Series DNF # 3

Alright guys…it’s time for another Series DNF post. I’m learning to lighten my TBR load by culling through the books in which I’m no-longer interested. While I still love to complete things (series included), there’s just not enough time in my life to read all the books that I want. And I’m purging the ones from my TBR list that I’m no longer interested in. These posts aren’t designed to put these books down at all. I’m sure these books have been wins for some readers, but I just haven’t connected. I don’t feel like I can fully let these books go until I do some kind of post about them. So here we are:

Confessions by Louise Rozette – I really enjoyed Confessions of an Angry Girl, but Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend brought out a rant from me and thus I have no intention of continuing this series. From what I’ve briefly seen, the author wasn’t always sure that book 3 would be published, but now that the green-light has been given for it, I figured I’m good to go to put this on my official Series DNF List.

The Bet by Rachel Van Dyken – Again…The Bet was okay. It was pretty cliché, but I stuck with it. When I read The Wager though… Yeah, that was the first review I remember doing a numbered list of all the reasons why I was annoyed. Don’t plan to continue this series.

Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater – Unless someone tells me that the rest of this series blows Pretty When She Dies out of the water, I don’t plan to continue it. It wasn’t awful. But I got bogged down in the middle and find that I don’t really care much to continue with it.

The Syrena Legacy by Anna Banks – I keep trying mermaid books, but I haven’t had much luck with them. I could tell that I enjoyed Of Poseidon as much as I did because I was listening to the audiobook and not wasting using valuable reading time to get through this book. But Of Triton didn’t really offer me anything additional to get excited about. And so why continue?

Matched by Ally Condie – I always intended to finish this series, but people say that Reached is the least likeable book in the series. While I enjoyed Matched, I felt like it was too similar to Delirium only Delirium was better. Crossed was okay, but I could already see the series going downhill. The more time that separates me from the previous two books, the less I find that I care to know what happens.

The following are all books that I enjoyed the first book in the series fairly well, but like I just said about Reached, the more time that goes by from when I last picked up this series the less I find myself interested to see how they progress.

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

The Glimpse by Claire Merle

The Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon (read Infinity and Invincible)

The Blackcoat Rebellion by Aimee Carter (Pawn)

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (Unearthly)

The Styclar Saga by Nikki Kelly (Lailah)

Also, this isn’t a part of a series, but since I’m DNFing…The Trial of Fallen Angels by James P Kimmel. Basically, this book was very slow for me. I couldn’t get hooked into it. The flashbacks were entirely too long. Plus even after 100 pages in, the main character still didn't know where she was or what was needed from her. It wasn’t what I was expecting it to be at all. I put this book down almost two years ago and haven’t even had an inclination to pick it back up. I think it’s way past time that I officially DNF it.

What do you guys think? Are there any books here that you would really suggest I push through? Do you guys like these kinds of posts? Let me know!

A Shade of Vampire - Review

A Shade of Vampire (A Shade of Vampire, # 1)

By: Bella Forrest

Published: December 14th 2012

149 pages

Genre: YA, Paranormal

Source: Author in exchange for an honest review(Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

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Goodreads description--On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.

A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.

She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine. An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.

Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.

Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.

Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

I'm always a bit wary when an author contacts me to review their book. I mean initially I was so stoked to even be considered and asked that I didn't pay much attention to what I was being asked to read. And as I'm sure most bloggers have had similar experiences, the first few I was asked to read and I agreed to weren't the most high quality material. However, I've been pleasantly surprised more than once, and A Shade of Vampire is one that falls into that category.

The only issues I really had with A Shade of Vampire is that the two main characters didn't have distinct enough voices. For instance, Sofia uses the word "sup" earlier in the book when Derek is nowhere around (or it may have even been in her head), and later Derek uses that same word. I understand that "sup" (as in eating, dining, etc) is a common enough word for more than one person to be familiar with it. But it's not a common enough word for two people to use in every day conversation in the exact same context--at least people that I know. This happens again later in the book. Sofia is thinking to herself that she has reservations about something Derek has asked her to do, and Derek immediately tells her that he understands that she has reservations. I think the author should have chosen a different word from Sofia to Derek. It's one thing for Derek to be able to read her facial expressions and get the general concept of what she's thinking, but to use the exact word she just thought (without the ability to read minds) is just a bit too much for me. Rookie mistakes, and not even a huge issue. Just a minor peeve of mine--I need the characters to have distinct voices and for the author to maintain a proper awareness of what information each characters has.

The story line wasn't necessarily completely original, but I was hooked fairly early on, and from there, I didn't really want to put the book down. That was a combination of knowing it was only 149 pages so it should be a quick and easy read for me and actually being invested in the story.

The main characters feel fairly well flushed out in the author's mind--she seems to know all of the backstories to each of her characters. However, much of the past has yet to be revealed. I was worried when Sofia talks about how the doctors haven't been able to fully diagnose her and with the disorders that she mentions in relation to herself, I was fully prepared to hate her. Such paranoia was unnecessary on my part.

Ultimately, I found A Shade of Vampire to have some small peeves and to be a little cheesy, but I personally don't mind cheese. I was more impressed with this book than I thought I would be so that's always nice. I'm giving A Shade of Vampire 3.5 Stars. Have you read A Shade of Vampire? If so, what did you think? Let me know!