Let me get this out there right from the start of my review, I absolutely hated this book! It wasn’t the book itself I despised; it was what it turned me into. As an online gamer, and a casual one at that, I hold no love for those that crow about their access to areas of the game I can only dream about; they like to call themselves the L33T! This book turned me into one of these people, but in the book world, and I loved it. In the pages of this book I was able to experience content that I KNOW there are a few out there will not be able to access, and it made me feel like a God.

Urban Fantasy novels are really not my usual thing, but I was so glad I read this book. The characters are realistic and full of humour, sadness, secrets and guts. They are written in such a way that you feel as if you know them, or may have even grouped up with them in your online game of choice. The Author invested a lot of time into making sure the characters in this novel were true to life representations of the gaming community, and made sure they did not fall into the stereotypical portrait most people have of gamers, that they are loners with no lives living in their parent’s basements. With a skilful use of words the characters show that a wide variety of people game, and without overloading the reader with technical terms and phrases, he painted these characters as intelligent and likeable people that the reader would want to socialize with. The main protagonist of the novel is a strong, smart woman; however she is also extremely loyal and once she gets her teeth into something sticks with it to the end. On the flip side of her personality is a woman who is also a little unsure of herself, especially when it comes to the area of romance, and one who is determined to confront the fears she has of the main driving tool behind the project she is working on.

This is a very imaginative novel, full of strategy and clues that span not just the online role playing game in the book, but also the real world lives of the characters. I was delighted at how well the Author brought the vividness of these games to life and managed to get across to the reader just how many people are involved in the playing of them. They also managed to convey that for some people this is not just a game, but a form of connecting with others around the globe; a kind of social media tool with quests thrown in. Blending well together the book has just enough humour its pages to stop the horror aspect of it from becoming overwhelming; the humour is laugh out loud funny and the horror is blood chilling made even more so as at some points in the action you are not sure if you are in the virtual world or the real world.

This book creates its own world and mythology, but uses well known creatures of the supernatural to do so, and this serves to make the reader feel they are experiencing something new that has a familiar feel. The real novelty in its pages though was the inclusion of the ‘quick mark’ tags, this enables the reader with a smart phone access to hidden ‘Easter eggs’ which include additional pages of the novel and numerous other hidden goodies on the book’s website; this was the part that made me L33T! Flawlessly bringing fantasy, horror, humour and action together the Author has done an outstanding job of putting together a highly absorbing and entertaining read.

I would highly recommend this book to readers of all genres and lovers of epic series as I am sure this is going to be among the greats. I will definitely be reading the remainder of this series as it is published.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/02/05/review-exsanguinate-world-of-blood-book-1-...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Let me get this out there right from the start of my review, I absolutely hated this book! It wasn’t the book itself I despised; it was what it turned me into. As an online gamer, and a casual one at that, I hold no love for those that crow about their access to areas of the game I can only dream about; they like to call themselves the L33T! This book turned me into one of these people, but in the book world, and I loved it. In the pages of this book I was able to experience content that I KNOW there are a few out there will not be able to access, and it made me feel like a God.

Urban Fantasy novels are really not my usual thing, but I was so glad I read this book. The characters are realistic and full of humour, sadness, secrets and guts. They are written in such a way that you feel as if you know them, or may have even grouped up with them in your online game of choice. The Author invested a lot of time into making sure the characters in this novel were true to life representations of the gaming community, and made sure they did not fall into the stereotypical portrait most people have of gamers, that they are loners with no lives living in their parent’s basements. With a skilful use of words the characters show that a wide variety of people game, and without overloading the reader with technical terms and phrases, he painted these characters as intelligent and likeable people that the reader would want to socialize with. The main protagonist of the novel is a strong, smart woman; however she is also extremely loyal and once she gets her teeth into something sticks with it to the end. On the flip side of her personality is a woman who is also a little unsure of herself, especially when it comes to the area of romance, and one who is determined to confront the fears she has of the main driving tool behind the project she is working on.

This is a very imaginative novel, full of strategy and clues that span not just the online role playing game in the book, but also the real world lives of the characters. I was delighted at how well the Author brought the vividness of these games to life and managed to get across to the reader just how many people are involved in the playing of them. They also managed to convey that for some people this is not just a game, but a form of connecting with others around the globe; a kind of social media tool with quests thrown in. Blending well together the book has just enough humour its pages to stop the horror aspect of it from becoming overwhelming; the humour is laugh out loud funny and the horror is blood chilling made even more so as at some points in the action you are not sure if you are in the virtual world or the real world.

This book creates its own world and mythology, but uses well known creatures of the supernatural to do so, and this serves to make the reader feel they are experiencing something new that has a familiar feel. The real novelty in its pages though was the inclusion of the ‘quick mark’ tags, this enables the reader with a smart phone access to hidden ‘Easter eggs’ which include additional pages of the novel and numerous other hidden goodies on the book’s website; this was the part that made me L33T! Flawlessly bringing fantasy, horror, humour and action together the Author has done an outstanding job of putting together a highly absorbing and entertaining read.

I would highly recommend this book to readers of all genres and lovers of epic series as I am sure this is going to be among the greats. I will definitely be reading the remainder of this series as it is published.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/02/05/review-exsanguinate-world-of-blood-book-1-...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
( )

In the world of an online role-playing game anything can happen and for Cheyenne O’Cuinn, a Halloween Scream Park adventure is about to become a supernatural reality. Cheyenne is given the task to watch, record and study fear. Her job is to find out what causes people to run screaming out of haunted attractions while peeing their pants. The three O’Cuinn sisters know horror, they live for horror trivia, and have developed a horror themed online role-playing game called ExanguiNation.

Things are not going well for the O’Cuinn family, while at the theme park, two of the sisters have been kidnapped by vampires to breed warmongering dhampires and its up to Cheyenne to save them. To do that, she has to play the game and solve riddles or her sister’s body parts will be mailed to her one by one.

Cheyenne is not alone though, she has a dragon, werewolf and a vampire to help her. She also has a virtual lover who has secrets of his own. Can their love survive? Who can Cheyenne trust in this virtual world and can the vampire apocalypse be stopped? Find out the answer to all of these questions in Killion Slade’s Exsanguinate.

When I first heard about Exsanguinate I was excited. I always like to read books that create their own mythology and combines it with reality. This one goes one step further, adding a virtual computerized world to the mix which happens to be more real than anyone knew. Part of this story takes place in a virtual world and the book includes links that go to extended animated scenes on the book’s website or if you buy the print book it has a code you can enter. I thought this was a great idea that added a lot to the book, it was like looking at special features on a blu ray movie.

Killion Slade takes the mythology of vampires, werewolves and dragons and changes it just enough to make everything fresh and original. One of my favorite scenes was when four of the characters go into a supermarket that is geared towards supernatural beings. The supermarket is cleverly disguised as an old warehouse and it has supplies for witches, blood donors for vampires, spas, restaurants, and items for creatures that no one knew existed.

Another thing I liked in this book was how it blends humor and horror. There was one funny moment where a vampire stakes a human and talks about selling humans on a stick at the state fair. I also liked when the werewolf in the story is eating bacon flavored dog treats, much to the disgust of a vampire. Exsanguinate has some great moments of horror as well. The description of the room where human women are impregnated and give birth to dhampires (a human, vampire hybrid) is chilling. Another scene is when one of the characters battles a rogue vampire in a Halloween haunted house. This scene was great because at first you’re not sure if its real or not.

Exsanguinate flawlessly blends horror, fantasy, romance, action and humor into one entertaining read. This book has it all and fans of all genres will enjoy it. This is the beginning of an epic series that has a lot of different types of creatures to work with. ( )