Review of The Vampire Stalker by Allison Van Diepen

What if the characters in a vampire novel left their world - and came into yours?


Amy is in love with someone who doesn't exist: Alexander Banks, the dashing hero in a popular series of vampire novels. Then one night, Amy meets a boy who bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander. In fact, he IS Alexander, who has escaped from the pages of the book and is in hot pursuit of a wicked vampire named Vigo. Together, Amy and Alexander set out to track Vigo and learn how and why Alexander crossed over. But when she and Alexander begin to fall for each other, Amy wonders if she even wants him to ever return to the realm of fiction.

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As long as you're not planning on taking this book seriously, you're going to have a lot of fun. I certainly did! At first I was a bit iffy, what with the main character being as gushy as she is over Alexander, even when he was fictional but I got used to her pretty quickly.

The world itself is rather silly! The police and the rest of Chicago don't act as people would in today's world, it's all a bit OTT and the bad guy is as scary as pink toilet paper but that doesn't matter. Because it's all very, very fun. The author has come up with a great concept that we all can relate to – I know of a fair few people that would quite literally die if Edward Cullen or Jace Wayland to come stepping out of their pages (not literally). And that's exactly why this appealed to me – for such and obvious concept it's almost completely unique.

There's that word again – fun. The storyline as a whole is fun, with lots of girls kicking butt as well guys, super smart librarians figuring the whole thing out, arrogant jocks being taught a lesson, a harassed author and an annoying little sister, who may not be as bad as she seems... perhaps!

Amy herself is quite level headed and actually does sensible things in the midst of all this fun flying around. She loves Alexander from the book but she has to deal with him being.. well, himself in real life which throws up a few interesting scenes! I'll definitely be on the lookout for more books by this Author.

5/5

Review of Redemption by Courtney Nuckels and Rebecca Gober

Redemption is the second book in the Night Marchers series.  

He would endure a thousand deaths for her, but would she let him? Torn between two men that love her, Emma Townsend is forced to make choices no seventeen-year-old should ever be forced to make. With her friends at her side, Emma embarks on an adventure full of danger, deceit and betrayal as she tries to redeem Kai, the man who made the ultimate sacrifice for her. When Emma discovers that setting a Night Marcher free is no easy task, she is forced to make a very unlikely alliance. How far will Emma be willing to go to save Kai, and will she be able to do so before it's too late?

I was really disappointed by the cover of this. The cover of Night Marchers is beautiful and this would be too if they hadn't unnessarily stretched it out. It looks really unproffesional. That aside, the book is pretty damn good.

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We start a day or too where we left off, with Emma being driven at breakneck speed down the road by her worried father, who promptly drops her off at the airport and sends her to Kaylee, Emma's best friend. Naturally Emma concocts a plan to secretly come back almost immediately after arriving and camps out in the jungle with Kaylee and Tristan.

I started to notice more things when I read this. I think some parts are written by Rebecca Gober and other parts written by Courtney Nuckels (well, they are co-authors). The problem I have with this is that I believe (don't take this as fact) that one of them can well pretty damn well. That would be Courtney, from what I've seen of a short story of hers. However, the other Author... needs to brush up on her grammar some. I've seen everything from waist becoming waste to 'night and shining armor' in these books – but the spelling is just fine in other places.

The story is a bit shorter than the first book and I got through it in about 2 hours. Everything was wrapped up neatly with a pretty bow but I did feel as if there was something missing that I can't pinpoint. It was nice to meet Kao properly though and his character added a lot to the story.

4/5

Review of Ten Things We Shouldn't Have Done by Sarah Mlynowski

2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house – parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have.
If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and, um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.
In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn't-have-done at a time.

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TTWSHD was a roller coaster ride of emotions for me. Sometimes, I was like, Yeah! Party!, other times really peeved at Noah and one time very anxious about a donut. The story was really fun throughout and I read it really quickly.

Growing up is the main theme. You have April, who's trying to rebel against her family whilst bottling up her emotions after her Mother left for France, Vi, whose mother is hardly ever at home, Marissa, whose boyfriend lives in Boston and Lily, who's just weird. Really weird. And then there's Noah. And a couple fo other guys but I'd rather concentrate on Noah. Good Lord he annoyed me. Throughout the boom I could see exactly what he was and I just wanted to April to dump him and date someone more worthy of her time. He avoided seeing her most days, and then had the nerve to be jealous when she starting talking to another guy. Ergh.

What I didn't like about this book was the jumping. I got used to it aftera while but jumping backwards and forwards in time constantly gave me a headache. As I was reading the Kindle edition the headers for the new chapters and paragraphs were pretty large too which was... irritating!

4/5

Review of Night Marchers by Courtney Nuckels and Rebecca Gober

“NEVER, EVER lock eyes with a Night Marcher!” Everyone in Hawaii has heard this warning, except for seventeen-year-old Emma Townsend that is. For most Hawaiians know that looking into the eyes of Night Marcher can strike a curse that will end in death or eternal servitude.

Even though her father, who is a paranormal investigator, solely raised Emma, she has little experience in the realm of the supernatural. When she is forced to move with her father to Hawaii, only months before her graduation, Emma finds that her world as she knows it, is shaken when she starts seeing the unexplainable: fire balls in the distance, beating drums in the middle of nowhere and strangers who vanish into thin air. Then one day when she has a run in with a procession of Night Marchers, ancient Hawaiian spirits wandering from their burial grounds to their locations of battles past, Emma has no choice but to believe that the unbelievable does exist.

Now Emma must go on the run with the help of a mysterious stranger, as they seek out how to free Emma from the curse of a Night Marcher, who will stop at nothing to get her soul.

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Emma is a (very) simple Texas girl, forced to move to Hawaii for her dad's new job. Don't get me wrong, I love the girl but boy is she daft at times. And sometimes irritating too. For instance, Tristan asks her about music and she immediately says, 'Oh, I love Country Music!' I was like, yeah, that's my girl! Until she listed Taylor Swift, The Band Perry and Zack Brown Band as her favourites. To me, that's not country, it's pop. Strange girl.

The plot in this is one of the oddest I've ever read, which is good because I'll have a better chance of remembering it! From Little People to Night Marchers, it gets weirder as the story goes along. The Night Marchers themselves reminded me VERY strongly of The Zars from William Nicholson's The Wind Singer. In fact, they were almost the same.

One thing I didn't like was the spelling. Every so often waist would become waste, lose would become loose, lie would become lye and so on. I'd strongly advise the Authors to seek an editor (some bloggers may do it for free) and get the grammar and spelling cleared up, as it would really help the book...

As for love interests, I liked Tristan but found Kai much more interesting, as his past was.. murky at best! My favourite part of the story was actually the historical text messaging a.k.a Paul, the runner. The messaging between Adam and his wife was pretty hilarious!

This book ends on a cliffhanger so good, I'm off to go buy the sequel and read it as soon as I can!

4 Stars