by Jamie Davis does this pairing very well. I love Bree and her beau James. Bree doesn't want to become a vampire (which James is fully ok with) while James shows amazing self-restraint. The reader gets to enjoy lots of conflict because the human MC disapproves of her showing up to work with vampire bite marks (which is 100% consensual and never hinders her wellbeing). Thinking about this pair stands to strong contrast with the well... somewhat lacking relationship between Lena and Atticai. He seems more like a cult leader groomer than a boyfriend (yet I still didn't dislike Atticai as such, just how his pairing was written).

Wyatt is just sort of... there, while the token Latino vampire Hector doesn't get a single line in the book. Hard to know if this was a nod to the silent guy in the Nicholas Cage Gone in Sixty Seconds film or the writer was too lazy to think of giving Hector any modicum of a personality. And I think this was a waste. Is he devoutly catholic and feels self hatred for being a vampire? How did he end up in Atticai's clan and relate to them in his introverted way during their free time? Remove either Hector or Wyatt from the story and the plot would have not suffered any major changes as long as one of them remained.

Oh, the final issue I noticed in this book is a common trope in plenty of fighting books: unrealistic wounds. The fight scenes are well written and enjoyable, but we have a situation of Mr. Gary Stu suffers crippling injuries that become a non issue the very next day. Huh? He has a nice amount of money and could afford a routine x-ray of his injured back, yet this plot point that could have been a great page turner in a later chapter becomes wasted. Oh, and writers have got to seriously stop rehashing the sucking a snakebite removes the venom urban legend. It is sooooo fake. Snake bites become really nasty without antivenom real quick, the leg becomes bloated like a watermelon and stays that way. A bad bite needs up to a whopping 50 bottles of antivenom! The book actually could have rewritten this scene to both conserve the emotional tension and finding the way to apply the antidote. So, a half star gets knocked off from this tired trope alone.

In a nutshell, I did not hate this book. It was a very fun read. I would consider reading the sequel despite its pitfalls. If you want some escapist romp without caring too much about these kinds of issues, this book will deliver well. ( )

Finished Reading September 12, 2013

Book Rejected
1.5 Stars
There was so much I DIDN'T like about this story it would take a book to write it all down.
So sexy times but even those bored me.

Prch Amz September 11, 2013
( )

Josiah is an MMA fighter just out for an evening run. He comes up on Lena at a frat house, on the verge of getting raped. He saves her then meets her "friends", a bunch of vampires (who by the way don't call themselves vampires). When the vamps attack everyone at the party by biting them and drinking their blood, Josiah is shocked.
Throughout the book he refuses to believe Lena's vampire stories. Even after fighting them many times and seeing for himself the outrageous strength and speed these guys have. And watching them turn into birds (that's right birds not bats).

I didn't care for this book. I love supernatural stories (vampires, werewolves, witches, etc., whether in books, movies, or tv. But this one bored me, I couldn't believe how clueless Josiah is. He didn't even know the truth about his roommate and so called best friend. They were suppose to be so close that he considered them brothers.

This may relate to a younger reader. Teenagers maybe. ( )