Thursday, January 7, 2016
A Vampire a Day: Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark
Remember when vampire books were horror stories? Me too. (I still get chills thinking about Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot.) Vampyrrhic, which is free today, is a throw-back to the days before sparkly vampires and alpha-hole blood-drinkers. The vampires in this book are Nosferatu and they're damn scary. The tale unfolds in a small town in Northern England and like all horror stories that take place in small towns, the isolation and the vulnerability of the town play a part. Clark is a writer to watch in the horror-thriller genre and if you like your vampires to be monsters, you will like this book.
Labels:
horror,
Salem's Lot,
Simon Clark,
Stephen King,
Vamphyrric,
vampire
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
A Vampire a Day: Blood and Snow by RaShelle Workman
I love re-imagined fairy tales. I love writing them (Bride of the Midnight King, Fashionista) and I love reading them. I'm always pleased when someone comes up with an inventive new twist on an old story, as Christine Pope did with her sci fi Beauty and the Beast novella Blood Will Tell. RaShelle Workman's contemporary paranormal version of Snow White is now a multi-book series that's sold more than a million copies and it's easy to see why. You can get book one free on kindle, and move on from there.
Workman's version of Snow White is a thoroughly contemporary young woman who doesn't own any makeup, is hopelessly out of fashion compared to her fashionista friend, who is prone to bouts of TMI, and generally doesn't think she has much to offer. She's sympathetic, relatable, and likable. And SHE HAS A CHARACTER ARC!!
And the author has worked out a history and a mythos for her vampires. And there are consequences for people's actions.
I liked this book a lot. If you like heroines who have character, and plots that involve real emotion, you will like this series.
Bonus: I really liked the font used for this story. So many ebooks look like they were typed on a typewriter or use some generic font that is just ugly. The font here is very feminine without being overwhelmingly girly/swirly.
Workman's version of Snow White is a thoroughly contemporary young woman who doesn't own any makeup, is hopelessly out of fashion compared to her fashionista friend, who is prone to bouts of TMI, and generally doesn't think she has much to offer. She's sympathetic, relatable, and likable. And SHE HAS A CHARACTER ARC!!
And the author has worked out a history and a mythos for her vampires. And there are consequences for people's actions.
I liked this book a lot. If you like heroines who have character, and plots that involve real emotion, you will like this series.
Bonus: I really liked the font used for this story. So many ebooks look like they were typed on a typewriter or use some generic font that is just ugly. The font here is very feminine without being overwhelmingly girly/swirly.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Another one for the TBR pile (bookcase)
I am an absolute sucker for books on the "secret history" or the "history you never learned" books. This one caught my eye on a Library Thing give-away and I'm not the only one fascinated by this kind of material. Something like 600 people have already put their names in the hat to win 100 review copies. So yes, that's a one in six chance but the month is still early. And I can't wait. so I'm off to snag my kindle copy of Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers by Dominic Selwood. (The painter of the Shroud of Turin was found in the 1300s!!! I cannot wait to read this book.)
Labels:
and Sorcerers,
Dominic Selwood,
Sadists,
secret history,
shroud of Turin,
Spies,
TBR
A Vampire a Day: The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet
First of all, don't bother to download this "public domain" novel from Amazon. The type is spindly and hard to read and the formatting is atrocious. (Words like "kind" are split.) But because the story was written in 1901, the good people of Project Gutenberg have made it available online in a much more readable form. (Find it here.)
It's a wonderfully Gothic kind of story that makes me wonder why we haven't heard more about Hume Nisbet. Turns out he was a really interesting guy. He was an artist and a poet who also wrote books on art in addition to lots and lots of ghost stories. He also wrote a fair number of romances.His paintings are all quite moody--his most famous is probably "the Flying Dutchman," and are full of clouds and fogs and so forth.
I really enjoyed this short story and think you will too.
It's a wonderfully Gothic kind of story that makes me wonder why we haven't heard more about Hume Nisbet. Turns out he was a really interesting guy. He was an artist and a poet who also wrote books on art in addition to lots and lots of ghost stories. He also wrote a fair number of romances.His paintings are all quite moody--his most famous is probably "the Flying Dutchman," and are full of clouds and fogs and so forth.
I really enjoyed this short story and think you will too.
Labels:
Hume Nisbet,
Project Gutenberg,
public domain,
vampire story
A Vampire a Day: Vampires Rule by Kasi Blake
Like ohmigod, I thought when I saw the title of this book, thinking it was going to be a story about teen vampires in high school or something. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
The cover is a better clue to the content. It's got that angsty thing going on and despite the kind of cheesy typeface, the image clearly depicts the kind of isolation the young vampire narrator experiences.
The book begins with a very emotional and very effective scene as "a boy with no name' pays a visit to his childhood home and sees that the cheery yellow his mother chose has been painted over with a muted olive green. He nearly panics t the thought that his brother Billy has sold the farm, but as it turns out, losing the farm is not the worst problem facing him.
The cover is a better clue to the content. It's got that angsty thing going on and despite the kind of cheesy typeface, the image clearly depicts the kind of isolation the young vampire narrator experiences.
The book begins with a very emotional and very effective scene as "a boy with no name' pays a visit to his childhood home and sees that the cheery yellow his mother chose has been painted over with a muted olive green. He nearly panics t the thought that his brother Billy has sold the farm, but as it turns out, losing the farm is not the worst problem facing him.
Labels:
Kasi Blake,
vampire,
Vampires Rule,
werewolf,
YA
A Vampire a Day: HEARTBLAZE by Shay Roberts
I don't know about you, but if I see ONE MORE paranormal book where the heroine is a passive little twit, I'm going to throw up my garlic pizza. HEARTBLAZE is a refreshing change.
Right from the start, author Shay Roberts serves notice that
this is not going to be an ordinary paranormal romance. Yes, there are vampires
and werewolves in the story, but there’s also a richly detailed paranormal
world, where there are rules and reasons for what happens. Then there’s the
setting—Rhode Island, a place steeped in history that comes alive, particularly
in the sections of the book set in Emma’s past life. That past life element is
very appealing, especially since there are “real life characters” woven into
the tale. (Watch for a great bit involving the birth of the national anthem.)
Written in a briskly cinematic style—we’re plunged right
into the action as heroine Emma Rue finds herself acting in inexplicable ways
for reasons she doesn’t understand—and told from multiple points of view across
two timelines, HEARTBLAZE delivers on all levels. There’s a vampire hierarchy,
complicated clan politics among the shifter characters, and a vengeful ghost
who has an agenda related to the larger world. And there’s a romance that’s
deepened not just by conflict, but by intelligence. Emma is not a silly little
girl and her pursuit of the truth about herself, about who she was and who she
is, draws us in. And bonus points for the spooky old mansion! Both Gothic and
contemporary, this book is a treat for readers who are tired of the
same-old/same-old.
Labels:
ghost,
Heartblaze,
paranormal romance,
Shay Roberts,
shifter,
vampire,
werewolf
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Vamprie a Day: Vampyre: Legal Chronicles by C.C. McKenzie
This book caught my eye because I'm a sucker for urban fantasy stories that combine real-world type situations with paranormal creatures. I love Batton Lash's WOLFF & BYRD series and have always thought it would make a fantastic television show. (I love the tagline for the series--"Beware the Creatures of the NIght. They have laywers.") At first I didn't notice that the little red squiggle at the bottom of the cover was a name (MARCUS), I just thought it was part of the design. This book is part one of a three-part series, and all of the volumes are available, both as individual books and as a boxed set/collection. That's always good.
This is actually billed as a vampire romance, but while the writer did a good job with that element of the story, what interested me more was the way the corporate backdrop played out against the magical elements. And it's not just vampires on the loose here, there is magic--true, and DARK magic.
The vampires (the spelling with a Y just annoys me, so I'll use that and not the spelling the author prefers) have a history and have personalities. Duncan Gillespie, a vampire elder and a vampire prince, is ancient but not entitled, and he immediately stands out in a sea of "alphahole" vampire princes preying on gorgeous young people.
Right from the start, the author gives us bits and pieces of a wider world. Gillespie, for instance, wonders if he's beginning the life transition known as "the Fade." (Even vampires don't live forever.) But we know that Duncan is not one of the people on the cover--the male vampire is presumably the "Marcus" of the title and the woman (despite her less-than-corporate attire) is most assuredly Anais, the ambitious lawyer we're told Marcus has been mentoring.
This is actually billed as a vampire romance, but while the writer did a good job with that element of the story, what interested me more was the way the corporate backdrop played out against the magical elements. And it's not just vampires on the loose here, there is magic--true, and DARK magic.
The vampires (the spelling with a Y just annoys me, so I'll use that and not the spelling the author prefers) have a history and have personalities. Duncan Gillespie, a vampire elder and a vampire prince, is ancient but not entitled, and he immediately stands out in a sea of "alphahole" vampire princes preying on gorgeous young people.
Right from the start, the author gives us bits and pieces of a wider world. Gillespie, for instance, wonders if he's beginning the life transition known as "the Fade." (Even vampires don't live forever.) But we know that Duncan is not one of the people on the cover--the male vampire is presumably the "Marcus" of the title and the woman (despite her less-than-corporate attire) is most assuredly Anais, the ambitious lawyer we're told Marcus has been mentoring.
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