Shameless Review~Lost–A Vampire Romance, A Short Story by Lori Devoti

     He had little hope her friends were alive, had little hope he would reach his brother before he made the change from vampire to lost soul either, but he wasn’t ready to give up on either.

     He cared about both. Not just his original mission, saving Dorian, he cared about saving Rachel’s friends, too. He cared about saving her friends because he cared about Rachel.

     The realization shook him.

     Vampires didn’t care about humans. Vampires didn’t even care about other vampires not like humans cared about their own kind.

     This is the story of a car load of friends who get in a car accident in a canyon, at night. They were driving along, when something ran out into the middle of the road, scaring the driver, who swerved to miss whatever it was. Out of the four girls, only Rachel was able to go for help.

     It’s too dark for her to see, and she loses her sense of direction. She climbs a cliff, barely making it to the top. She almost falls when she feels a strong hand pulling her upwards.

     Cameron, a vampire, doesn’t have time for this woman. He needs to find his brother, who is about to change. (Maybe I missed a part in the book, but I don’t remember reading what he was going to change into). He decides, against his better judgement, to help her. He wills himself to help her, leading her up to the road.

     But, strange things happen. Cameron begins to have feelings for this woman, even though he knows he shouldn’t. He mesmerizes her, then bites her, drinking from her just a little. And, she feels something for him, too.

     They go back to the car to find that two of her friends are dead, and one of them is missing. With the sun coming up soon, Cameron sends Rachel towards home, but promises that he will come find her once he finds his brother.

     When I bought this book, I thought it was a full length book. However, for my $0.99, I got a short story. It was a fast, light read, that, if you had the time, could be read in about an hour or so.

     A lot of things were left up in the air. The ending, for example. Apparently this is the first book in a series, but I feel the book could have been combined with the next book, or however many books there are.

     I had a problem with the characters being kind of one-dimensional. The storyline needed more depth to it, as well. For example, all of a sudden, he’s in love with her? Within a few pages, he’d gone from not wanting anything to do with her to wanting to kill her to wanting to protect her. By the end of the book, she makes him promise to come find her. I guess we’ll find out in the next book if he comes back or not, and also, what happened to the other girl and his brother.

     “Lost” is the first in a series yet to come. As mentioned on Amazon, the next in the series will be out in the Spring of 2011. Will I buy the next book? Probably not.

     I give this book 2 stars…and that’s kind of pushing it.

Shameless Review~ My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

     “So was that like me meeting your parents?” I crinkled my nose. “Like we’re dating?”

     “No, it’s not like that. You know what I mean. You feel it too, right? Like you feel drawn to me. You enjoy me and everything, but you feel kind of compelled to be around me.”

     “I guess,” I said noncommitedly. He actually hit the nail on the head.

     “Well, that’s how I feel.”    

     My Blood Approves is a Young Adult Paranormal Romance which, I have to admit, I liked. I’ve read some reviews about this book and I wanted to see for myself what the hype about Amanda Hocking is. Amanda has done amazingly well selling her ebooks, and I hope to be as popular as she has become in such a short period of time.

     Even though she couldn’t find an agent to pick her up the traditional way, she has managed to sell her ebooks online on Amazon and B&N, ranging in the hundreds of thousands, and doing this in just ten months.

     The story revolves around Alice, a young girl who lives with her younger brother and her single mother in a cramped apartment. She meets Jack, who saves her from some thugs in an darkened parking lot. He is fast and strong, knocking out the thugs, and saving her life.

     She is drawn to him, although she can’t really say why. He’s beautiful. Everything about him is.

      They meet up every night, and soon, he takes her to meet his family. His brother Ezra, and his sister-in-law, Mae, are wonderfully gracious of her and insist that she come back to their house. Jack’s other brother, Peter, is more aloof. But, Peter is the one that she is most drawn to. It’s something in her blood that attracts him to her, even though he doesn’t want to be. She is ‘his’.

     Alice doesn’t know what she wants though. She is strangely attracted to Peter, and he is to her, too, but it’s really Jack that she wants. She falls in love with him, and he does of her, as well. But, he can’t bite her. Peter would know, and Peter would cause a fight, likely killing both Jack and Alice.

     But, Alice can’t keep herself away from the pull she feels towards Peter. He ends up biting her, but just before she would succumb to death, he stops. Ezra gives her a blood transfusion to save her life, and everything is all right again. Peter decides to leave the house, and she’s going to go back and live with her mother and brother.

     Ok, I read one review that said that this book was shockingly similar to Stephenie Meyers’, Twilight. Although there were a few things about the book that were different, for example, Jack’s skin wasn’t cold and hard, but rather soft and warm, and he didn’t sparkle, there might have been a few things that were slightly too similar.

     For example, the part where Alice is in a darkened place and some thugs come along. Of course, the main male character saves her, just like Edward saved Bella. There is also a part where he saves her when they get in an accident. Although Bella and Edward don’t get into any accidents, he does save her with his super-human strength when he pushed the van out of the way. Not quite the same, but very similar.

     And, there is the part of where they make her a meal, even though she isn’t hungry. They also drive fast cars, live in a huge (too big) house for just four of them, and have a library full of CD’s, DVD’s and video games.

     The name similiarities, for example, are a little too much, as well. Twilight had Alice, although she was a vampire, but there was also Emmet…a little too close to Ezra. Peter is too much like Jasper in Twilight. He fought in the wars, getting his revenge for his mate being killed, and found it hard to resist the scent of Bella. Oh, and Peter’s mate that had been killed, her name was Elise. A little too close to the name Alice, I think. I could list a couple of other ones, but I won’t. We all get the point.

     Will I buy the next book? Yes, most likely. It’s a fast, light read and since I happen to like this genre of books, then I will spend the $0.99. I guess I just want to see how it all ends for Jack and Alice.

     However, I think Amanda could have made it more her own, and less like Stephenie’s.
 
     I give this book 4 stars.

     Feb 5/2011…I had originally given this book 3 1/2 stars, just because I thought it lacked originality…but, I think that maybe it was just a bit too unfair. Since having read another book (that ended up being a short story with no depth and a lack of character personality, that was also $0.99, I decided to rethink Amanda’s book. So, now, it is with pleasure, that I give this book 4 stars.