Publication: December 14th 2012 by Bella Forrest
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary: On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.
A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.
She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.
An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.
Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.
Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.
Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?
Goodreads Page
My Thoughts:
So let's just get into this. This is a guilty pleasure series, plain and simple. I've had this ebook on my Kindle app since I downloaded the app which was like 4 years ago. I remember reading something on the tagline about it being better than Twilight and 2013 me was like: SOLD. And I never read it. Fast-forward to me running out of things to read while at work one day and being stranded with one last book left on my Fire tablet. And I read this book in two work shifts.
Is it better than Twilight? No. Is it easy, mindless entertainment? Yes. Like I said in the beginning, I think it's practically marketed as a guilty pleasure series. No one who actually wants to be hit hard with themes or challenged with his views in life will read this. But if you're looking for a cheesy romance with quotes like "With Sofia, it felt like I'd finally found my compass. As long as I had her, I had someone to keep me grounded, someone to direct my way." than this may be something you want to pick up.
The background of the story is familiar if you were around for the vampire craze that Twilight incited. A Shade of Vampire is definitely more unique in certain aspects than other vampire books I've read, but it's still a vampire book with the same tropes as always. It's still about a powerful, ancient vampire who falls in love with a special snowflake human girl. It's still about a vampire resisting the sweetest blood he's ever smelled because his love is more powerful than his bloodlust. It's still about a girl who has felt neglected and abandoned by her parents.
But there are some unique things about this book. The setting is certainly different from any other vampire book I've read, featuring a hidden sanctuary where vampires live in peace on a secret island. The vampire focused on the most is a prince among his kind with an age-old prophecy he is destined to fulfill. Sofia, the main character, has a disorder that causes her to not be able to filter out her surroundings, inciting anxiety-like attacks. And, overall, I did feel that the love that develops in the book is more organic than a lot of others featured in paranormal romance.
If you're looking for an easy, interesting paranormal YA, this could be a good pick for you. But don't believe the claim of "better than Twilight."
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