Almost to Die For (Vampire Princess of St. Paul #1) – Tate Hallaway

241 Pages
Published August 3, 2010 by NAL Trade

Synopsis:

Twilight meets The Princess Diaries in the new series from the author of Honeymoon of the Dead

On her sixteenth birthday, Anastasija Parker learns that her so-called deadbeat dad is actually a vampire king. And he wants Ana to assume her rightful position at his side, in spite of the fact that she has witch’s blood running through her veins-from her mother’s side.

Too bad witches and vampires are mortal enemies. And now Ana’s parents are at each other’s throats over her future. It’s up to Ana to make a choice, but deciding your eternal destiny is a pretty big deal for a girl who just wants to get through high school.

Review:

I honestly believe that the synopsis does the book a disservice by comparing it to Twilight. Indeed, there are some similarities but I think Ms. Hallaway has deviated from the whole vampire culture of glitter and glamour by presenting them in an interestingly…hmm, I wouldn’t say  realistic but realer manner than other authors of the same genre do.

The book deals with issues that will be relatable to today’s teens, at least one issue that is more prevalent than others in some contexts: not being what your parents and your peers want you to be. In fact, “being unable to be what they want you to be.” Anastasija’s mother really, really wants her to be a witch. She wants it to the point that she willfully ignores the fact that Anastasija’s father being a vampire (and the king, at that) would probably change something in the genetics that allow the women in her family to handle magic and which logically enough leads to Anastasija being unable to do what is expected of her. There is a lot of pressure – kinda unhealthy, if you ask me.  As if a monster mom is not enough, there’s her father – who has been absent for sixteen years and at this crucial moment, waltzes up and tries to lay claim on her – in fact, both parents fight over their child as though she is some prized Monet that both would kill to have.

And then there are the boys. Of course there are two of them. One of them is a vampire hunter and the other is a vampire. You can tell they won’t be sitting down to share their love woes with each other any time soon. But Ms. Hallaway twists the love triangle in a manner that will leave you feeling as confused as perhaps Ana. It’s not the usual A loves B but B is madly in love with C who loves B. Ana has feelings for both guys and I dare say that both are of the non-platonic variety. Both guys remain interesting －　Ｉ　want to know more about them. I liked how the relationship bit is quite clear if not simple. Pretty straight forward while retaining it’s chemistry. I won’t say more about it except that you have to read the book to find out what I’m saying.

The ending of the book does lay on the cheese a bit too thickly to my liking. It had held on to an almost breezy narrative until things got way too creepy, way too fast. How much will a parent do to keep their child? And if they go to those lengths, will they really give up just like that? The ending seemed a bit forced and contrived and it didn’t really persuade. However, the book in its entirety is entertaining and does leave you wanting more. As I implied before, it’s treatment of vampires as something other than undead Gods, all beautiful and all too tempting makes this series a very welcome addition to the genre.

Always a Witch – Carolyn MacCullough

Synopsis:

The adventures of Tam and Gabriel continue with more time travel, Talents, spy work, and of course, the evil Knights.

Since the gripping conclusion of Once A Witch, Tamsin Greene has been haunted by her grandmother’s prophecy that she will soon be forced to make a crucial decision—one so terrible that it could harm her family forever. When she discovers that her enemy, Alistair Knight, went back in time to Victorian-era New York in order to destroy her family, Tamsin is forced to follow him into the past. Stranded all alone in the nineteenth century, Tamsin soon finds herself disguised as a lady’s maid in the terrifying mansion of the evil Knight family, avoiding the watchful eye of the vicious matron, La Spider, and fending off the advances of Liam Knight. As time runs out, both families square off in a thrilling display of magic. And to her horror, Tamsin finally understands the nature of her fateful choice.

Review:

You might have read the embarrassingly gush review of the first in what I am calling a Duet here. To explain the previous statement, let me just say that I am hoping it’s not a Duet and that there are more books planned in the series because the premise and the execution of the story is just so damned brilliant that I did not feel I had read enough of Tamsin when we reached the end of Always a Witch. I felt that she still had a lot more stories left in her and I want them told, damnit!

Okay, I didn’t really intend to start off the review in that way but these things happen when you love a story that much. Now, we got introduced to the characters in Once a Witch and they were pretty well defined by the time we got to the conclusion of the first novel. Always a Witch picks up in the same vein but there’s a deeper sense of danger that runs like a vein underneath the surface – that is the physical narrative. You can feel the underlying cadence of urgency, the tension of danger and so when Tamsin decides to go back in time, you follow her there with your heart quaking a bit at what the story is going to hold next for you.

Alistair Knight is intriguing. Complete scum, of course, but entirely intriguing. His mother? Not so much. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and detail with which the “past” was constructed. It felt as though the author took time in creating the new characters, setting and details – which can be daunting if you already have a primary setting and characters – I particularly liked how there were several gray areas within the plot itself. The good guys weren’t totally good and the bad guys couldn’t be automatically labeled black as night.

Of course, the realistic portrayal of emotions, feelings, life (despite the supernatural content) meant that sacrifices were needed and made and there’s a sense of bittersweet emotion that coats the ending that made my heart squeeze tight. I understood why things happened the way they did (it’s not a sad ending, okay?) and it made me like the book a whole lot better but at the same time, I wish things could have been different.

Where writing and other technical matters are concerned, let me just say that the book as a whole is exquisitely crafted. It is a novel that you will devour in one sitting and if you don’t, there is something very wrong with you. And I bet you, when you are done, you will be as desperate as me in hoping that there is a book three to the series.

Yeah, it’s that good.

Deception (Haunting Emma #1) – Lee Nichols

Synopsis:

When Emma Vaile’s parents leave on mysterious business trip, it gives her the perfect excuse to be a rebellious teen. Throw some parties, get a tattoo (or maybe just a piercing), and enjoy the first few weeks of her junior year. Then her best friend stops talking to her, the cops crash her party, and Emma finds herself in the hands of a new guardian—her college-age “knight in J.Crew armor,” Bennett Stern—and on a plane to his museum-like mansion in New England.

After enrolling at Thatcher Academy, Emma settles in by making friends with the popular legacy crowd. But she can’t shake the strange visions that are haunting her. She has memories of Thatcher she can’t explain, as if she’s returning home to a place she’s never been. Emma doesn’t trust anyone anymore—except maybe Bennett. But he’s about to reveal a ghostly secret to Emma. One that will explain the visions . . . and make Emma fear for her life.

Review:

I did not expect this book to be as good as it turned out to be. World building aside, I totally appreciated the care with which each character was etched. But more than that, the entire book was effused with this sense of freshness that somehow eludes books  dealing with the same subject and in the same genre. Emma is a very fun character. She’s snarky, brave and totally vulnerable. It is her interactions with the rest of the characters in the novel that makes the book so much fun to read. I will admit that some of the aspects of the novel are totally cliched – the hottest boy falling for you? – but I also like how it plays with these cliches to create something new. There were some instances where I felt that the author took some unnecessary turns in the plot (I can’t say anymore without giving it away) and the romance became a bit annoying – seriously, starcrossed lovers are so not my thing – but, my views notwithstanding, Nichols does present an interesting dilemma to the protagonists. And it is in the solution they will come up with (hopefully) in the next book that will decide the worth of this series. As for the villains and the mythos – honestly, while you are reading it, it’s wildly entertaining but once you are done and the book has been put away and you have time to reflect on what you’ve read, you realize that you have many questions and queries about the way things went down in the book that aren’t necessarily answered. But as I said, it’s the first in a series and answers are hopefully forthcoming. And if the second book is anything like the first one and Emma retains her awesome personality, Nichols will be taking us on another wildly entertaining ride. And I, for one, cannot wait.

Series Spotlight + Review: Fever – Karen Marie Moning

Urban Fantasy Series. Dealing with Sidhe – Seelie and UnSeelie.

First Three books in the Series:

Fourth Book:

My Review (of the series and the latest book):

The premise of the series, the first book, is not by any means a strong opener to the series. The main character is infinitely annoying with her superficiality and shallowness. The male counterparts are interesting but not so much that you want to continue the book. So, you may ask me, why in the world did (do?) I continue reading the series. I don’t know. I don’t know why exactly I refused to give up on this and after reading the latest book I’m glad I didn’t. While the writing is still sometimes unnecessarily melodramatic and the author’s attempts at lyrical poetry in prose form does not quite have the intended effect, I believe that the author has hit her rhythm with the pacing and the characterization. The writing itself has improved in bounds and leaps and the writer’s thoughts and internal monologues as expressed through MacKayla are thought provoking and intelligent – this serves to add depth to MacKayla’s character and makes the reader forgive her the earlier gaffes. I love how Ms. Moning has shown the evolution of her characters – an almost visible internal path MacKayla traveled to become who she is by the end of the fourth book. I liked it – not wholly – there were some jarring bits that you wrinkled your nose at – but at the end of it, you are left wondering when the next book will be released and if you can wait till then.

Beautiful Creatures – Margaret Stohl, Kami Garcia

Trailer:

Review:

When I started reading this, I remember being slightly perturbed that the narrative voice was that of Ethan – a masculine viewpoint and one that I had not yet stumbled upon in my readings of the genre. Now that I have finished the book, however, I feel that presenting the book from this perspective was ingenious – and perhaps the reason for the success of the book. I was immersed in a world where family and lineage are, above all, the most important aspects to life. Who a person is and what he/she is going to become is predetermined and depends more on the family a person hails from than the person himself. A person is not allowed to be different.

Ethan Lawson Wate belongs to this world just as much as the world belongs to him. It is an uneasy possession – at least on his side, because the world he is in is fast limiting his horizons and there is nothing he wants more than to leave. Of course there are people there he loves – Amma, the housekeeper who practically raised him, his best friend Link and his father who is almost drowned by the grief of his mother. Then there is the girl he keeps on dreaming about – the girl he keeps on losing in his dreams. Ethan is almost convinced that she is a figment of his overly vivid subconscious until she shows up in town.

Lena Duchannes. And it is love. Despite all the odds stacked against them, despite the time limit on their fledgling relationship. Despite the fact that everyone in the vicinity believes she is a demon incognito and perhaps because of the fact that Ethan’s life would be much simpler, much less complicated if he could simply stop loving her.

The book took a while to grow on me. Usually I start reading a book and either I love it or I hate it. But  perhaps it is because I was reading this book while I was (actually I still am) on vacation. It took me a while to get used to the male perspective as I said but ultimately the story won me out.

The characters are individuals who are all uniquely hewed and have more of a role in the story than just space fillers. The plot is well thought out and researched. Stohl and Garcia approach the same story that has been told countless times in a fresh way that imbues the plot with a newness that has been missing. By narrating the story from the lead whose main role usually is as a side-kick to the heroine’s, the readers are distanced from the heroine. However, instead of feeling detached from her and her life, the reader feels, more acutely, what her uniqueness is. Stohl and Garcia succeed in creating a hero and heroine who capture (and keep) attentions until after the story is done. They somehow are more relatable than their contemporaries in the genre.

Amma in Hindi (Urdu, too, perhaps, and it’s Omma in  Korean) means “Mother” and the fact that Ethan’s Amma is his mother in everything but blood made me smile. I don’t know if it was an intentional naming and if it was, it was very clever and I appreciated it.

I am going to give this book four stars because, while I wasn’t totally blown away by it, I really did like Ethan, Lena, Link and even Ridley. I liked Uncle Macon, Aunt Del and Boo Radley. The strength of the book lay in its characters and I will most certainly be checking out the next installment in the series to see what happens to Lena and Ethan next.