February Reviews

So I only managed to read 10 books this month but they had an average of a 4.5/5 rating which is really good for me.

Dark Lover by J R Ward ***** – I have never read a single book in this series despite hearing lots of good things about it and I decided 2021 was the year I was going to start the BDB series. The opening chapter to Dark Lover was really interesting as we meet Darius and Tohrment who are both vampires, Darius explains to Tohrment that he has a half-human daughter and that he fears she might go through the transition to be a vampire and he wants her to be under Wrath’s protection which Tohrment seems to think is a bad idea. We soon learn that Wrath is possibly the last pure blood vampire and he is one of the best fighters which is why he seems to be the logically choice but Wrath seems to have a very bad attitude. We are then introduced to Beth who has been working a dead end job and seems to be coming down with something as she feels tired constantly but this might be the beginning of the transition Darius was talking about but we don’t dwell on that as Beth is almost raped in an alley, although she manages to escape, we see someone saw what happened as a body is phoned into the police from the same alley and we assume one of the vampires killed them. We then switch back to the conversation between Darius and Wrath as Darius working up the courage to ask Wrath the take care of his daughter. We also learn that both vampires are part of The Black Dagger Brotherhood which fight and destroy soulless human monsters called Lessers. The Lessers are part of the Lessening Society run by the Omega but we don’t know yet what this really means. Wrath refuses to help Darius because he seems to have something against humans and half-humans although we don’t know what but I have a feeling that is going to change when Darius is killed by a bomb strapped under his car.

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Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon ***** – I read Fantasy Lover way back in the day when I was probably a little too young to be reading these kinds of books and understand what they were which is why I never read anything else in this universe. However, since then Sherrilyn Kenyon has become a huge name in adult erotic fantasy romance and I really want to give her another go as an author. Before I even get into this review properly, I have to say I forgot how easy this book was to read. I honestly flew through the first quarter of this book in less than 40 minutes which was surprising for me. We are introduced to Grace Alexander and her friend Selena who are discussing Grace’s non-existent sex life after her last relationship with Paul fell apart. We learn pretty quickly that Paul was emotionally abusive towards Grace and maybe more but I don’t remember that much and that she has actively avoided dating for four years. During this time Selena has set her up a few times but nothing happened and with Grace working as a sex therapist it was rather ironic to say the least. Grace is an intelligent woman but often gives into Selena’s random urges to do things like perform séances and that information is going to come in very handy shortly.

Hungry Daughters by Alyssa Wong **** – So, I read another short story/novella published in this magazine for the last Demonathon and I ended up really enjoying it so I was excited to see what this one had in store for me. This one didn’t have the audio narration that the other story had which I was a little disappointed by but the story itself was dark, gritty and I absolutely loved it. The only downside for me was it seemed a little rushed and could have benefitted from being a little longer so one or two things could have been expanded or explained a little better.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice ***** – I have read Interview with the Vampire a few times before but never continued on with the series despite owning The Vampire Lestat and I’ve decided 2021 is the year I am going to finish a lot of the series I have started but I couldn’t resist rereading this one on audio. Upon starting this book again, I was stunned by the audio narrator’s voice and how it immediately sucked you into the story as we are introduced to our narrator, Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire, and former plantation owner as he begins to recount his life to a young man, Daniel Molloy. Daniel doesn’t believe Louis at first but quickly realises that he couldn’t be making up the things he is speaking of. This first portion of the novel seeks to introduce to our protagonists and let us get to know them a little. Louis experiences a lot of changes early on in the novel going from a proud young man to a broken one after the death of his brother Paul. This is where Lestat finds him and he drains Louis but neither kills him or changes him and Louis is left to suffer for a while before Lestat comes for him and even then, he isn’t changed immediately almost as if Lestat is testing him. Soon after his change Louis realises two things in very close succession, the first is that he doesn’t like Lestat de Lioncourt at all and the second is despite believing there wasn’t much Lestat could teach him the fear of the unknown kept them bound together which Lestat takes full advantage of. Even very early on in his new life Louis could see there was a huge difference between the vampire he is and the vampire Lestat is. The most notable instance is Louis has a great respect for the new life and sees everything even killing as a wonderous moment to be savoured whereas Lestat treats as something to be over and done with as soon as possible which causes quite a lot of tension between the pair.

Lover Awakened by J R Ward ***** – After finishing Lover Eternal we got hints of the next story being Zsadist’s and I was correct and I couldn’t wait to jump into it as we have seen so many facets to this man already and I can’t wait to delve deeper into his personality, history, and eventual relationship with Bella. In the opening section of the novel, we learn that it has been several weeks since Bella has been taken and most have written her off as dead including her own family but Zsadist is still looking for her even though he knows that she is most likely dead because he can’t give up on her. Zsadist is confused by a lot of his feeling towards Bella as the last woman who truly wanted him was the woman who made him her pleasure slave so he doesn’t associate those feelings with anything good which explains his reactions towards the end of Lover Eternal. However, we know that Bella is still alive and being held captive by the lessers but she is beginning to develop almost Stockholm Syndrome like feelings towards Mr. O but she still believes that Zsadist might rescue her until another prisoner informs her that he attended her funeral which shatters any hope she has of being rescued even though Zsadist is still fighting for her. We also see in this opening sequence that both Zsadist and Phury have feelings for Bella which might cause some tension between the twins but I am sure that Bella will always pick Zsadist as she never felt anything towards Phury in the previous novel.

Lover Eternal by J R Ward **** – I recently read the first book in this series and loved it and I was so excited when my randomizer for this week gave me Lover Eternal as one of my books. All I know about this instalment is that we are re-joining the Brotherhood but with more focus on Rhage and he is an interesting character for me not only because he turns into a huge rage monster but also because he carries a curse bestowed upon him by the Scribe Virgin which is going to be interesting to see. We are also introduced to Mary Luce, a human who is struggling with her life and it seems that her leukaemia has come back. We then jump back to Rhage, Vishous and Butch, Vishous and Rhage are going out while Butch is going to see Marissa as she hasn’t spoken to him in a few weeks. Vishous has the ability to see the future and when Rhage asks if he has seen anything about him, all Vishous tells him is that a woman is going to come into his life very soon and she will be a virgin which Rhage scoffs at as he doesn’t keep a woman for more than a few nights due to the nature of his curse and I know this is going to be Mary Luce. While working at one of her part time job at the suicide hotline, Mary ends up coming into contact with John Matthew, an orphan who has formed a kinship with Mary, however, Mary’s friend notices the markings on the boy’s wrist and knows they spell Tehrror meaning he is going to transition in a vampire warrior and she doesn’t know how much time he has. She desperately calls the Brotherhood and they are coming to meet John the following evening and Mary will be going to as she knows sign language to translate for John as he is mute.

Lover Revealed by J R Ward **** – So, this is going to be Butch’s story and after what Vishous did at the end of Lover Awakened I am excited to see where this goes and I hope he and Marissa finally get their act together. I noticed a few things early on in this novel, the first is it takes places before the epilogue of Lover Awakened so Bella is still pregnant at this point, second the Reverend from the club is actually Rehvenge and he is making moves on Marissa as he is falling for her even though she rejects him because she still loves Butch even though the pair haven’t spoken or seen each other in a while. We see that Butch is contemplating his role within the Brotherhood as he isn’t allowed to go and fight the lessers with them because he isn’t a vampire but he is slowly sinking into a depression because he doesn’t have a purpose. When he randomly encountered a group of lessers trying to kidnap a civilian vampire he steps in and gets the male to safety only to be kidnapped himself despite being human. Throughout all this he tries contacting Vishous but he is currently dealing with Rhage who has gone full beast mode and by the time he picks up Butch’s message the sun is up and there is nothing he can do. We switch back to Butch who has been tortured for information and gives up none when the Omega arrives, the Omega puts something of itself inside of Butch which begins growing before letting him go for the Brotherhood to find hoping to infect them all with the darkness inside Butch. However, Vishous finds him first because his blood is in Butch which angered Wrath majorly because it was breaking one of their laws and he manages to tell his friend that he is infected and they get him to Havers. During this time Marissa has been having dreams of Butch but dismissed them until the Brothers come into the clinic claiming everything is ok. When Havers informs Vishous that it is looking very unlikely that Butch will survive he tells Marissa because he knows that Butch would want her to be with him and he tells her to put on a hazmat suit first which she forgets when she sees the state Butch is in which means now she might be contaminated too.

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice ***** – I recently finished my reread of Interview with the Vampire and loved it and now I am finally started the sequel, I was a little worried about following Lestat as the main character since we really dislike him for the majority of the first book. The first thing I need to say is this book definitely opened with a bang, the novel opens in 1984 where Lestat has been sleeping under the earth, trying to cope with the passage of time and how the world has been changed in an extended dream sequence. Until one day, Lestat realises he is wide awake and wants to re-join the world in particular he wants to join a small rock band called Satan’s Night Out. When he has the strength and courage to join them, he introduces himself by name and tells his band mates that he is a vampire, something Lestat has never done unless he intended to pass the Dark Gift onto that person. While he isn’t believed the others in the band recognise his name from a book and present him with a battered copy of Interview with the Vampire. Lestat immediately recognises the book as truth and that his beloved Louis had told the truth about their kind which would have made him an outcast if he wasn’t already dead. Lestat decides in this moment he is going to answer Louis’ tale with one of his own in which he fills in all the information about himself that Louis didn’t know and provide a different perspective on some of the events Louis discusses with Daniel. At this point we jump to presumably Lestat writing his tale where he discusses his human life, how his family were important but broke and it has fallen to Lestat the youngest of the 3 surviving sons to provide for the family which he resented. He speaks of how he tried to run away twice once to the monastery where he had been sent to school only to be brought back by his brothers and later running away to be an actor before being dragged back. The only person who seems to remotely understand him and what he wants is his mother although she is remote and distant most of the time, she is attentive to Lestat at this time. After hunting down a pack of eight wolves in which his beloved dogs and horse are killed and he himself is injured Lestat meets Nicolas de Lenfent who had been sent to university in Paris and left because he wanted to be a musician despite the will of his father. The boys begins meeting in order to discuss everything they have never been able to say in front of others and Lestat feels a love for Nicolas he has never felt for anyone else, the closest love he has to this one is the love he has for his mother who is now dying. This Lestat is drastically different from the one Louis presents us with in the first book and I am extremely eager to hear Lestat’s story especially when his overall goal is the bring vampires into the light and hopefully draw out his beloved Louis so they can talk.

Muted by Tami Charles ***** – I didn’t know anything about Muted going into but I believe it is a novel written in verse about music and singing. I haven’t read many novels written in verse but the ones I have read I have really enjoyed. So, the novel open on December 23rd with someone returning home presumably our protagonist Denver after making it big in the music world. However, we cut back to May when Denver and her two best friends Dali and Shak are still performing in really small gigs and dream of singing for their idol, the King of R&B, Sean “Mercury” Ellis, and this wish might just come true and Mercury is performing on June 14th nearby. The girls manage to get tickets and leave school early in order to attend the concert where they manage to play one of their songs which Merc hears and likes. He ends up giving the trio VIP seats for the concert and invites them backstage afterwards but I can already sense something wrong with him as he takes Dali to get high even though these girls are only 17/18. However, he does get them to play more of their music and asks them to come to his recording studio which the girls are overjoyed about as this might be the big break they have been dreaming about.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna **** – I didn’t know much about the Gilded Ones but the synopsis gave me Divergent vibes which intrigued me as that is a love it or hate it series. We are introduced to Deka who is about to go through the Ritual of Purity as all 16 year old girls do in order to be accepted into her village as a pure woman which would grant her permission to marry and start a family of her own. However, Deka is aware her mother was an outsider to the village and didn’t go through the Ritual so there is no way of knowing if she was pure, plus one of her father’s cousin was impure when tested and this worried Deka immensely. As her time approaches the village is attacked by creature called Deathshrieks which Deka is able to make leave and that is when she learns her blood runs gold instead of red showing her as impure. She is taken away to be killed as is the custom with impure women but no matter the method used, Deka is able to heal and revive herself over and over again. After being killed nine times a woman comes to herself and tells Deka she is an Alaki, this means she is basically immortal and has powers of her own as we see with the healing but instead of being killed, she is given a choice. She can stay in the prison cell she is in while others try to kill her and take her blood to be sold or join the army of Alaki that the Emperor Gezo has created in order to confront and destroy the Deathshrieks and Deka obviously chooses freedom but asks for her father to be told she is dead. As far as openings go this isn’t anything original but it was captivating and I can’t wait to get more invested in Deka’s journey.