Review: Great talent, but missing important details.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 24, 2013
Let me start off by saying I was given the honor to read and review an ARC of the book, by the Author herself, Tonya Callihan. She's a very sweet person who would accept nothing but the truth, so I vowed to give her nothing less. That being said, I'll continue with my review of the book.I found the book idea, an amazing one. I like that it starts out with a murder, so we have the formula for suspense, by trying to figure out who the killer is.I like that we have a sexy vampire(Connor), who falls in love with a beautiful woman(Kelly) and tries to earn her trust by helping her find the killer.I like that we have a vampire best friend,(Mac) who helps Kelly run a vampire bar together and who has helped her learn more about vampires.I also like that Connor's Maker(Micah) is secretly in love with Kelly's best friend.All of this has the perfect formula to become a saucy, suspense filled book/series. However, I found the book lacking on details, such as what the main characters looked like, how they acted, why they acted they way the do, how they met, etc. I found the sex scenes too quick and too wham bam thank you ma'am and the discovery of the murderer lacked the suspense and build up I was hoping for. Similar to the sex scenes. I also unfortunately found a few inconsistencies within the story, especially between the first two chapters.I believe the author has some true talent, but based on this book only being 46 pages and her first book, I believe the "real" story is still locked up inside her head, possibly due to being new, unsure, insecure, or lack of time.She gave me a taste of her talent. I want to see more from her though. I think if she took Night Promises and re-vamped it(pun not intended) and added those missing details that could help paint a picture in our minds of what the characters look like, why they act needy, jealous, etc. it would help us to bond to the characters better. Readers want to see some of themselves in characters or what they wish themselves to be. We also want to see some build UP! Then be brought down with a contented sigh. I believe with all my heart if the "filler" was added into Night Promises and was republished, she'd have a true hit on her hands and it would leave people craving more. As it stands now, it was a like a little lick, you like the taste, makes you wish you could have more, but it's not enough to get you addicted. It mostly just leaves you with a head full of questions that could have been answered in the first 2 chapters. I will be keeping an eye on this new and soon to be up and coming author and will continue to check out her work. I've been devoted to many popular authors, since they were in the "growing" stages and had I given up on them then, I would've missed out on so much. I won't give up on Tonya Callihan! She's a best seller in the making! :)