Being Human by Patricia Lynne

Being Human
by Patricia Lynne
Createspace
8th September 2011

Only surviving isn't that easy. The hunt for blood can be tricky when humans know to fear the night. Desire sits on the edge of his mind, urging him to become the monster humans think he is. Vampire Forces, a special branch of police, is determined to turn every vampire to ash. Tommy included.

The only human Tommy can trust is his twin brother. A bond connects them, and with Danny's help, Tommy starts to understand the human world he struggles to survive in. He'll learn what friendships means and feel the sting of betrayal, find that sometimes the worst monsters are very human, and come to understand that family means more than blood.

Tommy just wants to survive and he knows what he needs to do. But with the number of humans that mean more to him than a meal growing, he'll learn there's more to life than simple survival. He'll discover being human doesn't mean being a human.

I cannot explain how much I LOVED this book!!

Patricia Lynne is an amazing storyteller and this book is one of the most thought provoking I have read in a long time. Her take on the vampire genre was completely unique, she created a species that we are meant to fear and that fear remained until the very last page and at its core this story is about the prejudices that we face as a society today. This book is fast paced, exciting and completely heart-breaking.  This isn’t a story about love, it’s a story about humanity and what it takes to be human. Lynne also covered topics such as child abuse, rape, self-harm and depression in a respectful way and I have to admire her for that. 

I loved that Lynne created a story that made me question humanity and whether survival really is more important that love. It also had me asking the question, Is it right to fear something because we don’t fully understand it? I also loved the twin bond which became the sole reason Tommy didn’t lose all of his humanity, it was an amazing concept and it completely blew me away.

Tommy’s character is unique and I was shocked over and over again by his thoughts, feelings and actions. He kept me guessing until the very end. I loved that Lynne made Tommy the bad guy in the story and had all the other characters fear him for a time and then she threw in a human that Tommy described as a monster, which created the question; if vampires truly existed, would their crimes be any worse than human crimes?

He was almost childlike in nature because once he awakened as a vampire, he had to start from scratch and learn how to be human from the very beginning, he discovered what it was like to love, feel betrayed, hate, fear and the difference between right and wrong. He had to learn all the lessons that we do from birth and Lynne made each situation Tommy found himself in completely believable and relatable. I loved being able to watch Tommy grow as a character over several decades, it wasn’t a ridiculous amount of time and it was easy to see how his character changed emotionally even when he didn’t change physically. He realised that sometimes love is more important that survival.

The only part of the book I didn’t fall in love with was the ending and only because I didn’t feel completely satisfied. I feel like I still need closure on Tommy’s story and I still need to know how it ended for him, including his thoughts and feelings. Although I did love how the ending was written from another POV, it was refreshing and gave even more of an insight into the world Tommy found himself living in. This book will have you laughing and crying along with Tommy and the wonderful, strange and sad situations he finds himself in.

 Check out Patricia Lynne's website here

*  *  *  *  *

- Stephanie

Teaser Tuesdays # 2

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading

Glamour (Rae Wilder #1)
By Penelope Fletcher
7th October 2010
Poison Princess

The teasers are:

"As dumb as stashing a vampire in a wardrobe?"

"My skin was on fire, my blood boiling. He broke away to trail kisses down my neck then was still, holding me. Both our chests heaved. I realised he was hot, hard and had his mouth at my throat"

- Stephanie

Nocturnal by Chelsea M. Cameron

Nocturnal (The Noctalis Chronicles #1)
by Chelsea M. Cameron
11th February 2012
DRC Publishing

Seventeen-year-old Ava-Claire Sullivan isn't one for doing the expected. Especially when she finds out her mother's cancer is terminal. After a crying session in the local cemetery where she's attacked by one strange guy and saved by another, she doesn't call the cops. Because those guys definitely weren't your average hooligans.

And the one who sort-of saved her? Well, he's odd. He doesn't seem to breathe or smile or have anything better to do than wait in the cemetery for Ava to come back. Which she does. Call it morbid curiosity. Even after he warns her that he's dangerous, she can't stop wanting to see him, talk to him, be with him.

There's something about Peter that provides a much-needed escape from her mother's diagnosis and her tenuous relationship with her father. Even her best friends Jamie and Texas don't know what it's like to face death. But Peter does. He already has. He also made a promise a long time ago that could destroy both of them.

When everything in your life is falling apart, what are you willing to give up to hold onto the one thing that could last forever?

I did enjoy this book but I can't say it wowed me, in fact at points I was ready to put it down and forget about finishing it but because I hate to leave things half done I carried on and I'm glad I stuck with it because I ended up liking the story even though it felt like more of an introduction than a full book. I feel like I've been introduced to a story and a bunch of characters but I don't feel like I really know any of them.

The story started out strong with Ava finding out her mother's cancer is terminal in the first chapter and with the arrival of Peter shortly after i thought it was going to continue at the same pace but it slows considerably and with the next fifteen chapters I found myself daydreaming because there was nothing remotely interesting happening.

There isn't much I can say about Peter, he doesn't have much of a personality and I understand why. His character only works because he's supposed to be devoid of human emotion but this does make the book rather boring because there isn't an exaggerated, over the top personality to balance out his lack of one. In my mind this should be Ava but she's too preoccupied with her depression, which has filled the book with melancholy. I found it really hard to connect with Ava because I can't relate to her situation, all I can do is speculate about how I would react and feel if I found out my mother was going to die. It was frustrating because i could understand her feelings and her actions but I couldn't relate to them.

The only thing that had me laughing out loud was the moment Ava finally finds out the truth about Peter because she reacts like a NORMAL human being. She doesn't smile and pretend it's fine, she freaks out even though up until that point she'd known there was something off about him. It's a real display of human nature and it was refreshing to have a real human reaction to a situation that is far from normal.

I also felt that the book was all about Ava which for the most part is fine but I wanted to know more about the other characters. I have a vague understanding of their back stories but I'm still not sure of who they are or what role they play in this instalment.

I love Ava's mother and she is definitely my favourite character because she has me believing that things are really going to work out well for Ava and that even though the situation seems hopeless, there is always something to be thankful for. She is the one thing that made this book even remotely cheerful, which is ironic considering she has terminal cancer.

This book may have been slow to start but I won't hold that against the series and I'm looking forward to the next instalment. I'm hoping Cameron provides more information about the Noctalis and I want to see more of Ava's relationships with her friends.

Check out Chelsea M. Cameron's blog here

Rating * * *

- Stephanie

Darkness Breaks - Jessica Sorensen

Darkness Breaks (Darkness Falls #2)

By Jessica Sorensen
4th June 2012
Createspace

Kayla made her choice and now she has to live with it. She stays with the Day Takers, hiding in the city, staking vampires. But fighting vampires as a human is difficult.
Sylas constantly pressures Kayla to choose the life of a Day Taker. But until Kayla knows what Monarch is planning, she can’t make her choice. Plus there’s Aiden. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t stop thinking about him.
As Kayla’s memories resurface, the pieces of her history unfold. She learns of Cell 7, a place that Kayla believes holds the answers to the creation of the virus. But getting to Cell 7 is a dangerous mission. And with Kayla's strength weakening, it's one mission she might not make it through alive.




This book was as good as, if not better than the first and I finished it from cover to finish in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down, it’s been a rollercoaster of a ride and my emotions are all over the place. I was immediately thrown back into the action and questions from the end of the first book were established again within the first few pages, so it was easy to get right back into the heart of the story. Sorensen is an amazing storyteller and her ability to mix glimpses of the past with the fast moving action of the present if truly remarkable, she uses every word carefully, never wasting a moment and each chapter propels the story forward.

The thing I loved the most about this book? Sylas. If you know the series then you know we meet him briefly towards the end of the first book. From the first glimpse I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until I knew everything there was to know about him and although I still have a hundred more questions I haven’t been disappointed. It is great to see the relationship between Sylas and Kayla develop and some of his walls begin to come down but what surprised me the most was that when Kayla’s memories begin to resurface it’s more about Sylas than Aiden despite what Aiden’s had her believe from the beginning.

I was surprised to find that my opinion of Aiden changed completely in this book, originally I thought he was sweet if not a bit too sensitive but now I have this sense that there’s more he’s hiding from Kayla and his treatment of her is starting to grate on me. It’s one of the things I don’t understand about her, she is a strong independent woman and yet she still allows Aiden to put her in a position that delays her in completing her task. The one question I want answered about him, why doesn’t he want Kayla to change the world? I was also glad to have more of an insight into Ryder and her true feelings towards the brothers, I never expected to find out that she was a key player in the story and that’s what I love about Sorensen, she never fails to surprise me.

I can’t wait to read the next book because I’m hoping there will be a more in depth look into the mind of Monarch and exactly what his plan is and whether he truly has lost all of his humanity, I want to know who’s side he’s on and if Kayla will finally accept the truth about him- that he isn’t the person she thought her was. The one question I can’t wait to have answered and I’m sure Kayla can’t wait either is how did the virus spread?

The expected release date of Darkness Fades, the third book in the series is expected for October 2012.

Check out Jessica Sorensen’s blog here

Rating *  *  *  *  *

- Stephanie

Darkness Falls - Jessica Sorensen

Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls #1)
by Jessica Sorensen
14th March 2012
Jessica Sorenson 

When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across. Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:
Rule #1—Never go out after dark.
Rule #2—Always carry a weapon.
Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bitten.
But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply?
The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires.
No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told. But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure.

Sorensen has completely changed the word vampire by portraying them as not the beautiful, mysterious creatures that we have come to know but by making them ugly, scary and the monsters that they were originally made to be, this book is a refreshing break from today’s stereotype.

I fell into Kayla’s world easily and after the first few chapters it was easy to grasp the backstory and understand just what Kayla’s world was about. This book shows an apocalyptic future filled with vampires that were created as a result of something humans did but the most intriguing thing is that no one seems to remember life before the virus spread, except Kayla. Just one memory, but it’s enough to keep her asking questions.

I was completely blown away by this book because it has kept me confused and intrigued, I still can’t figure out how everything fits together or even who Kayla really is and that’s how I know I loved it. Being able to see the end of a story a mile away is something that constantly irritates me because I want to feel shocked and surprised by a character and their decisions.

Sorensen has achieved this flawlessly because Kayla herself doesn’t even know who she really is or what she wants. The gaps in her memories creates gaps in the story that make it impossible for me to fill, I can’t guess what’s going to happen because I don’t have all the information and that makes this a gripping read.

My favourite element of this book is that it’s not a love story; it’s a story about a girl struggling to figure out who she really is and what role she plays in the world, much like the rest of us. Love does come into the story pretty early on but not in the way I was expecting and it never becomes the focus of the book, it is something that so far has been kept to the side and only mentioned where necessary and that’s because Kayla doesn’t really understand love or any of her feelings in general and this is something else that makes it impossible to know which direction she’s going to take.

I couldn’t have guessed that this story would take the direction it did and I was genuinely surprised to find that it is not a story that focuses solely on the supernatural but a story that combines magic and science to an extent. I am looking forward to seeing where this story leads and what’s in store for the next book it has already become one of my favourites.

Check out Jessica Sorensen's blog here

Rating * * * * *

- Stephanie

Die, My Love - Penelope Fletcher

Die, My Love (Dark Creatures #1)
by Penelope Fletcher
7th August 2011
Poison Princess
Contains adult language, extreme violence and explicit sex. Recommended for ages 16+


Blurb:
If you had to become a monster to be with the man you loved, would you? Or is that a question you cannot answer? You see, for me the problem was never should I be reborn, but when. That and I knew the moment I saw Ben I would die. Let's be honest, rumors blood drinkers are real have had the world in a grip of terror for years, and I'd always known I was waiting for him. But there are ... things about my kind I do not yet know. This frightens me. Whispers of what these creatures really are is one thing, but the reality of what I have chosen to become? That is something else entirely.


Honestly, I found this book very hard to read in the beginning because it is written using stream-of-consciousness and this took some getting used too, it wasn't until I had read at least two chapters that I was able to make a real connection with her and that was only because Lee is not a stereotypical 'perfect' girl. She isn't supermodel skinny or extremely tall, she is completely average and she's okay with that because she knows not everyone in the world is 'perfect'. I have to admit that this is one of the only redeeming qualities of the book.


I enjoyed being in her world but can't help but be disappointed with how quickly she accepts everything and how quickly the story came to its conclusion. It is very hard to believe that she would have fallen in love with Ben without ever having spoken to him and this is something that is repeated within this genre time and time again. It is also hard to make an emotional connection with the characters because their backstory's are almost non existent and for me when a character died it resulted in me having no reaction to the event and honestly not minding if they would be around for the rest of the series.


Penelope has written a story that is completely about the intensity of love and how everything else pales in comparison but by focusing solely on the theme, the characters and their stories have been overlooked and even though it is somewhat unrealistic at times this is a fresh take on the vampire genre and I am looking forward to seeing what is in store for the rest of the series and the characters.


Check out Penelope's website here

Rating * * *

- Stephanie