Review: The Story and Characters Needed Just a Little More Bulk
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2011
***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***Jack Creed has been a reluctant vampire for ten years, turned on the night he was attacked and left for dead by the werewolf who killed his parents, then saved by a group of passing vampires when one took an interest in him as a potential romantic partner. All of that changes when he encounters Silver Reign while visiting his grave and attempts to save her from a werewolf attack. In the misguided attempt to save her Jack is scratched by a werewolf, something fatal to vampires and believes he's going to die. Instead of a quick death at the beginning of the story Jack not only survives but becomes some sort of enhanced mortal with powers of both a werewolf and a vampire, a mortal who's arrival has been prophesied for a very long time. His shared destiny with Silver is to kill the first werewolf, the wolf responsible for creating them all and who's death could save every other werewolf in existence. If they should fail this being will not only destroy all vampires, but the entire human race as well. The story follows his budding relationship with silver, his interactions with his human brother and his vampire family and his path to discovering the first werewolf, a path that leaves him questioning if his destiny is one he wants to fulfill.Overall this book is a great read that keeps you turning pages. I'll admit I debated between three and four stars on this one. But my copy of the book had some issues that kept skipping me around in pages and turning through blank ones to find words. Considering that I decided I might be being a little harsher on the writing than I should be because I was irritated at the difficulty it was giving me reading it on my ipod. That said I decided to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and go with the higher of the two ratings. The story is fast paced and for the most part well written.Some of the things I noticed were first the character names, so many of them were a little far-fetched ie Silver Reign, that I found this a little distracting. With names like that it's hard to picture them as realistic people. While I've read other books with odd character names, most of them have reasonable explanations for those names and the odd names are not employed by the majority of the characters in a the book. That isn't the case with this story in my personal opinion. Another thing about the characters is that I don't think the writer gave them enough actual character flaws to be believable. Silver is bright, articulate, a good fighter, beautiful and her list of appealing qualities goes on and on. The same can be said for Jack. However, I can't really mention anything negative about their characters. Yes Jack used to be a vampire, but he only drank animal blood. Characters in a story are supposed to be a fictional reflection of real people. Real people are not perfect, they have at least one physical flaw that drives them nuts every time they look in a mirror. Real people have at least a handful of bad habits, and they have lists of things they don't really like about themselves, things they want to change. While I could see the flaws in all the secondary characters, in the two main characters, the ones you could tell the writer really cared about you didn't really see flaws. Jack and Silver are practically perfect teenage kids. Yes they skipped school, but that was to free the trapped souls of the poor wraiths from the never-ending slavery of the first werewolf. Yes Jack considered returning to being just a vampire, but the vampires are the ones who saved him from death when the werewolves attacked his family and they then became his friends, his family for the last decade. Everything Jack and Silver do that could possibly have a negative connotation behind it has a completely good and justifiable reason to go with it. I feel the main characters need a little bit more grit and more flaws to be real to a reader. No I'm not asking her to take her favorite characters and make them into criminals but for example with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which the writer has obviously watched, Buffy is an a##kicking vampire and demon slayer, however her grades in school suck because she's so busy saving the world she doesn't have time to study. She's not popular because her priorities aren't the same as a normal teenager and it's very clear during that series that despite her calling Buffy clearly resent her life. While Silver does make similar claims in this story they aren't as believable because she doesn't have the actions to go with them and as the old saying goes actions speak louder than words.Another issue I had with this story is some of the plot points seemed a bit contrived or unoriginal and some of them were predictable. For instance I knew who the first werewolf was the minute Silver mentioned him, I knew he'd already been introduced and I knew exactly what character it was. Silver being the chosen one, and the way it was described seemed like a scene right out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yeah she's more meant to kill werewolves than anything else, but it almost mirrors the Slayer prophecy. And the having met in dreams, being destined to be together thing just was hard to believe. I was also expecting a little bit more in the ending after having read all that build up throughout the book. I felt cheated to not get the final confrontation in this story especially when the battle we did get didn't have nearly the attention or build enough to satisfy me as a reader with the ending.That said, it was an interesting story and employed a lot of things I did like. I found it intriguing to keep getting pulled into memories when Jack touched something or someone. I liked character of Jersey Clifford, the way he was both intelligent and insane. He was the kind of character who drew you in, who you wanted to understand. I'd have to have seen more of his interaction with Jack, more back story in to him and everyone else including the prophesy. I liked Lily and Summer but again I don't think they got enough play in the story. I guess the thing I think this story is really missing is the build. When the writer decided she wanted to make this a series, she should have added a little more bulk to the villain she was planning to take out in this section of the story. It needed more than just a few random scenes for a reader to feel vindicated when he's taken out. It's missing the back story I guess, the explanations to make it completely believable. We did get some of that and those portions that we got were extremely intriguing. They had me curious and kept me turning pages to discover more. It is a good story and a thrilling read, but I personally wish the author had given us just a little bit more throughout the story to make it something no reader can dismiss or ignore.Additionally I'd like the thank the author for offering me the chance to review her book by providing me with a free copy.