The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

Title: The Reformed Vampire Support Group

Author: Catherine Jinks

Summary: Instead of the dark, sexy, and powerful image of vampires present in protagonist Nina Harrison's Zadia Bloodstone novels, vampirism is a disease. Affecting dead people, this disease causes light sensitivity, brittle skin, and digestive problems. Nina is forever 15 and stuck living with her mother, and participating in the Reformed Vampire Support Group (to help vampires adjust and to promote an alternate diet), when a member is staked and shot with a mysterious silver bullet. So in an effort to prove vampires aren't weak, Nina embarks to solve the mystery with fellow Support Group members, former-punk-rocker-turned-vamp Dave, and a human, sympathiser Father Ramone. In the process they also encounter the underground werewolf trade, giving her her first trial at resisting the scent of human blood and fanging hamsters to deal with the alternate nutrition.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the alternate to the forever young, sparkly love tales that dominate vampire fiction. These tales are also inject the all superhuman vamp into the story in the form of Nina's Zadia Bloodstone novels. The disease-like form of vampirism was also let us see the characters as real people rather than super-beings with no repercussions. Nina is a witty realist and made the book incredibly funny. Calm, regular Dave was also a good balance to the unusual mix of the group. The suspense and action was well balanced and the novel in general was well paced. The dynamics between the group member were excellent. The dialogue between the lot is hilarious. I enjoyed Nina's realisation that vampires don't need to be Zadia to get what they want from life, and that along with the ending was immensely satisfying. Readers who want to be subverted from the usual vampires will enjoy this dark, witty, mystery.

Cover: I like the cover, its cute but I wish all the members of the support group were shown rather than the skeletal group. The alternate cover is black and white but also quite nice.

Rating: 5 Stars

PS: Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

The Demons Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: The Demon's Lexicon

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan

Summary: Nick and his brother Alan are always on the run, along with their crazy mother, from the magicians and their demons that killed his father. Before they leave their latest home a girl and boy come to him with a problem. The girls brother has been marked by a demon and will be possessed without their help. Alan then gets marked also, so they set out to hunt down the magician responsible for unleashing the demon. Through this Nick begins to suspect his past isn't as everyone says.

Thoughts: I loved The Demon's Lexicon. The characters are brilliant. I liked Nick's narration, and his insistence that Alan was the good one, and how important Alan was to him. I also liked Alan who is the nice, bookish, older brother with quite a lot of secrets. Their relationship was so important to Nick that the revelations shocked him, even an obvious one, as he had just accepted Alan's word. This book was unusual in the magicians being cruel, and evil rather than the wonderful, and strange qualities usually associated with them. The book is quite twisty, there is one obvious revelation (about their mother), and a series that really surprised me. The pieces fit together perfectly and I can't wait for the next book in the series!

Cover: The cover is lovely, I would really have liked to see perhaps a figure of Alan in the background.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

PS: This is going to be a series, yay!

Tithe: A Modern Fairytale by Holly Black

Title: Tithe: A Modern Fairytale

Author: Holly Black

Sequels/Companion Novels: Valiant, Ironside

Summary: Sixteen-year-old, Philly resident, Kaye Fierch ends up shipped back to her grandmother's house after her mothers boyfriend tries to stab her mother. However once she gets there she sees the reappearance of her imaginary friends from childhood. Faeries are real and she is one of them. Her friends tell her that the Unseelie court has selected her for their next tithe (human sacrifice) and she should pretend to be human until the they removed her glamour and reveal her. This will allow her friends freedom from the sinister Faerie courts for seven years. Unfortunately she is also in love with a knight of the dark court who would rather make alliances with the light. Adding the interference of a few of her human friends the tithe may not go as planned.

Thoughts: It's not very often I find myself liking faerie books but this one was great. I found Kaye a bit abrasive at first but I love how strong she is as well as her ability to take things in stride. Kaye is also very clever and inventive in dealing with her troubles. I also found the rules of the faerie courts dealt with in a neat, matter-of-fact way. I also enjoyed the contrast between the modern world (which was full of Stark Trek, comic, and literary references), and the beautiful (but cruel) faerie world.

Cover: The cover is lovely and matches the companion novels well.

Rating: 5 Stars

Night World - Book 1 - Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Spellbinder

Title: Volume 1 (Contains 3 short novels called : Secret Vampire, Daughters Of Darkness, Spellbinder)

Author: LJ Smith

Series: Night World 

Summary: 

In Secret Vampire - Poppy is dying. She will be gone by the end of the summer, unless James, her best friend and object of her affections will change her. James is a vampire and to change Poppy, a human, goes against the laws of the Night World. This could mean death for both of them.

In  Daughters of Darkness - 3 vampire sisters flee to live among humans. Their brother Ash is sent to bring them back, but unwittingly finds his soulmate, their beautiful human friend.

In Spellbinder a witch finds her human soulmate. To keep her from being executed her cousin decides he must go. Its a fight between Blaise and Thea with a soulmate between them.

Thoughts:

Secret Vampire - I loved all the characters, Poppy is magnificently brave, her brother magnificently stubborn and James was just magnificent. 

Daughters of Darkness - I liked the tie-in with characters in other Night World novels. I would like to see more of the 3 sisters in later stories. 

Spellbinder - I love the characters in this, the ending did fall a bit flat however for me, but my concerns are dealt with in later books.

Overall - I love the tie-in between groups of seemingly un-related characters. I also liked gaining a fresh set of main characters in each story. The main characters also are all excellent secondary characters for the others storeys. The logistics of the Night World are excellent. The plots that span all the stories are also excellent. 

Cover : I really like the cover, Poppy is our cover girl, and the image of her is striking. I also like the grey scale with hinds of colour. These also follow the trend of having at matte cover with certain bits glossy.

PS: The conclusion should come out sometime in the next year. The first nine books in the series are being re-published three to a book. Each group of three is about $6 at Costco.

Evermore by Alyson Noel

Title: Evermore

Author: Alyson Noel

Series: The Immortals (Book 1)

Summary: Ever since Ever's parents, dog and little sister died in a tragic accident, she sees ghosts. Specifically her little sister. Not only can she see the paranormals, she is psychic, she sees auras, she reads minds, and she hates it. Already an outsider at her new school, she meets someone who can silence the noise in her head. Damen. He is smart, gorgeous, and no doubt hiding a whole host of secrets. She doesn't know what he is but he brings forth a world of magic.

Thoughts: Evermore veered very closely to one of those poor-me-because-I-want-to-be-normal books. However it was good. It was well written and suspenseful. The author plays into the readers expectations and subverts them (no spoilers, but this is major). The characters good for the most part. Ever's little sister is great, so are her friends (though they are a bit odd). There was one scene where Ever indulges in some drinking that was just really awkward and broke the flow of the book. However; the book ended on a really satisfactory note. I would like to see the author explain the logistics of the magic in the book further. However, as far as the situation goes the end is good and there isn't anything further that I want to see from the characters. The worrying thing is that this is a series. There aren't loose ends to look at in the next book, because this book could easily stand alone. 

Cover: The cover is lovely. I like the colours, title treatment, and the flower is done up all shiny (think the House of Night type covers). Although there are a couple books who have already used that cover image.

Rating: 3 stars (I liked it, but not fantastic)