Review: Birth of the Vampire by Gayla Twist

Birth of the Vampire by Gayla Twist

Release Date: May 25th 2014 

Genre: Young Adult paranormal romance

Source: Author

Format: E-book

Goodreads Summary:

 Dorian is a vampire who doesn’t believe in love. Haley is a human who doesn’t believe in vampires.

At seventeen, Haley Scott’s life is pretty miserable. She lives with her uncle in a small town where she has absolutely no friends and barely any social life. Haley knows for a fact that there are very few people on the planet who care if she lives or dies.

Dorian Vanderlind is a vampire with a past he’s reluctant to face. He visits his cousin as a favor, only to find himself entangled in the enticements of the mortal world.

What happens when these two are thrown together in the most complicated of circumstances? Find out in Birth of the Vampire ~ Book 1 in The Vanderlind Realm. 

  

My Review:

Yes, the Young Adult genre has a lot of vampire books. You might ask yourself if it's worth taking the chance on YET another vampire book. Well, I am here to tell you that you should take a chance on Birth of the Vampire. It's a fun quick read, and even though it is not the lengthiest book, it has a lot of interesting life observations; hidden nuggets of wisdom, if you will. Oh, and it stays true to it's genre, it does vampires justice. I loved that even though this book takes place in a modern day setting, the vampires in this book have an old school flare and sophistication to them. It added an air of intrigue to the story.

Now on to characterization. This book is told from several point of views, the principal and most prevalent of them being of the protagonists, Hayley and Dorian. Hayley has had a rough life, being bounced from foster home to foster home, a mother who has a mental illness and an abusive half uncle who has taken her in until she graduates high school. This girl is the epitome of loneliness. She has no friends, no stability and a whole lot of abandonment issues that have made her a bit cynical about life, but still a girl who has within her, a hidden goodness. Not to say that she isn't flawed, she definitely has a lot to work on, that is introduced to the reader in this book, but if she goes the right way, I think she has the potential to grow. Dorian on the other hand is a vampire who is quite sophisticated, he is handsome, blonde, with gray eyes and described as looking like a male model. Yes, the immortality in this book makes you good looking. No old school dracula's here. He reminded me a lot of Lucius Vladescu from Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Darkside, one of my all time fave vampires and male leads. Like Lucius, Dorian has that special quality about him, where he starts off as really skeptical on motrals and humans, but still there is a part of him that is fascinated by human nature and knowledgeable about it, despite feeling jaded by having lived so long. Dorian doesn't believe in love, and that just makes him so interesting. You can't help but wonder what's happened to him in his life.

Though this book is labeled as a romance, it's not the biggest focus of the book and I loved it. There was a big focus on being inside the characters heads and I thought that was really cool. Because even if a book is a romance, it doesn't have to focus on that all the time, there has to be insight into each character to further understand the romance going on in the story. There is a lot of heart break in this book, jealousy, betrayal. I loved that this book addressed slut-shamming. This happens a lot with young people, where they are shamed in a wrong way over the decisions that they make in their romantic life, especially for girls. It felt very real, the issues that Hayley confronted with other characters.

The setting of this book is a small town in Ohio and the author did a great job of placing the reader there and also creating a separate vampire world that is intermingled with the real world setting of Ohio.

I really liked how easy it was to get into the writing of this book. Dorian had a distinct voice. You could immediately tell he was a vampire who had his reservations on modern day youth and humans. Hayley definitely was a conflicted young woman and that came through in the writing.

My only complaint is that I got frustrated with Hayley at  times. But it's a good frustration in the sense that I really want her to grow. She is witty and snarky, mature, but at the same time for being a smart young woman, she would be very naive sometimes. I could easily say: "where did that come from, her poor choices?" But the reality is, Hayley has been so starved of love and affection and support, that like most people who struggle with that, she falls into the pitfalls of falling for anyone who whispers sweet nothing's into her ears. I also felt like she also needs to figure out in future books to get over her past and just become a better person for her and not care about her haters and past bullies.

As this book title says, this book is about the birth of a vampire. Someone who goes from being a conflicted human to a newborn vampire who doesn't quite adjust well to being a vamp and has to figure things out. If you want a look into what a human might feel if they became a vampire and didn't know how to understand it in their head, this book is for you!

My Rating: 4/5

 

Review: Call of the Vampire by Gayla Twist

Call of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Castle Series: Book 1) by Gayla Twist

Publisher: CreateSpace

Release Date:  March 29th 2013

Genre: YA Paranormal/Romance

Source: Bought

Format: E-book

Goodreads Summary:

 Aurora Keys has dreamed of the Vanderlind Castle ever since she was a little girl. But the fiercely private Vanderlinds keep the massive structure strictly off limits to visitors. Until one night, the wealthy family throws a party —- not just a small soiree, but a huge black-tie affair. No one from the town of Tiburon, Ohio, is invited —- not even the mayor. But Aurora’s best friend, Blossom, has a foolproof plan for the two of them to sneak in.

At first, everything goes smoothly: the girls enter the castle undetected, and there is free champagne. But then the handsome Jessie Vanderlind sweeps Aurora into his arms, crushing her to his chest and whispering, “I knew you’d come back to me.”

Aurora understands it is a case of mistaken identity, but she feels connected to him somehow. And the boy is so beautiful, she believes she would be happy if he never let her go.

Once Jessie realizes he is mistaken, his smile quickly changes to a scowl. “You must leave,” he tells her in a low, urgent voice. “Immediately. Come! I’ll find a way to get you out.”

Unbeknownst to Aurora and Blossom, they have snuck into the home of one of the most prestigious vampire families in the world, and it is doubtful the two young women will ever be allowed to leave. Aurora’s resemblance to Jessie Vanderlind’s lost love just may be the only thing keeping them alive.

My Review:

I would say that Call of the Vampire is one of those books that are hidden gems. Why do I say this? Well, because it's one of those books that you find by accident, or has been recommended to you by a friend, that you have never heard of before, but turns out to be a great read. This book may be a paranormal romance about vampires but it didn't feel heavy, not on the paranormal side or on the romance side; it was a very light and fun read, with just the right amount of romance and suspense. Nothing overdone and that's what I liked about it. The writing in it was very easy to get into. Very fluid.

What really caught my attention in this book was the plot-line of having a vampire running into a human who looked like his past love at a ball. It's like a Disney movie, but with vamps and just a tad more darker. And I can't help it. I just love storylines like that. Remind me of the show 'The Vampire Diaries' where the main character Stefan, a vampire, is attracted to Elena - a human girl who looks just like his huge epic love back in the 1800s. We have a similar vibe in this book in the sense that we quite don't know why both people resemble each other so much or why one of them reminds the vampire of the other person he knew originally. And basically, the story revolves around the unraveling of that mystery.

The main characters in this novel were incredible. The story is told from Aurora's point of view. She is feisty, loyal, and intelligent. Her reactions to finding out about a hidden supernatural world were pretty realistic. It's not like this girl was totally comfortable and amazed at liking a vampire. She constantly scolded herself mentally and reacted like most people would by thinking: Am I crazy for liking a vampire? Yes, I might be. Her thoughts on things were really honest with just the right touch of sarcasm. Jessie Vanderlind on the other hand, our resident vampire, who is of course, gorgeous - Yup. No Dracula looking vamps please - had an incredible sophistication to him, due to the fact that he's lived for, like, a hundred years. And though he was really strong and fierce in his actions, this vampire had a sensibility to him, an innocence, a loneliness, and a longing that were quite touching. In that sense, his soul was very youthful. I kinda had the feeling that despite having lived for decades that he was still trying to understand life and love, just like any young person who feels lost.

The secondary characters in this novel were also amazing. We had Blossom who is Aurora's best friend and who on the outside might be seen as the typical cheer leader, even mean girl type of person, but who in reality, was a pretty good friend, pretty smart, and feisty herself. Aurora's mother was an amazing character. A therapist who helps young troubled girls. She was so present in the life of Aurora - a rarity in Young Adult novels who sometimes tend to forget that characters indeed do have families. There was also Aurora's great grandmother who was crucial to understanding the mystery between Aurora looking just like Jessie Vanderlinds first love. I also loved Viggo, a large man with a Russian accent who works in the Vanderlind castle who kinda reminded me of Lurch from the Addams Family movies.

My favorite part of this novel had to be all the confrontations that Aurora had with villains or creepers. Because Aurora has a mother who is a therapist who helps counsel troubled young women, her mother's advice on how to deceive or tackle an encounter with a creeper are always on the forefront of her mind. And when indeed Aurora had to fight or verbally scold one of the villains in the story, she was so smart about it and very fierce. She wasn't the damsel in distress type. She would either confront the person who was harrasing her or find a clever way to avoid them or deceive them and she also was protective of her friend Blossom and her safety. She would deconstruct every move her opponent made and really I just thought all her tips were amazing to read because there are, well, always creepy peeps out there. Us gals always have to be on the lookout. And, well, anyone for that matter. So the safety tips in this book were a surprise but a very welcome one. I just really thought it was a clever addition to this story.

Last but not least, we do have an incredibly evil villain named Viktor who could pass off as Voldemort's younger brother. This guy was just awful and pure malice. So predatorial in his actions. 

This book definitely ends on a note of mystery. Things are not completely resolved and there is still a lot of things gone unclear in Jessie and Aurora's relationship, so, I kinda need that sequel - pronto.

My rating: 4/5