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Title: Breathless [Blue Fire Saga 1]
Author: Scott Prussing
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Rating: 2 Stars
Description/Synopsis: College freshman Leesa Nyland has been fascinated by vampires since she was three years old. That’s when her mom started acting weird, refusing to go outside during the day and insisting the sunlight hurt her skin because she had been bitten by a one-fanged vampire…
But fascinated doesn’t mean Leesa believes—any more than she believes in blue fire, people who live for centuries, and kisses that can kill. When her beloved older brother suddenly disappears, she is forced to confront all these and more.
WARNING - SPOILERS MAY ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT - REVIEW BELOW
I really wanted to like this book. The cover was gorgeous, the writing was clear, and easy to follow... and the author obviously took their time to really explore the lore and world-building behind this series. It had a down-to-earth but intriguing plot. Unfortunately, the characters had the depth of a half-mopped spill. Their actions in this story were so utterly unbelievable that I was actually angry by the time I finished the book.
It's not that I didn't like the characters. I found Leesa's shyness endearing. Stefan and Rave were a gorgeous mix of masculinity, kindness, and brooding predator. Even Leesa's almost-non-existent friends had great personalities... but that's pretty much as far as they went. There was no back-story to any of the characters except to mention Leesa's part-vampire mother, and we rarely even saw her in the story. Most of the narrative consisted of Leesa going to class, hanging out in her dorm room with friends, or awkwardly wandering around campus. It was mostly mundane tasks and conversations and very little action, intrigue, or suspense... which... given the plot, should have been present.
The most infuriating part of this story, however, was the wishy-washy nature of all the characters... and complete lack of common sense. Vampires, Volkaane... all the immortal beings were perfectly fine divulging all of their secrets to the human populace despite the fact they frequently talked about how they wanted to stay under the radar. It was a good thing though - because Leesa couldn't keep her mouth shut. She told all of her friends, her family, even the enemy of her "boyfriend" everything there was to know about everyone else's business. She couldn't keep a secret to save her life--not that anyone seemed to mind. Also, despite the fact that Rave and Stefan were supposedly mortal enemies (though it was never explained why), Leesa was magically able to tell them to quit fighting... and they listened. Suddenly everyone was behaving as though they had no choice. Hello? These two immortal beings are centuries older than this shy little mouse of a college student, but they were both willing to do whatever she asked. In fact, by the time I was half-way through the story, the two men were so completely smitten with her they were more than willing to marry her.
W. T. F.
Between her selfishness, stupidity, and inability to keep her mouth shut... I just couldn't understand the appeal.
Another oddity was that despite the fact that these two immortal species were supposed to be "secret", the minute Leesa informed everyone (and I do mean everyone) that they existed... no one questioned her. Everyone took it at face value and went "oh.. okay. cool!" and we're not just talking about her close friends; I'm talking friends, family, even her teacher. No one questioned it. No one thought she was crazy, no one seemed to be frightened either. How does this happen? I'm still trying to understand. There was a complete lack of any sort of tension or mystery to this story. Everyone... got along in a sort-of saturday morning cartoon way, and the one or two "fights" that were presented were easily dissolved away once Leesa stepped into the middle of them. She's like a magic tranquilizer in human form.
The frustrating part of it was that there were so many instances where tension and conflict could have been introduced. I would have killed to have Edwina show up and harass Leesa, or to have seen the Volkaane lead an assault against the Vampire coven. They never did. Rave wouldn't even fight to keep Leesa. At the final moment when Leesa revealed her plan to sacrifice herself for her brother, he pretty much stepped aside and agreed with her. He didn't try to stop her or rescue her... there were no daring plans to steal her brother back. The ending was wrapped up in a shiny little perfect bow, and no one got hurt, or angry, or swore retaliation. Nothing.
I am completely baffled.
The one truly redeeming feature of the story was the lore/world building. It was obvious the author had taken a lot of time to research vampire lore and adapt it to their own unique version. The concept of the Volkaane was interesting and unique (though now that I think about it, the moodus noises never were explained...), and a bit of a neat twist on the usual immortal beings we find in these kinds of stories. The only area that lacked in their development was an explanation of WHY the Volkaane fought the Vampires at all. I knew they hunted the vamps, but never why. The vampires didn't seem all that evil to me. A total of.. what... 3 people were murdered during the entire book? Considering their food source and the circumstances they were in... I'd consider that pretty damn nice of them.
In the end, I just couldn't enjoy the story. It wasn't a bad idea for a novel, and there were certain aspects of it that were done very well, but in the end the execution was more of a "limp rag" than a "taunt bowstring". It lacked any sense of immediacy, action, tension, or suspense. The pieces fell into place easily and without effort... to the point that the narrative became mundane and unfulfilling. Would I recommend it? No. I don't think I would. If I had one way to sum up how ill-written this book was, it would be to quote the first line of chapter 33:
"It was a dark and stormy night."
