[Review] A Shade of Blood by Bella Forrest

A Shade of Blood
by Bella Forrest
A Shade of Vampire #2
Published April 8th, 2013

Premise

Having been delighted by the Christmas bestselling debut, A Shade Of Vampire, readers are begging for more. In A Shade Of Blood, Bella Forrest transports you deeper into a unique, enthralling and beautifully sensitive story. Prepare to be lost in its pages...

When Sofia Claremont was kidnapped to a sunless island, uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet, she believed she'd forever be a captive of its dark ruler, Derek Novak.

Now, after months of surviving an endless night, the morning sun may soon rise again for Sofia. Something has possessed Derek's heart and he offers her a gift no human slave has ever been given in the history of his cursed island: escape.

High school, prom and a chance to move on with her life now await her.

But will she be able to forget the horrors that steal her sleep away at night? ... or the feelings that haunt her for that tormented prince of darkness?

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Find my review and purchase links HERE

 

I recieved a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review

My thoughts

A Shade of Blood is the second book in the A Shade of Vampire series. It's as captivating as the first book, only a little more, because now you have grown to care about the characters and everything that happens to them feels like it has happened to a dear friend of yours. You regret their bad choices along with them and mostly you want them to end up happy.

The story starts right where the first book left off, with Sofia having to make a decision between staying at The Shade with Derek or going back to her home with her best friend, Ben. She decides to go home, breaking Derek's heart and without realizing it, breaking her own too. 

Since the couple parts ways, everything starts spiriling down, right into chaos. The first half of the book revolves around the three main characters (Sophia, Derek and Ben) trying to go back to normal and Lucas running away from Derek.

This time we get to know the story not only from Sofia's and Derek's points of view, but from Ben's and Lucas too. This new insight, especially to Ben's mind, could have made me understand better this character and learn to love him too. But, somehow, it just made me dislike him even more, because now that I know his motives and how he has seen Sofia all along, I just can't agree with him. He has made so many mistakes like playing the "cool-card" around Sofia, dating all those girls just for "practice" until he feels ready to start a relationship with her, and meanwhile, having her waiting around for him, assuming he's so irresistible that she won't ever lay her eyes in someone else. I just hated that. He's so egotistic and selfish that I feel like he deserves to lose her to Derek, who was able to appreciate her from the first moment.

With Lucas, well, I think this point of view was designed to make us hate even more this character as the antagonist to our star-couple. Because he's truly pure evil, he's selfish and he's willing to say whatever he needs to in order to save himself, even if that means betraying his own family.

 With Sofia gone, Derek's life is once again full of guilt, pain and darkness and he's becoming the monster everyone but Sofia thinks he is. He starts to rebuild the Shade into what it was when he went to sleep; a community of vampire warriors. But the Elite has grown lazy and too comfortable in the island and they just want to be left alone with their slaves. So Derek has to tough it up and scare them into making his will. To make an example, he orders to capture his own brother, Lucas, because he defied him and must pay for his offense.

Meanwhile, Sofia and Ben are trying to move on and left behind what they had to endure at the Shade. But it's clear that the experience they had, affected them in different ways. Ben was abused over and over again by Claudia -his vampire captor- and that broke him inside and out in a way that could never be repaired. Sofia had some awfull experiences too, with Lucas trying to claim her as his and torturing her both pshycologically and physically. But, for her, not everything at the Shade was bad. Derek always treated her right and she made friends that had to left behind. So, where Lucas couldn't be happier to escape the island, Sofia has people to miss back there.
 

The relationship between Sofia and Ben is somewhat strained, because they can't fully understand what happened to each other back there, but they still find comfort while being together and their relationship starts to change and they start dating. The problem is that Sofia can't stop thinking about Derek and she soon will realize that even if she loves Ben, she's no longer in love with him.

The second half of the book, it's a madness of suspensfull events and revelations that would let you open-mouthed because you didn't see those turns coming. I liked it a lot better than the first half, because it was so action-packed that you spend the entire time on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what's gonna happen next.

I don't know if this time I was more picky or if this book truly had more grammar mistakes and plot holes that the first one. I am no expert in grammar since English is not my first language, but I know enough to notice some mistakes. Being able to detect writting issues I didn't see on the first book bugged me a little, because I thought really high of the writting in A Shade of Vampire, but the plot definitely makes up for any mistake.

Overall, I think this was a great sequel, which is always hard to accomplish when the first book was so good and everyone has high expectations about the second one. 

A Shade of Vampire is a series I would happily recommend to anyone who loves the Paranormal genre. The plot is really captivating and the characters are relatable. Even if there are a few issues and themes that may seem a little strong for YA readers, they are treated in a way that isn't too descriptive or explicit, so it can be read by anyone over 13-years-old. I would definitely be picking up book 3!

Rating

About the author

Bella Forrest has been telling stories pretty much since she could talk. Instead of having her parents read her bed-time stories, she would prefer to share with them her own made up tales.

As she grew older, she developed a passion for the fantasy genre. She's an incurable Potterhead.

Her debut novel, A Shade of Vampire, was released on December 14, 2012.

The book became a Number 1 Christmas Bestseller in Vampire Romance, Paranormal and Fantasy on Amazon.

If you sign up for personal email updates from her here: http://www.forrestbooks.com ,

you'll be the first to hear about her new releases.

And here are a few places you can hang out with her!: 

Facebook | Twitter | Website

[Review] The Society of S by Susan Hubbard

Title: The Society of S

Author: Susan Hubbard

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

Published: May 1st 2007

Series: Ethical Vampire (Book #1)

Source: I purchased a copy from a bookstore:

Blurb from Goodreads: "If you ever want to hide from the world, live in a small city, where everyone seems anonymous."That's the advice of twelve-year-old Ariella Montero, who lives with her father in Saratoga Springs, New York, in a house haunted more by secrets than by memories. "The Society of S" traces her journey south, to Asheville and Savannah, and on to Florida, as she learns that everything she knows about her family is a lie.

When she finds her mother, she learns the truth: Ariella is a fledgling member of the Society of S.

"S" stands for "Sanguinists", a sect of environmentalists concerned with ethics and human rights -- although they happen to be vampires. S also stands for synesthete: a person able to see words and letters in colors. The letter S is lucky for Sara, Ariella's mother, who gravitates to cities such as Savannah and Sarasota. But will it be lucky for Ariella?

Susan Hubbard's novel is an intricate literary mystery that raises provocative questions about the way we live now. Ariella's voice will lure you into a world where you'll meet the "others" among us: vampires who cope with their special nature and need for blood in a variety of ways, ranging from the savage to the mundane to the scientific.

Review

My thoughts: I bought this book in one of my shopping sprees for my birthday, like a year ago. I have to admit that I really liked the cover so I became interested right away. The synopsis sounded interesting too, so I decided to buy it. I didn't even know this was a series. 

When I started to read it, I was excited to find out what was this Society that inspired such compelling cover, but then I got caught on pages and pages of nothing. 

For a vampire book it was terribly slow, before I even reached the third chapter I was already bored. I continued reading just because I refused to lose the money it has costed me. 
It wasn't a bad plot, but I think it wasn't well developed. There are some mysteries and they could have been told in a more captivating way, but they got lost in all the details and irrelevant thoughts on Ari's mind. 
For instance, I never got to understand what the synesthete has to do with the vampires or how this "ability" plays a roll on the plot itself.
I gave it two clocks just because I liked Ariella, not in such a good way either, because I felt sorry for her. But I hate hes father and mother and I though they were selfish and self-centered and obviously a lot of what was happening could have been avoided if they would just talk to each other. I didn't even like her friends and kind-of-boyfriend. 
Well, it was a disappointing book, I didn't have huge expectations, but I obviously expected more than what was delivered to me.

¿Would I recommend it?: I don't think so. Unless you really like vampire stories in a more scientific way.

Rating:

Quote:


“My father was right: people are always leaving. They fall in and out of your life like shadows.” 

About the author:

Susan Hubbard, born in upstate New York, is the author of two collections of short fiction, both winners of national prizes, and four novels. The Society of S was published in May 2007 by Simon & Schuster, and The Year of Disappearances, a sequel, was released in May 2008. The U.S. paperback edition of The Year of Disappearances was published in 2009.
The third volume in the Ethical Vampire series, The Season of Risks, was published in July 2010.
Hubbard's books have been translated and published in more than 15 countries. Her short stories have appeared in TriQuarterly, The Mississippi Review, The North American Review, America West, Kalliope, Ploughshares, and other journals. She is coeditor of 100% Pure Florida Fiction, an anthology. 
She has received teaching awards from Syracuse University, Cornell University, the University of Central Florida, and the South Atlantic Adminstrators of Departments of English. She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Project, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Cill Rialaig. 
Hubbard has led writing workshops at universities and arts programs across the United States and the United Kingdom. A former president of Associated Writing Programs, she has served as an assessor and curriculum consultant to several colleges and universities. 
Hubbard currently is a Professor of English at the University of Central Florida. She is an advocate for animal rights, social justice, academic etiquette, and literacy. Her hobbies include running, salvaging, and collecting items of questionable taste.

[Review] Dark Heart Forever by Lee Monroe

Title: Dark Heart Forever
Author: Lee Monroe
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Published: October 1st 2010
Series: Dark Heart (Book #1)
Source: I purchased a copy from a bookstore.

Blurb from Goodreads: Jane Jonas is nearing her 16th birthday and troubled by unsettling recurring dreams where the same mysterious boy her age comes to her, telling Jane that they are each other's destiny. Her mother is increasingly anxious about Jane's disruptive sleepwalking episodes, but for Jane her dream world and reality are about to collide... 

When she develops a friendship with an enigmatic stranger in town, the blond, uber-cool Evan, it's exciting, it's new, and Jane wants him more than she's ever wanted anybody - until her mystery dream boy gets in the way. 

Now Jane is caught between two worlds: one familiar, but tinged with romance and excitement; the other dark and dangerous, where angels, werewolves, and an irresistible stranger are trying to seduce her. 

Review

My thoughts: I absolutely adored this book. I've seen a lot of bad reviews but I didn't let them stop me from reading Dark Heart Forever, and I'm glad! It's a fast-paced first-on-a-series books with new concepts and ideas. Although it has some of the typical stereotypes of supernatural creatures, it creates two parallel worlds. The first one, is the real world, the normal world, where Jane a home-schooled teenager without friends lives with her parents and sister, and where she met Evan, the sexy and charming new guy in town. Jane is shy and has no friends because she was bullied when she was on school, but with Evan she suddenly feels like a normal teenager, although she is not sure she can really trust him, because there's something about him that doesn't add up. The other world is Nissilum, Luca's home and the place where the supernatural creatures lives. There are vampires, werewolves, witches and some others. Luca is the most adorable guy ever, he's caring and sweet and I have to admit I fell for him from the start. Jane meet Luca when she was supposedly sleepwalking, but there's something more about it, something stronger, a bond between the two of them. The relationship between this two is really heartwarming and cute and makes you want to be Jane. 

The author manages to create a new concept, with two worlds, some sort of love triangle and still adds a lot of unexpected twists in a story that had many interesting details. 

There's so many things I like about this book. It is definitely one of my favorites of 2012. 

I would recommend it for: Fans of Paranormal Romance. 

Rating:

Quotes:

“Our hearts are bound together,' he said, 'and I am free to decide who I love. And what I want. Nothing - not the pressure of my family, or what anyone else thinks - matters.” 

“To truly love someone you have to see their flaws. See the dark side. The things you don't like.” 

About the author:

Lee Monroe was born in London, but spent a short time living by the sea with her family when she was a teenager. She moved back to the heart of the city as soon as she could, and now lives in Westminster. 

Lee was an obsessive reader as a child, and still is. She has worked in publishing and contributed to, and ghost-written, books. 

Dark Heart Forever is her first novel under her own name.

[Review] City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: March 27th, 2007
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Series: The Mortal Instruments (Book #1)
Source: I purchased a copy from a bookstore.
Blurb from Goodreads: When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -not even a smear of blood- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

Review

General thoughts: This is one of the best first-books-on-a-series that I've read. In most of series it takes a while to reach the good parts and it isn't uncommon to see a huge portion of descriptions and world-settings. City of Bones mix the exciting moments with the informative ones (so you don't get info-dumped) creating a sublime harmony. The author gives you information through jokes and quotes that you can't forget even when you're done with the book and she inserts fights and critical turns in between, which makes the reading very light and fun.
I loved it, this is the kind of book you can't stop thinking about once you've read it.

About the plot: Thousand years ago, Angel Raziel combined his blood with human's to give birth to the Shadowhunters race. They have to take care of demons and keep the world safe. No human knows about their existence, at least until the night when Clary -a girl who is about to turn sixteen- sees them in Pandemonium, the trendy nightclub. Since then, nothing will ever be the same in Clary's world. Everything the girl had believed her entire life has turned out to be a lie. On top of that, she found out there are all kinds of mythical creatures, her mom has been kidnapped and Luke (the closest thing to a father she has) seems to be done with her. Now, with the help from Simon, her best friend; from Jace, the most frustrating person and the hottest guy she has ever seen; and from other ShadowHunters, she will have to figure out who her mother  really is and will have to find herself in the meantime.

About the characters: Clary is the girl who finds out everything she believed in was wrong and all the mythical creatures she knew from fairy-tales are real. She is an emotional teenager -as expected since she's only sixteen- but she's brave. Clary is willing to do whatever it takes to save the ones she loves most. 
Jace is a boy who's beautiful like an angel and deadly like a dagger. God, he's like every girl's dream. I'm just so in love with him that it hurts. He's the best Shadowhunter of his age, tough on the surface but behind his I-don't-give-a-crap act he has a huge heart. He obviously has a thing for Clary, there's something about her that intrigues him and annoys him at the same time. Even when he pretend he's all calm and indifference, at the end of the day he's just a boy seeking answers. 
Simon, the human or "mundane" -as Shadowhunters call him- is Clary's bestfriend and the only normal person she can count on since her world has turned upside down. He's a real geek and kind of clumsy, but he'll do anything for Clary.
Alec and Isabel are siblings, both Shadowhunters and Jace's best friends. At first they seem  reluctant to take Clary in, especially Alec. But after a while they get used to her and start treating her better. 

About the writing: Being a first book on a series, its goal is to catch the reader's attention and I must say: That's exactly what this book does!
City of Bones is a urban-fantasy book and what can be more urban than New York!? This story is set on the Manhattan streets and aside from the fictional creatures and paranormal features from this kind of genre, the scene is pretty believable.
It's fast paced and contains just the right amount of details so the reader is able to picture the settings, the voices and even the smells, all this without taking over pages and pages for description purposes. Once you've started it you can not put it down!
It is narrated in third person, however, we don't get to know everything before hand. We can almost see the world through Clary's eyes and we don't have much more information than she has. We learn about the other characters through the dialogue which is good, because we don't get info-dumped. 

About the ending (contains spoilers): The ending is clearly open. You can tell there's a lot that hasn't been solved. Most of the characters are not fully developed and some essential part of them is still missing. Valentine is gone -for now-, Clary's mom is still asleep, Jace has a lot to make sense of, Alec is struggling with his sexual orientation and I could go on and on listing things that still need an answer.
However, the story has a begging, development and ending well built, like an episode from a TV show that is just starting.
When you're done reading, you still have a lot of doubts about what comes next. You feel the need to start the next book right away.

I would recommend it for: Everyone who loves paranormal books. This is one of the funniest reading I've had in a while.

Rating:

Quotes:

"Is this when you start tearing strips off your T-shirt to bind up my wound?" she joked. She hated the sight of blood, especially her own. 

"If you wanted me to rip my clothes off, you should have just asked." He dug into his pocket and brought out his stele. "It would have been a lot less painful."

"Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?"

Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."

Dorothea roared at that. "At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."

"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting."

"No," Jace said crossly. "The Mark are only part of it. There are tests, ordeals, levels of training -look, just forget it, okay? Stay away from my blades. In fact, don't touch any of my weapons without my permission."

"Well, there goes my plan for selling them all on eBay," Clary muttered.

"Selling them on what?"

Clary smiled blandly at him. "A mythical place of great magical power."