Tag Archives: vampire

Lifeblood

Book Review of Lifeblood, by Werner Lind

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LifebloodAuthor, Werner Lind lent me an e-copy of his novel Lifeblood; not so much for review as because we are friendly online and I was interested in reading his book. But of course I’m reviewing it anyway. It’s what I do.

Description from Goodreads:
All Ana Vasilifata ever wanted was a simple life, with a good husband, children, and a happy home. What she found was a vampire who made her his bride. And when she fled to England in the winter of 1665, she found a stake at the hands of a fearful and angry mob.

Over three hundred years later, an accident reanimates Ana in the quiet town of Meriwether, Iowa. She flees to an abandoned house where she meets Joshua Davidson, a kind-hearted carpenter who helps Ana adjust to this strange place and time. As her friendship with Joshua deepens, Ana begins to hope she can finally find the peace she has always sought. But dangers still haunt her, for even now there are some who believe in the stories of vampires. This time she is not friendless –but, she wonders, would Joshua continue to help her if he knew what she was? And even if he would, could he protect her from all the monsters lurking in the shadows?

Review:
I think saying this is a nice story is description rather than weak praise. That’s what it is, a nice story. The whole thing is very sweet in an ‘aw shucks’, Mayberry sort of way. The 24-year-old hero still happily lives at home with his mama and sisters. They all eat breakfast together and the sister fills his ‘lunch pail’ before he heads of to an honest days labor. Men go fishing together and courting couples go to the drive-in and roller-skating. It’s all very, very vanilla but purposefully so. These aren’t just Mary Jane characters, but meant to be notably good, small town people, God-fearing people. (And I say that as a reader who is very sensitive and irritated with authors who can’t seem to give their precious characters flaws.) They are good examples of what they are written to be.

I did find some stereotyping in the villain and their actions and some of the dialogue seemed bit stiff; some because the characters were from the 1600s and some just because it’s written that way. But it was very readable. And though I generally prefer a bit more grit in my fiction, this story, with a light Christian theme and miraculous HEA, would play well for that market of reader who doesn’t. So, if you’re looking for a clean paranormal romance, look no further.

Perdu

Book Review of Perdu (Redire de Vampyrus, #1) by Raeden Zen

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PerduI’ve had Perdu (by Raeden Zen) for quite some time, having picked it up from the Amazon free list over two years ago.

Description from Goodreads:
Ruth and Eugene Flowers desired the American dream: two kids, a big house, and a dog. But it wasn’t meant to be–at least not initially. When a surprise package literally fell into their laps, however, the Flowers would finally get their wish (sort of). Soon, it all goes awry, as mysterious deaths followed by a disappearance permanently disrupt their lives. Meanwhile, many years later, a grown-up Valerie Green, a nearby neighbor’s daughter and high-school sweetheart of their son, Zan, hits it huge in the Big Apple, first landing at Columbia University, then at the New York Pioneer, the hottest online periodical in the city. When she is forced to cross the path of hotshot FBI special agent, Dr. Devean Rasr, she doesn’t realize she is also wading much deeper into the biggest, most dangerous, and most challenging killing spree in the history of NYC.

Review:
This book is a mess. There’s no identifiable main character. It has no consistent timeline. Characters make absolutely unfollowable leaps of logic. Clues conveniently pop out of nowhere. The villain is a character that literally isn’t in the novel until the reveal and then isn’t in it after, so a nobody. There are several info-drops, most of which is pointless information that is never utilized. There is constant head hopping. Characters appear and disappear as needed. No one have believable emotions. The dialogue is stilted. The love is unfounded and baseless. Pretty sure I have nothing positive to say about any of it….Ok, it was short and I like the cover.

Blood of the Beast

Book Review of Blood of the Beast, by Tamela Quijas

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Blood of the BeastI grabbed a copy Blood of the Beast, by Tamela Quijas from the Amazon freebie list.

Description from Goodreads:
There is a scent that fills the night, far more delicate than the beat of the heart, more fragile than the whisper of breath escaping human lungs.

The echo that fills the darkness is the scent of blood pulsating through the mortal body.

Commonly overlooked by those among the living, it is a sound fervently sought by those residing on the fringes of the world existing between the living and the undead.

Blood is what the beast craves.

Detective Valentina Kureyev had been assigned to one of the worst murder cases of the century. A serial killer haunted the streets of her city, depositing bloodless corpses throughout the section of town known as Little Europe.

She hadn’t a clue to the identity of the culprit.

The case was hopeless.

The terror was real.

As real as Demetri Daskova.

The Professor of Russian Antiquities had been targeted with the murderer’s special form of a calling card. Val couldn’t turn away from his offer of aide in the bizarre case, even though he whispered tales of ‘those that walked on the dark side of the moon’ and the beast that hungrily fed on human blood.

He was the primary suspect.

Review:
Good lord that was just horrible. I almost didn’t even make it through the prologue. But it’s the end of the year and I’d set myself an alphabet soup challenge (read a book by an author for every letter of the alphabet) and I only have Q, X,Y & Z left and I DNFed my Y yesterday. So, I wasn’t going to do the same with my Q. So I was trapped with it.

Eventually I just started reading passages aloud to my husband, because sharing the shocking horridness and strange, STRANGE over-use of the word quiver/quivering was the only way I could keep going. (Seriously, the word is used a lot, often in questionable ways.) The whole book is painfully wordy. No one has gold eyes, they’re golden hued eyes, etc. It contradicts itself. It is painfully dependent on tropes. There is no palpable chemistry between the characters. The female MC is pathologically angry and extremely unlikable (but all the men lust after her). The male MC was a jerk in the beginning and we’re never shown that he changed. It’s just supposed to be assumed. In addition to too many words, there are also misused words, missing words and anachronistic language. The villain is a cliche scorned woman (who spent one purchased night with the man she goes bad over) and the whole thing was just jumpy and clunky. But hey, the author’s name is Quijas, so it’s all good.