Genre: Paranormal/Erotica/Horror
Series: Strigoi Book 1
Format/Release Date: eBook/April 12, 2011
Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Blurb: Aleron must cope with a timeless existence, seeing those he loves suffer the fate of mortality, while he remains cursed with eternal life. What if your immortal origin as well as others of your kind were hidden from you by the one you loved most; the one who gave you into a life of darkness and a lust for the sweetest nectar? These dilemmas and more face Aleron, but he must first learn to live, to survive, and most of all, to feed...
This book has a very long blurb (which I ... linked to Goodreads because it was too long for the blog) and it explains the premise extremely well - so in this review I won't cover who is who and who turned who and whatnot. Alright, let's get to it.
Aleron was very well-written with unique vampire lore and ideas that fascinated. And while I was reveling in said characteristics, this book really felt like a stand alone novel to me. I don't really have any interest in reading the next 4 books in the Strigoi series and because of that, I would have to give it a 3.5.
With a tone and writing style compared to the infamous Anne Rice, I believe that Kane's vampire memoir remains unique because of several elements. Some of them being the way that vampires are turned. This isn't a typical pretty vampire romance novel. Being bit by a vampire - friggin hurts. And being turned in one? Well, it's an 11 day process and you wake up in a pile of your now unnecessary organs. Gross? If you think so, you most definitely shouldn't read this book.
Kane is poetically vulgar, and even though I am not at all a fan of horror, because I'm a scaredy chick who has very vivid nightmares, I really enjoyed his ability to make me uncomfortable while still understanding why I had to be.
Here are some of my issues with the book.
It was explained that vampires have an obsessive desire to keep their maker's safe and happy, thus putting their own immortal lives at risk to protect their maker. I enjoyed this concept which explains what drives a vampire to create immortal children. However, if said vampire's maker is still alive, the bond between each maker with their own maker would be continuous...meaning that all vampires would end up just protecting the eldest living vampire. (I hope that made sense...it was a little bit of a word vomit). But, Kane made exceptions to this rule allowing said children to make their maker extremely unhappy and even unsafe. That annoyed me.
Also, most of the vampires in this book are women and men are not allowed to be turned. Although it was alluded to, why that is was never explained. The best reason at this point is because Vlad simply didn't males to compete with. Lame. Maybe this will be explained somewhere in the next four books...but I don't care enough to read them.
This book seemed like it could've ended with only a swift changing of a sentence. I wasn't attached to any of the vampires really. Although I enjoyed some more than others, I was okay with any of them dying to serve Kane's literary goal. Being mad at an author is how I know for sure that they are amazing, and I wasn't ever upset with Kane. Just flipping pages. Waiting for the end. Enjoying leisurely. But a book with no passionate flips...errr...*clicks* of my Kindle pages is not one that I can give any props to. (I just said props...)
Anywho, although I enjoyed this book (and I think those who adore Anne Rice will too) it just wasn't quite up my fantastical alley.
Side note: I suppose with the previous reference, I shouldn't be surprised that I'm not interested in reading the rest of this series...because I only read the first book in Anne Rice's too.
*I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review*
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