Review: Beautifully Written Paranormal Romance - Highly Recommended
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 5, 2013
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Christine Wenrick.)26-year-old Olivia is studying music and about to receive her masters, when she's in a horrific train crash, and then worse - attacked by vampires!There are many more surprises in store for Olivia though, and a love for a man (Caden) she could never even have dreamed of, as well as information that changes her view of who she herself really is.Can Olivia live with who she finds out she really is though? Is Caden's love for her real? And do they have any hope of a future together?I really enjoyed this book, and even though it had vampires in it, it wasn't your typical vampire/paranormal romance, which was a nice change! (None of the `Mine' business either!)Olivia was a strong and sometimes stubborn lead, and she had no problems pushing to try to get what she wanted, although I expected her to get angrier that Caleb was constantly picking her up and underestimating her. She had had a difficult year surviving both a car crash and a train wreck, and losing all the people that meant something to her. I totally got why she didn't want to be hurt by Caleb, but how she wanted someone to love her just the same.The romance between Olivia and Caleb was hot, and Caleb was seriously sexy! Even though there were vampires in this book, the romance element was strong, and I fell for Caleb just the same as Olivia did! There was both suspense and anticipation leading up to the `love' scenes, which made this part of the book very satisfying, and when the scenes eventually came, it felt right!This book was about vampires. There are a lot of books about vampires around at the moment, and I know a lot of people get a bit sick of it, but I felt that it was really well done in this book. The vampire element didn't feel overdone, some old ideas were used, but new ideas were used also, and the vampire storyline fitted in well with the rest of the book. We didn't get any soul-mate business or insta-love either, which was refreshing!The one thing I didn't appreciate was the way that Olivia refused to tell Caleb what she was. She felt bad because she thought that she was causing him to feel the way he did, and that he didn't really feel that way about her, but then didn't tell him exactly what was going on either. (Gosh that sounds complicated but I'm trying to avoid spoilers!)This kind of lack of communication most commonly leads to problems in the long run, and I really wished that Olivia could have been honest and told Caleb the truth. (This is more a pet peeve of mine rather than an actual problem with the book though.)I have to say that this book was very well written and flowed beautifully, I loved the characters and the storyline, and this was a very enjoyable read. I was also very happy with the ending - no cliff-hangers, but plenty to make me want to read the next one!I would recommend this to anyone who likes paranormal romance! It is a fab read with an explosive finale, and is beautifully written.8.25 out of 10.