Review: Unique vampire series - no sparklies!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2014
*Warning, may contain spoilers*"Let me paint a picture for you then I’ll have to teach you to see it...No way to make the pain play fairIt doesn’t disappear just because you say it isn’t thereWalking in the garden was a serpent-shaped heart and he told meWhat is broken cannot show, and less than beautiful is worse than unholyIdolized my innocence,Stole it from me in the endNow I’m wide awakened and still paying for the poison they sold me"---Read all that again and let it sink in. Those are lyrics to a song, and they're profound. What do they have to do with this book? Everything, and everything to do with my women are looked down upon by not only men, but other women for treading OFF the beaten path...Poor Lilith. Forgotten from history and left out of all religious books because she said no to a man and wouldn't be submissive. Forced submission is an oxymoron. It's either submission or it's oppression. When it comes from one's heart - Willingly - it is then much more meaningful. Free will is everything, and there is nothing more powerful than that of Choice.Lilith is the rumored the wife of the devil and mother of all vampires. She is punished to be such b/c she had the nerve to chose to not be submissive - how dare she?!Her newest and closest, Jude, is so because he's always believed in her. Growing up a rebel to "the machine" in life I identified with Jude. He followed the supernatural, didn't buy into societal propaganda, and lived as he wanted. He wasn't an anarchist - he didn't hurt anyone. He just did his own thing. So when Lilith found him and realized by his tattoo that he did, in fact, believe in her, she turned him instead of killing him. After some time, however, Jude felt it was time to strike out on his own. Lilith, knowing what it was like to be exhilarated just for wanting to be independent and not submissive, didn't punish Jude. She isn't a hypocrite like the people who've pushed her out of existence. She let him find his own way in life, even if it meant having a relationship with Arthur Cade, the son of a powerful vampire lord and being re-sired. However when Jude's new sire goes back to his fiancee, that's when things go downhill. Several members of the household are murdered and revenge is imminent.Enter Brom, the younger brother of Arthur who can't seem to do anything right by his father who blames him for his mother's death. He keeps trying to kill Jude as per his father's request, but can't seem to get a handle on it, or anything else his father wants him to do. Along his quest he runs into Mirela, a gypsy/witch that is the key to finding and defeating Lilith (which is the key to finding and killing Jude). Of course she's innocent and kidnapped by one of Cade's goons, and later rescued by none other that Brom himself, although he tries to convince himself it's because she's needed to kill Jude, but it seems to me there's something else there, too...Yeah, Brom's kind of a dick. He's used to defending himself against his father's hatred and with a constant feeling of being not good enough comes a certain cynicism and sarcasm. He'll say how he's lived long enough to see women lose class (yeah, because the male population surely held onto that concept, right?), and then kiss Mirela while enjoying the virgin blood from her lip. Goddammit - can we please knock off the hatred of "non pure" females?! The concept of virginity was invented to control females and give men power. Why do you think we teach girls not to be sexual but we teach boys to stick it in everything that moves? Or, here's a different perspective: why should girls get the candles, sating sheets, roses and nice music, buy boys shouldn't? Do we value boys less? Think on that one...I could also go off on Mirela's sadistic kidnapper (the Cade's goon) and say teen pregnancy is not entirely caused by girls who get themselves pregnant. It takes 2 to tango and we need to start preaching also to boys to be more responsible. But I digress...There's more to Brom than meets the eye, and I really feel if someone saw through that tough facade and into his heart with a little love he'd not be such an ass. He's been berated by his father and in his brother's shadow for hundreds of years he probably wouldn't know love if it literally bit him in the ass. Truly sad this one, but I feel there's hope for him.One thing I'll say about this (or any) book - if it provokes an emotional response, it's well written. I could identify with Lilith and Jude on several things. There's some history on Jamen and Vinnie (female) and also on Delilah, who I LOVE! She's an awesome, vengeful redhead and, yeah, love thatSince there's some back story on those characters, I'd like to know more on the Cade family. This is the only reason I gave it a 4 instead of 5. WHY is Dane such a domineering  jerk? Is he a sociopath, psychopath, or did he become one after centuries of seeing through the illusion of life/death? There are hints that he wasn't such a bad man before his wife died, but now he's so power hungry he kills anyone he deems a threat a la MacBeth. Maybe it'll be explained in future books.