Publication Date: 30th August 2014

 

Publisher: Hague Publishing

 

ASIN: B00MS0FG1S

 

Source: Netgalley

 

My Rating: 3½/5

 

Synopsis:

When Stephanie Anders discovers her estranged, wild-child little sister has died and she must attend her funeral, she discovers that Estella’s death is not necessarily as terminal as she had been lead to believe and that, rather than dead, her sister is more of the undead variety. Too late to save her sister’s life, Stephanie Anders must now try to save her soul from the vampire who has possessed her, Branwyre, eighteenth vampire Lord of the Aegean. 

 

With only the aid of the ghost of a pissed-off Buddhist monk with a potty mouth, and the modern day Priestess of Isis, Stephanie must battle demons and other denizens of a world she knows nothing about. Even her first task, to recover Branwyre’s crucible if she is to succeed in banishing the vampire before he has regained his full strength, is not what it seems. 

 

But dealing with a demon, or double-binding a vampire in a sunbed pales in comparison to learning how to forgive her sister for what she did, especially if she is to have even half a chance of saving her soul.

 

Welcome to a world within our own, the Other World. A place of Darkness and Light; where gods, vampires, demons, and ghosts wage a constant struggle for survival.

Estella has been trouble her entire life and it’s always been her older sister Stephanie’s job to clean up her messes and attempt to rescue her. Now it appears that Estella’s wayward lifestyle has led to an early death and that Stephanie will have just one final responsibility, her sister’s funeral. Except it turns out that Estella isn’t quite as dead as Stephanie had been led to believe. She’s temporarily undead to be precise.

 

Estella had gotten herself involved with a group of Isis worshipping women--which is a total surprise to Stephanie and a big change from Estella’s former partying ways--and while on a mission with her righteous cohorts to slay a vampire things went terribly wrong. Estella was killed but is still animated because she’s been possessed by Branwyre, an evil vampire who’s Lord of the Aegean, and now Stephanie must race against the clock to save her sister’s soul.

 

Stephanie has been angry with and estranged from her sister for years, and she doesn’t believe all the new age paranormal mumbo jumbo she’s being told, but what choice does she have? Estella is her baby sister. She can’t just let a vile vampire steal her soul. So now Stephanie is battling ancient demons she knows nothing about with the reluctant help of a foul-mouthed double-crossing Buddhist monk ghost as a sidekick--he was one of my favorite characters.

 

Like Janis Hill’s earlier Sci Fi adventure romance (Bonnie’s Story: A Blonde's Guide to Mathematics) this book is fast-paced, inventive, surprisingly touching, and beyond funny. Romance doesn’t play much of a role in this story because the important relationship is the two sisters, a dynamic I found refreshing.

 

Through its publisher and NetGalley I received an advance review ebook copy of Isis, Vampires, and Ghosts--Oh My! Review opinions are mine.

 

Here we are again with the monthly roundup of what  read in July. Most of them were ARC's but that should change next month and I can go to reading what I want and feel like, for a while anyways :)

All the release dates and buy links should be in the reviews of the books which I will link as always;) 

 

 

 

 

 

Never Been Kissed by Molly O'Keefe 

 

 

 

4 ½ ★

You can find my full review here

 

The Firefighter's Appeal by Elizabeth Otto

 

 

 

 

4 ½★

You can find my full review here 

 

Guilt by Degrees by Marcia Clark

 

 

 

3 ½★

You can find my review here

 

 

 

Isis, Vampires and Ghosts - Oh My! By Janis Hill

 

 

 

1 ½★

You can find my review here

 

 

Fool's Assassin by  Robin Hobb

 

 

 

3 ½ ★

You can find my review here

 

Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

 

 

 

4 ★

You can find my review here

 

Amity by Micol Ostow

 

 

 

3 ★

You can find my review here 

 

Rising Tide: Dark Innocence by Claudette Melanson

 

 

 

4 ½ ★

You can find my review here

 

Accidentally Married on Purpose by Rachel Harris 

 

 

 

4 ★

You can find my review here 

 

The Arrow by Monica McCarty 

 

 

 

3★

You can find my review here

 

The Circle by K.M. Montemayor

 

 

 

3 ★

You can find my review here

 

So I Married a Werewolf by Kristin Miller

 

 

 

4★

You can find my review here

 

Zomburbia by Adam J. Gallardo

 

 

 

4★

You can find my review here

 

Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido

 

 

 

2 ½ ★

You can find my review here

 

Bite Me, I'm Yours by Stacy McKitrick 

 

 

 

3 ½★

You can find my review here

 

Indecent Proposal by Molly O'Keefe

 

 

 

4 ½ ★

You can find my review here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

 

When Stephanie Anders discovers her estranged, wild-child little sister has died and she must attend her funeral, she discovers that Estella’s death is not necessarily as terminal as she had been lead to believe and that, rather than dead, her sister is more of the undead variety. Too late to save her sister’s life, Stephanie Anders must now try to save her soul from the vampire who has possessed her, Branwyre, eighteenth vampire Lord of the Aegean.

With only the aid of the ghost of a pissed-off Buddhist monk with a potty mouth, and the modern day Priestess of Isis, Stephanie must battle demons and other denizens of a world she knows nothing about. Even her first task, to recover Branwyre’s crucible if she is to succeed in banishing the vampire before he has regained his full strength, is not what it seems.

But dealing with a demon, or double-binding a vampire in a sunbed pales in comparison to learning how to forgive her sister for what she did, especially if she is to have even half a chance of saving her soul.

Welcome to a world within our own, the Other World. A place of Darkness and Light; where gods, vampires, demons, and ghosts wage a constant struggle for survival.

 

 

My thoughts:

 

It doesn't happen often that I don’t finish a book but this one I did not finish.In fact it was the first book I DNF since I started reviewing. It was just not for me.

I made it 20% in the book and I decided to leave it at that, I couldn't bring myself to read any longer.

That does not mean the book was terrible and everyone will dislike it though. It was just not what I thought about vampires.

That being said, just because I don’t agree with the books version of a vampire doesn't usually make me stop read a book but in this case I  just didn't care about what I read and I decided to move to something hopeful enjoy more.

In the book a vampire was more of a demon possession than anything else. Her sister has the vampire virus and with that a part of the vampire in her, she must safe her sisters soul with her blood to cleanse her sisters soul in a special ritual by the new moon. All that before the vampire completely takes over her sister’s soul and body.

 I thought all of this sounded more like a demon possession and not vampirism. But that alone didn't make me decide to not finish the book, it was also the fact that there were too many over described things. I like knowing things in detail but this was just way too much even for me.

I will still add the goodreads link so you can decide for yourselves, like I said I’m sure there are people who will enjoy it more than I did.

 

 

 

*I received a free ARC copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.5 stars

I'll be honest here, when I first saw it on Netgalley, I wasn't going to read it because I thought it wouldn't be my cup of tea. It didn't seem like a book I was going to love but then, the storyline and characters got me curious. There weren't lots of explanations at the very beginning about the world created. I liked the writing and the ending was nice.

If you read this book, you'll find there is a lot of original cursing with quirky characters. We didn't have lots of explanations about what happened to her baby Heather but then it was implied when her sister asked for forgiveness.


***ARC received through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review***