Review: Vampires and the Girls Who Love Them
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 10, 2011
What we have here is a different kind of love triangle. Kira comes to South Carolina to live with her family after years at a boarding school in New York. She has to fit in at a new school and make new friends in a place where she has only spent summers. She is quickly integrated into the group of other newcomers meeting Luke, Emma, Dave and Miles. They become friends but she is also fascinated by a group that her new friends call the Misfits. The Misfits seem equally fascinated by her and begin staring at her whenever they are around. She is especially fascinated with Tristan. According to her, he has that rebel without a cause, bad boy look going along with a killer bod, black hair, and icy blue eyes.Her new friend Luke and Tristan are enemies but neither will explain why. After a few interesting events, including a near drowning while surfing and being saved by Tristan, Kira's crush deepens. She seems to keep running into Tristan although he does try to stay away from her. It isn't until she is attacked by the Misfits and exhibits strange powers that things start to come clear.Kira is a conduit. Conduits are the only ones who can kill vampires which is what the Misfits are. But there are two kinds of conduits - Protectors and Punishers - and Kira is the forbidden child of a Punisher father and a Protector mother. Her parents were killed when she was little and she has been raised by her aunt and uncle not knowing they weren't her parents. Luke has been sent by the Protectors to guard and train her. They become good friends as he teaches her about conduits and she learns what she can do. Apparently being the child of both a Punisher and Protector has given Kira some unique powers too. She is able to use her powers to heal which Luke is reluctant to share with the Council that sent him to guard her.Luke becomes her best friend but Tristan is the one she loves despite all Luke can do to convince her that all vampires are evil. She sees something special in Tristan. They get to know each other and secretly date. His companions and hers are both opposed to the relationship. She is convinced that he is not evil and that he won't hurt her. This was a nice romance and had some exciting parts for the action lover. It is also a story of a girl who learns that she has a hidden history.I liked the story but felt it could have done with some copy-editing. There were a few wrong words and a number of grammatical things that were sort of jarring. I have a personal phobia about misusing "loose" and "lose" and the author was guilty of this. Also there were a quite a few instances when "her" was used when "she" would have been more correct. Here is example of the wrong word choice:"Your foe confidence is amusing," Diana said and grabbed hold of Kira's chin.I had to read that one a couple of times before I realized that the author meant "faux." None of these things hurt the flow or excitement in the story but they were a bit distracting.I recommend this story for young adults who want to read one more story about vampires and the girls who love them. The concept of conduits who are able to kill vampires was a nice touch. And, naturally, the author has a sequel in the works.