A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest
Steph’s Rating: 4 stars
Dani’s Rating: 4 stars
Overall Rating: 4 stars
Format: e-book (epub)
Publisher: Self-Pub
Publication Date: December 14th, 2012
Pages: 147 (ebook)
Goodreads Synopsis:
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?
Steph’s Review:
Thanks so much to Bella Forrest, for providing us with a copy of A Shade of Vampire in exchange for our fair and honest review.
I
know I’ve mentioned before that I’m not the biggest fan of cliche. I
know I’ve said I don’t like insta-love. Well, I’m making A Shade of
Vampire an exception to those “rules” that I’ve made. This short and
sweet novel, even though it’s slightly cliche with the vampire business,
made me love it still. There are true messages of love and family in
this story, and I think most PNR lovers will end up enjoying it very
much.
Sofia
Claremont is a quiet type girl who tries to not attract attention to
herself, someone who you could walk past and never realize. She calls
herself a mere shadow to her best friend, Ben. Depressed that Ben forgot
about her seventeenth birthday, Sofia decides to talk a walk alone
along the beach shore to gather her thoughts. Big. Mistake. You never
know what could be lurking in the shadows. She is abducted by Lucas, a
vampire hundreds of years old, and taken captive in The Shade, the
current strongest hidden vampire coven isolated from the rest of world
for miles in every which way. Sofia will do anything she can to escape
her impending doom, even when her enemies far surpass her in strength,
speed, and experience. When she realizes she has no hope of leaving an
unmapped island, Sofia knows that the best way to survive is to stay on
the vampire prince’s good side: leader of The Shade, Derek Novak.
So
this insta-love thing I was talking about earlier. Its not on both
sides at first, so it wasn’t a true insta-love like in Twilight. I also
felt like this love was justified in a way, even though it happened
pretty quickly. A Shade of Vampire is a
short debut novel, so I didn’t mind that things moved a little faster
without as much description as most other YA books I read. This romance
was very sweet, and I loved the way Bella Forrest revealed to us that
our characters Sofia and Derek were falling in love with each other.
Sofia
may have had a social problem back in the real world, but in The Shade,
her problems take a deadly turn. One very jealous and possessive
vampire is breathing against her neck, threatening her, taunting her,
and Sofia can’t do anything about it without risking newfound friends.
She must juggle this, along with trying to please Derek despite her
inherent fear for him. I really enjoyed watching Sofia do this, because
she really came out of her shell and the bubble that she formed around
herself. She blossoms into a strong young woman, and she just wants to
do everything she can to protect herself and those she cares about.
Forrest did a great job with character development within these pages,
not only for Sofia, but for Derek as well. Derek is the youngest in his
family, but is the one destined to rule. He starts off as a coward who
doesn’t want to face his throne. With the admission of Sofia into the
story, he starts to change himself for her. He actually wants to
change after hundreds of years of lying dormant in “hibernation”. Their
relationship was so fun to watch, because both are trying to become
better for each other.
This was a wonderful debut novel for Bella Forrest, and the epilogue to this book has me really wanting book 2, which is supposedly going to come out in 2 months or so (Yes! It’s being turned into a series!) If you are looking for something short and cute to read, this is definitely it! I started A Shade of Vampire and was addicted to it until I finished it the same night. I want to give kudos to Bella for doing such a great job in changing my perspective on cliche!
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Alright, so we reviewed this book for Bella Forrest, and she has allowed us to post a special excerpt from it here on our blog! Here it is!
Excerpt from A Shade of Vampire
I’d been meandering along the shore for about an hour when I suddenly sensed that I wasn’t alone. Someone was approaching me from behind. My heart leapt. I was so sure it was Ben, that when a stranger showed up beside me, I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
He must have noticed, because a smirk formed on his lips. “Were you expecting someone else, love?”
I eyed him suspiciously, remembering how many times my father had told me not to talk to strangers. I looked him over, taking in his appearance. My eyes widened. I couldn’t find words to describe how fine a man he was. He was almost beautiful. The first thing I took notice of was how his blue eyes were about three shades brighter than any I’d ever seen before. It was such a stark contrast to his pale – almost white – skin and dark hair. Standing beside me, he was easily more than half a foot taller. His height, broad shoulders and lean build reminded me of Ben, but he had a presence that was far more imposing than my best friend’s.
My gaze settled on his face.
I realized that he was inspecting me just as closely as I was him. His eyes on me suddenly made me feel uncomfortably vulnerable. I gave my father’s advice a second thought, but quickly canceled out all notions of heeding to his counsel when I reminded myself that he stopped caring a long time ago.
I straightened to my full height and mustered all the courage I had to keep myself from running away from this stranger.
Big mistake.
The confident smirk didn’t leave his face for even a moment.
“Like what you see?”
“A bit full of yourself, aren’t you?” I scoffed, annoyed by his audacity.
He stepped forward, closer to me, and leaned his head toward mine.
“Don’t I have the right to be?”
He knew he looked good and wasn’t about to act like he didn’t.
“Whatever,” was my oh-so-brilliant comeback.
My shoulders sagged with defeat as I took a step back, unsettled by how close he was now. I rolled my eyes and did a one-eighty, not quite in the mood to play whatever game this stranger was proposing.
I would soon realize that I was about to play his game whether I liked it or not.
He grabbed my arm and turned my body to face him. This motion alone made every single internal alarm I had within me go off in a frenzy.
This man was danger and I knew it. I tried to wriggle away from his touch, but I was no match for his strength.
“Tell me your name,” he commanded.
I was about to refuse, but was horrified to find myself blurting out my name in response.
“Sofia Claremont.”
As soon as I revealed my name, his eyes lit up with a kind of sinister approval. Then he reached for my face and traced his thumb over my jaw line.
“Hello, Sofia Claremont. You’re one stupid girl for taking a walk alone at this time of night. You never know what kind of evil a pretty little thing like you could happen to come by.”
I found myself wondering exactly what kind of evil he was. But I was suddenly overcome by the sensations that were surrounding me. My senses took in everything at once. I heard the waves, felt the sand, smelled the ocean salt, tasted the flavor of cherry and saw the stranger’s manic appearance as he stuck a needle to my neck. The effect was instant. I was barely able to gasp, much less scream. I went from sensing everything to sensing absolutely nothing.
My last conscious thought was that I may never see Ben again.
You can also get an exclusive FREE “sneak preview” of the first 6 chapters by clicking here!: http://forrestbooks.com/sneakpeek.html" http://forrestbooks.com/sneakpeek.html
(Make sure you check it out now because this preview will not be available for long).
***************
"I've been telling stories pretty much since I could talk. Instead of having my parents read me bed-time stories, I would prefer to share with them my own made up tales.
As I grew older, I developed a passion for the fantasy genre. I'm an incurable Potterhead.
My debut novel, A Shade of Vampire, was released on December 14, 2012.
The book became a Number 1 Christmas Bestseller in Vampire Romance, Paranormal and Fantasy on Amazon.
If you sign up for personal email updates from me here: www.forrestbooks.com ,
you'll be the first to hear about my new releases."
About Bella Forrest (as told by herself :)
"I've been telling stories pretty much since I could talk. Instead of having my parents read me bed-time stories, I would prefer to share with them my own made up tales.
As I grew older, I developed a passion for the fantasy genre. I'm an incurable Potterhead.
My debut novel, A Shade of Vampire, was released on December 14, 2012.
The book became a Number 1 Christmas Bestseller in Vampire Romance, Paranormal and Fantasy on Amazon.
If you sign up for personal email updates from me here: www.forrestbooks.com ,
you'll be the first to hear about my new releases."
***************
Buy A Shade of Vampire from Amazon:
USA, eBook: http://www.amazon.com/A-Shade-
UK, paperback:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shade-
A Shade of Vampire: #1 Christmas Bestseller in Vampire Romance, Paranormal & Fantasy: www.amazon.com/A-Shade-Of-Vamp
Add A Shade of Vampire to your Goodreads shelf: www.goodreads.com/book/show/17
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