Unputdownable Books

At last! A book with a synopsis that I actually remembered! I did know what to expect when I started reading the book. First off, I’d like to thank Bella Forrest for gifting me a copy of this book to review.

Vampires now-a-days are extremely overrated. But writers still take the old and worn out concept and try so hard to make it their own, whether it’s a short story like this one or a full length novel. A Shade of Vampire is one of many vampire short stories and unfortunately, I wasn’t at all fascinated by it.

In all fairness, I did get really enthralled by the synopsis and I liked the thought of the kidnapper falling for his captive and eventually, keeping her from safe from his fellow “kidnappers”. But when I read the book, it really wasn’t what I expected. The “captive”, Sofia was very whiny and her whininess literally started from when the book began till it ended. She whined, self-doubted herself, thought herself as nothing, and all that no self-esteem nonsense. Maybe if there was more character development, I would be able to understand and tolerate Sofia better. But sadly, I didn’t and I went on reading with my eye twitching trying to tolerate her. Fortunately enough, she did have her shining moments that made her a little bit more likeable and even sweet at times.

As Sofia was kidnapped to be part of Derek Novak’s Harem, Derek notices her first amongst many girls in his Harem. Why? Because she held more courage and compassion than the rest of the human girls around Sofia *face palm*. Everyone knows what comes next; he immediately falls in love with her and then they go through a few trails together and then the book ends happily with them in each other arms.

Yes, I don’t like the characters very much but on there is a bright side. I really liked how well constructed the world of The Blood Shade Island, which is a secluded sunless paradise for vampires being hunted. The description of the place and how everything worked was spot on and beautiful in a simple sort of way.

The short story was very predictable, the characters were barely tolerable, the concept and scenario were wonderful and with a little bit refinement, depth and realism to the characters. I think Bella will be able to make this short series even better. I won’t give up on the series because I have hope the second book will be better.