Review: Slightly Different take worth reading
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 30, 2013
Book 1: A couple of missed words here and there, but otherwise, very well written. A slightly different take on vampires and I loved the references to other stories like Bram Stoker's Dracula and Twilight because we do truly think of those as we read books about vampires, right?Leesa is an extremely down to Earth girl who was raised by a mother who was bitten by a one-fanged vampire while pregnant with Leesa....yep, exactly what I said "HUH?". As a result, her mom slowly retreated into herself, her dad left them, and Leesa was raised more by her brother Bradley than her mother. Bradley left to college far from their San Diego home, where he later disappeared after sending a cryptic email to Leesa. When it is her time to go to college, she decides to follow in her brother's footsteps in order to track him down. With this, she is back on the East coast making friends, meeting vampires and Rave, a vampire hunter. However, Rave is not your typical vampire hunter and they find themselves immediately attracted to each other. It is here that Leesa learns that vampires are real, and vampire hunters are long-living very special people. With the help of one of her professors, she is able to help her mother. With the help of Stefan, the vampire who wants to make her his consort, she is able to find Bradley. She also learns that due to her mother being pregnant when bit, Leesa carries some vampire blood in her system which tastes horrible to other vampires. One-fanged vampires are the lowest form of vampire...they are an anomaly and having this blood in Leesa saves her life.By the end of the book, Rave and Leesa are still facing the challenge of being together. Because of who he is, it is very rare for his kind to interact with humans. Rave's gift means that any prolonged contact with Leesa could kill her...he carries "blue fire" in his body which could burn her to death. With the help of his mentor, he is working on reducing the heat, but it is a long drawn out process and will take time to master. Eventually he may be able to turn it off when needed, but there is a risk that he can lose it forever...of course there is also the fact that his longevity is greater than hers. He is over 150 years old...I just started to read book 2 and cannot wait to see what will happen next. Leesa has a great supporting cast in her family and friends...and Rave, who due to his upbringing...volkaanes are raised communally with no parents and no modern technology or conveniences. As such, he appears and sounds a bit like a throwback to the time period of his birth. It doesn't detract from him at all which is one of the things I really like about him. He doesn't miss what he has never known, but he is still pretty smart.If you're looking for another vampire story that is fun and interesting, I recommend this one.Book 2:This one was a little slower for me, but most likely because I missed Rave and like someone else mentioned, there were times when the book felt a little repetitive of the first book. Almost word for word. I did read the books back to back too, which is why it was easy to spot, but also a little strange to read....While Leesa continues with school, strange things begin to affect her. She doesn't sleep well and when she does she has strange dreams. Dreams that she later learns actually happened in real life. In addition, she starts to imagine that things are moving without her actually touching them. On top of that, she gets a phone call from someone claiming to be her father. At this point, you start to realize that the explanation for the strange pull between her and Rave discussed in the first book may be explained in this one.At the same time, Rave's clan decides to leave the state and Edwina decides to seek revenge on the loss of Bradley. It was interesting to read how Edwina manages to insert herself into Leesa's life without Rave knowing nor Leesa figuring out who she is until the end. You also learn that Sefan hasn't completely forgotten about Leesa. With the twist of Leesa being special, it makes me wonder if Stefan will be back to claim her end of the bargain in some other way.You get introduced to Dominic and some of Rave's friends in addition to old favorites like Leesa's old Vampire Science teacher and Cali. The book was pretty seamless in getting us to the premise of the next book, while answering some of the questions I had at the end of the first book. As such, I'm still interested in seeing where the series will take me.