vampires – Page 4 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Review: Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

May 4, 2015May 25, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Bloodlines #1

I wasn’t free of my past, not yet.

Sydney’s blood is special. That’s because she’s an alchemist – one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets – and human lives. But the last encounter Sydney had with vampires got her in deep trouble with the other alchemists. And now with her allegiences in question, her future is on the line.

When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she’s still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir – the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir – is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill’s guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the unlikeliest of places: a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one.

The Moroi court believe Jill and Sydney will be safe at Amberwood Prep, but threats, distractions, and forbidden romance lurk both outside – and within – the school grounds. Now that they’re in hiding, the drama is only just beginning.

3.5 Drink Me Potions

Sydney is unlike a lot of protagonists I have the pleasure of following around in a long series. She’s brilliantly smart, yet tries to dumb her knowledge down when it seems to bother people around her, and attentive to what others need. She truly cares for people, which is the root cause of her problems.

Because vampires, even half-vampires, are not technically considered “people” to the Alchemists.

It’s forbidden to even like them, let alone associate with them, yet her job forces her to live with them. Of course, she doesn’t fight or argue with her superiors about any of the things they demand of her. She sounds like a mighty pushover, but that’s because she was raised that way by a tyrant for a father.

This story could simply be another human falling for the charms of a vampire. But, to be honest, that is remotely nothing like what Bloodlines is about. It’s about honour and duty and finding that thin balance between caring for her charge, a vampire princess, while maintaining a professional distance. In fact, there really is NO romance in this story for Sydney. It’s strange as most stories seem to love the romance angle, but it doesn’t really take in the first installment of the series. And it works even better that way.

There are so many things happening in the plot. From dealing with the craziness of human high school while watching over a bunch of vampires in hiding, to Alchemist-like tattoos surfacing on humans and dealing with the ever-annoying Alchemist co-worker of hers, Sydney has WAY too much on her plate to consider romance into it. There’s definitely plenty of intrigue and mystery going on that needs to be solved to keep a reader happily reading.

Also, the characters are all a wonderful group. Besides Sydney, each and every vampire “family” member she’s taking care of has such unique personalities. Adrian’s laidback and the typical party boy but there are moments where I really wonder what his true story is. Given, I haven’t read a ton of the the Vampire Academy series yet, so there may be more to him there. Eddie, a dhampir, is charming and protective. Jill can be stubborn sometimes, but she learns to work it out with her new situation. If it’s so easy for me to love them, you can see why it’s so easy for Sydney to as well.

I could go on about this story, but that’d be way too long of a review. I love the idea of the Alchemist group. It’s so unique and fascinating, intermingling their stories with the vampires. A group of humans dedicated to keeping the vampires a secret from humans for their safety? Totally cool and can go in so many ways. Especially ’cause they consider vampires as unnatural and…well, evil. Let’s just say I can’t wait to finish this series (thankfully they’re all out now), and see where all the foundation and groundwork Mead put in goes. I couldn’t stop reading. Finished it in one day.

By the way, that ending? Didn’t quite see the culprit coming. Although I really should have what with all the mysteries I read. That’s a big compliment.

Overall Recommendation:
Although the vampire genre has really been overdone by this point, this new series following Sydney, an Alchemist, is a far cry from anything I’ve seen yet. Mixed heavily with the chaos of having to protecting a vampire princess from harm while keeping her distance from them, both physically and emotionally, is already hard, but add in a mysterious Alchemist-tattooing parlour and human manifestations of magic, Sydney really has it coming for her. There are so many problems she has face, although the hardest ones are the ones dealing with the fundamental Alchemist teachings she now sees in a different light. Balancing her duty with her genuine care for these “unholy creatures” is definitely gonna come back and bite her. Richelle Mead’s newer series may very well be more exciting than the Vampire Academy series.

Review: Haven by Kristi Cook

April 2, 2015May 25, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Haven #1

Violet McKenna thought she was crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad’s murder—but when her premonition came true, her life fell apart. Then she found a new school: Winterhaven. There, Violet fits right in. All the students have special “gifts” like her own, and she quickly finds a close group of friends. But Violet’s attraction to an alluring boy becomes problematic when intense visions of his death start to haunt her. In her premonitions, the secret he is unwilling to share begins to reveal itself—and the unbelievable becomes reality. To Violet’s horror, she learns that their destinies are intertwined in a crictical—and deadly—way.

3 Drink Me Potions

Warning: This review contains spoilers….’cause honestly, how am I supposed to rant about something major in this book without giving it away? (but really, it’s so predictable, I swear you’d guess it even before the answer comes out)

Okay, let me paint the scenario of this book for you. See if it starts to sound familiar in any way.

A girl moves to a new town/city. She goes to a new school, hoping to find friends and maybe fit in. She’s nothing extraordinary in the looks department. Yet, on the very first day of school, apparently the hottest guy makes eye contact with her and a connection seems to have formed. But, according to some of her new girl friends, this guy normally sticks to himself and never hangs with many people, especially girls.

Is this starting to sound a little familiar? Hmm?

He’s described to move quite fast, there one second next to her and gone the next moment she looks up. He’s quite pale, and hey, he’s a little cold to the touch. All women seem to be affected by his presence (dubbed the Aidan effect). Oh, and the fascinating part? He gives her the hot-and-cold treatment. One day he seems all into her, and the next, he’s off somewhere doing something and cancelling their plans. Later, he keeps trying to explain that he’s doing it for her own protection and that he has some BIG secret he can’t share without scaring her away. (Dun dun dun dun. He’s a vampire. No, seriously.)

Okay. I think I had enough. Who’s ready to guess that the above summary….totally sounded like the beginnings of Twilight? I know it’s hard to be original these days when tons of vampire books exist out there, but SERIOUSLY. Twilight was amazing, back in 2006…but now it’s rather overrated. The similarities were a little disconcerting. At least Aidan didn’t sparkle….or does he?

Thankfully, that’s mostly where the similarities stop. ‘Cause this girl ain’t Bella Swan. Violet can fight on her own (fencing champ, which is pretty cool), and definitely isn’t some damsel in distress in need of saving by her vampire boyfriend *cough*Bella*cough*.

Winterhaven was a rather cool setting. Some prestigious boarding school that has its own cafe, theatre, quad and tons of buildings. Kind of like a mini university, except for high school kids. Man, wish I went to a boarding school like that. Anyway, everyone here has “powers”–wait, I mean gifts (’cause it’s against the rules in this school to call them “powers”). Violet’s always had visions of things, normally terrible things, that were to happen in the future. Here, her friends don’t think she’s a freak, ’cause hey, they can telekinetically move things or even astral project themselves places. Come on, those are way freakier-tastic than collapsing in seizure-like fits when the visions come.

Violet’s friends were cool, each different in their own way with their gifts. However, the attention in the book was obviously not on them, so at the end of the day, even though they can be differentiated based on what they can do, I was never drawn to each individual based on who they are. They’re all nice, they all care about Violet and they’re dubious of any impending danger. I could as easily replace one girl’s name with another and it would make nearly no difference.

And that leads me to the romance. And Aidan? I wasn’t feeling the chemistry very well with him and Violet. Sure, they were described to have some connection that linked them, and the hyperawareness of each other, but still. It was too…instant. What does he see in her? What does she see in him, besides that all-female attraction to him? So when they say they “love” each other, I was totally uncertain as to how that attraction even grew to such heights. Look, this undeniable attraction was kinda cool…back in 2006 as I mentioned before. It was a little harder to stomach this time around. So that made me enjoy Haven a little less than if I had actually cared much for Aidan.

The one thing I will say was pretty cool was trying to be scientific with vampirism. The science of it, being a science nerd myself, was rather fascinating and was compared to a parasitic infection like malaria. I think that was definitely something no other vampire novels have tried out, and for that, I’m rather intrigued to see if Aidan can indeed find a cure for his “disease”.

Overall Recommendation:
Honestly, Haven held way too many similarities to Twilight in the first large section of the book, which may have made me a little antagonistic with the whole Aidan-Violet romance. It was way too fast and based off of some crazy attraction between the two that made it seem less real and not as romantic as it sounds. This may have been cool with Twilight back in 2006, but it got old real fast.
With likeable enough characters and Violet being capable of holding her own when need be, Haven wasn’t all terrible. Set in an enchanting prestigious school where everyone has their own psychic gifts, it was intriguing to see all kinds of people working together and as friends. Lots of secrets abound and it’s up to Violet to figure them out before danger hits too close to her. So hey, besides the similarities, Haven can still hold its own in a rather large genre of vampire books.

Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

September 2, 2014June 5, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Vampire Academy #1

ONLY A TRUE BEST FRIEND CAN PROTECT YOU FROM YOUR IMMORTAL ENEMIES…

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires – the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger… and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever…

3.5 Drink Me Potions

Okay, I will admit that I broke my golden rule for this book….I watched the movie version before reading the book. I know. That’s awful, isn’t it? But the plot of the movie (which I had hoped stayed true to the book) intrigued me deeply. After the whole bang that Twilight created, vampire novels just seemed to pop up everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE.

So this is why it took me so long to finally read this series. It’s not like I haven’t seen it around before. I just was never interested in starting. How many more ways can these vampire books be different from each other? It’s hard not to compare them to “rip-offs” of Twilight-esque themes.

I was wrong. This book proved it to me. There are still so many creative things to add onto the vampire mythology that’s already out there. Richelle Mead did not disappoint.

Our protagonist, Rose, is a fireball. Man, I love her. She has a voice that’s so strong and clear, it’s almost like I can see her standing there in front of me. She has no restrictions when it comes to those she cares about. She’s not one of those weak and shy heroines at all. Her strength (and recklessness) is balanced throughout the novel with the frailty of her best friend, Lissa. I liked her too, as she had her own character that was special. She wasn’t as unique or original as Rose was, reminiscent of Disney princesses at first with their love of animals and always-kind attitude, but there were different sides of her that showed as the story progressed.

As for romance, the chemistry between Rose and her mentor were there. Obviously I’m glad it’s not just a hormonal-fueled relationship going on, as the two of them really connect on an emotional level as well. Let’s just say I can’t wait to see how things go with those two.

Overall, this story had turns I did not expect, especially nearer to the ending. I must say that watching the movie spoiled it for me, but I was surprised when I found out there, so I’m pretty sure I would’ve been doubly surprised with the book since I would have spent more time with the characters by reading about them instead. It still lowered my rating a bit (I did know what was going to happen after all), otherwise it may have landed 4 stars. It’s still a great start to a brand new series. I will look forward to reading the rest.

Overall Recommendation:
Vampire fans (and vampire haters)! Don’t overlook this book like I had for so long. Just because there are so many out there, I do understand vampires can get tiring, but this one is an exception. Richelle Mead created a brand new world of vampire lore, set in a school of teenage vampires that do the craziest things sometimes. How much more fun can it get? Danger, romance, backstabbing(!), it has it all. A great start to a series, I suggest you give this one at least a try before deciding if the series is worth it or not to read.