Review: Complete Disappointment For Me
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 27, 2014
It wasn’t long into the book before I figured out how to describe this book. As I was reading I had the recurring thought of attempting to navigate through the fog. Throughout the story I felt like I had an idea of what the story was but for the most part everything was murky and unclear to me. It resulted in a book that wasn’t entertaining and one in which I ended up just trying to get to the finish line.One of the big issues I had with this book was the writing. Aside from the lack of depth and insight I had a problem with the way the story is structured including grammar and punctuation. I usually don’t have a problem with this as long as I can understand what the author is trying to convey. However, in this book it affected the way I read it and inevitably my enjoyment of the story. If you set out to explain aspects of the story, it behooves you to not have all the information and narrative run together. It makes it not only a daunting read, but the narrative comes off very clinical in its explanation. There is a way to include these explanations without taking away from the flow of the story plus it keeps the reader entertained while being informed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t present in this book. There were multiple times where the next page or two was filled with ongoing narrative without a break and I essentially powered my way through those parts.This issue affected the other aspects of the book. This lack of depth in the writing led to my lack of understanding of the characters and their relationships to each other. Yes, I know who Aefre was and that Constantine was her sire and that she eventually turned Devon. But I never really got a true sense of their characters. I didn’t feel anything for them and on the contrary I was left feeling questioning about their behaviors and relations. I never understood exactly the nature of her relationship with Constantine. The book never really goes in depth about their time together which would’ve helped in understanding why Aefre is who she is. The book goes on about the special connection a sire has with his/her charge but it never really differentiates it with actual love. It came off as just a reason to have Aefre be free to sleep with Devon and Cole. Speaking of Cole, I didn’t really know anything about him. None of his personality was really illustrated so for me he came off as being dull and almost childlike in his reaction to Aefre being a vampire. So with that being said, I do not understand how they can proclaim to love each other after a date. No real time was taken to establish that supposed connection between them. Their relationship was never believable to me especially when she sleeps with Devon after just having sex with Cole whom she proclaims to love.Now I know vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. are powerful in their rights but it stands to reason they would have their own set of weakness. It adds to their uniqueness and interest in how the characters adapt to them. But in this book, Aefre seems to be invincible with so much knowledge. She can speak so many languages (2 of which the book points out are dead languages), has the ability to shift (which she’s the only vampire capable doing so) plus she wears a ring that enables her to go out into the sunlight (Devon has one too). This makes her a pretty boring vampire. I want those kinds of complications in my paranormal/supernatural creatures. It helps shape who they are.I want to at least say that if nothing else, the sex in this book is good but I can’t even say that. Those scenes are reflective of the writing. There was no build up, no tension developed between the characters. It was quick without any passion and left you feeling lacking.I usually try to find positive things to say about a book, even if it’s in regard to having potential to be better. I cannot find that in this book. As the first book in a series, it was important that the story and characters were well laid out with a strong foundation to build upon as the series continues. Unfortunately, it didn’t have it and ended with me being unclear about everything. There wasn’t any aspect of the book that I can put a positive spin and that saddens me. It is safe to say that I will not be continuing this series.