Review: Refreshing New Vampire Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 28, 2012
Is this book any good? Should you fork out the dollars for it?In a nut shell? YES!! In fact it's that's good that you should probably gift a few copies to your besties, because they are going to love it too!I was going to do a standard book review on it, but I know many of you (myself included) tend to look at those big long reviews and get all glassy-eyed. Personally, I just want to cut to the chase and find out about the awesome bits and the not so awesome bits.So here they are:AWESOMEVampires - and not the ones that sparkle and get all morally obnoxious about sex before marriage. There is blood and murder and downright glorification of the fact that these vampires see us as food. They consider themselves superior to mere mortals and hang only with their own kind (unless they're dining out, of course). The main vampire character, Joshua (who is turned at the very start of the story and leaves his fiancé practically at the altar), does tend to suffer a little from just-turned angst, but that is perfectly acceptable behaviour as far as I'm concerned!Romance - Now you know me, I'm not a big fan of sickly sweet romance so I am always a little hesitant when I pick up any book in this genre - especially paranormal romance and even more so when it is in the YA genre. The romance in Heart Search: Lost is sweet and by the end of the book, poignant. There is plenty of passion between the main characters and they are certainly in love at the start of the book. Once Joshua is turned into a vampire and disappears, the love Remy maintains for him is truly inspiring.Paranormal/reality fusion - As the author, Carlie M. A. Cullen discussed recently in her guest blog post, there needs to be a realistic and credible fusion between the world we live in and the fantasy world of a vampire novel. The author creates this seamlessly and at no time throughout the novel are you wondering how things are possible - they just are.Writing Style - Cullen's style of writing is just beautiful. There are sections of descriptives that makes your heart do little flip-flops. In some places the author just manages to nail a complex idea or emotional state in one clearly defined sentence.It's a series - Heart Search: Lost is book one in a series. So after investing the time with this first novel, you can eventually devour more of these wonderful characters in subsequent books. I always love it when I discover a book I've read is just the start for the characters I've fallen in love with. There is something so rewarding with following their progress over a great length of time.NOT SO AWESOMESize - this is a long book at over 150,000 words. While I found the story flew by and I was quickly engaged in the story line, there are people out there who download books onto their Kindle, see how long the little length line underneath the title is and promptly pick a shorter novel to read. I'm not sure why that is, but for some reason many people are in a hurry to read on their eReaders *sighs and shakes her head at the fact that some people will miss out on this gem*Writing Style - I know I included this in the 'awesome' section also, but, once again, there are people out there who do not like fanciful descriptives. If you are one of them, please try to overlook this fact and give the book a try anyway!Two Paths, One Story - I loved the two story lines of this novel, don't get me wrong there. However, there were a couple of times (mainly in the middle of the book) when I just wondered if Remy and Joshua's paths would ever meet up again. While I thoroughly enjoyed reading the separate journeys of the two main characters, I just occasionally wished that these two paths were, somehow, a little more interlocking.So there you have it. If I had to give it a rating out of five, I would give it a very solid 4 stars. I just can't wait to see where the storyline goes in the second book! I am itching to find out if my theory on that surprising twist is correct and I just wish Carlie would get a hurry on and finish book two so I can find out!