Unmarked Vampire by Belinda Laj

I was incredibly lucky to receive an e-book copy of Unmarked Vampire directly from the author Belinda Laj in exchange for an honest review.

Unmarked Vampire follows the story of Julian Laurent who wakes up in a dungeon and discovers that he is a vampire. The dungeon is the way into the Damned Academy where immortals receive their relevant mark and then the education to deal with their new found needs and talents. There are vampires, demons and angels and they're all ruled over by Blake Night (I adore this name).

The story contains many interesting twists and turns which are well done and though some things are hinted at, you're never fully sure if you're right until the reveal. The world design and how the powers and things work are all very well thought out and well written and I really enjoyed the way each immortal was defined.

The characters are all well developed and are interesting in their own right...except Julian! I so far hate Julian, I know he's been through a lot and he had a lot to take in, but he's just so whiny and child like that it's hard to take him seriously at times. That to me is my only "complaint" about the book as he's supposed to be 19/20 but to me comes across more as an early teen or tween. Genuinely though it doesn't affect the story or take you out the zone while reading, it's just my personal taste.

Unmarked Vampire was originally released in Italian so I was slightly concerned that something might have been lost in the translation, but I was proven wrong and I think the translation was very true to the original story and I didn't feel like I had missed anything.

Overall I really enjoyed Unmarked Vampire and I will look forward to reading more of the Damned Academy books as they come out.

I started this book on the 20th of March 2016 and I finished it on the 2nd of April 2016.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

A Light in the Dark - My Review of The Darkness Vs Eva: Daughter of Dracula

When I picked up The Darkness Vs Eva: Daughter of Dracula by Leah Moore and John Reppion, though it seemed familiar, it didn't click until I got home and the hubby pointed out that it was The Darkness that the video game was based on. This made me happy as I love that game and the story in it.

This book is incredibly well written, as soon as I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down. Jackie Estacado is exactly how I remember him from the game, which is great as I love his character, he's such a badass. Eva I have never met before, but I definitely want to meet again, she is such an interesting character and I want to learn more of her back story and then more of what she goes on to do after this story. As well as having two powerful main characters, the peripheral characters all have personality and presence, so they do not get lost in what could have been a two man (well one man, one woman) show.

The artwork by Edgar Salazar, matches perfectly the tone of the story and is just genuinely beautiful work.

Though I'd liked the sound of the synopsis and was pleased when I discovered it was related to The Darkness video game, I really wasn't sure if I would like this book. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it and that I enjoyed it so much. Definitely one to recommend to fans of the game who may not have read any of the comics or to people who love kickass, powerful women characters.

I started reading this book on the 11th of February and finished it on the same day
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads

Life After a TV Show - My review of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

One of my graphic novel picks from the library this week was Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon and art by Georges Jeanty. I will start by saying that I have never seen a single episode of Buffy while it was on television and the only experience I have of anything "Buffy" is the original 1992 movie and other people talking about the TV series.

I'll start by mentioning the artwork, the style is not my cup of tea, however it is very well done. You can tell who is supposed to be who without reading the dialogue which is definitely a good sign. There isn't much I can say about the art, except for the fact it works for this book. 

The story itself starts after the TV series has ended, so immediately I knew that I would be at a disadvantage with not knowing how the show had ended. I carried on though as everyone I know who had watched Buffy has been a huge fan. There seemed to me to be an awful lot going on in just one book which is only Vol. 1 of a series and it was just too much for me. With stories about different countries, people and references to things that had happened previously, it was too much crammed into 136 pages. I didn't like how Buffy was portrayed (though I've no idea how she was portrayed in the show, so it could be spot on)as a character and found her irritating. I also didn't connect with any of the other characters, you didn't really get to "meet" any of them long enough in this book to start forming any sort of feeling or bond. 

Overall I really disliked this book, but I feel a big part of that is because I hadn't seen the TV show. It'd be interesting to hear from someone who did watch the show and then read this book to see what they thought of it, to get a better opinion of how good this book is. If you are that person, please get in touch and let me know.

I started reading this on the 14th of January 2015 and finished it on the same day

I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads

Still a Better Love Story Than Twilight - My review of Vampire Knight

I only discovered manga last year and that was only due to a friend of mine lending me the first five books of Black Butler. I fell in love! How can I have been reading all my life and have never read any manga. I felt like I had missed out and so I have been trying to read as much as I can since then.

When I go to the library I always look for first volumes so that I know that I'm reading things in the correct order (unless I've already read volume one obviously) and this week, there were a couple in that jumped out at me, the first book was Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino. It caught my eye as my husband had mentioned that he had seen an anime that he would like to watch and had added to our Anime-Planet account and I was pretty sure it was the same name. (I have confirmed that it was that since).

I will start by saying that the art throughout the book is gorgeous. I genuinely love how manga is drawn and the fact that almost everyone is beautiful. It makes a nice change to look at something that is pretty.

As to the story, I have to admit I struggled with following what was going on in a lot of panels and had to repeat some pages more than once to ensure that I knew what had happened before moving on. I think something may have been lost in the translation as the English in some scenes is just not very good. I do genuinely believe there is a good story in there somewhere but I'm not 100% sure yet as to whether I'm going to stick with this series.

From what I have seen so far, I love the characters Kaname and Zero as they both seem to have really interesting back stories and I would actually look forward to going into greater detail with them. Yuki however, the main female, is painful! Yuki seems to be so strong for about 5 minutes and then the rest of the time, she's a helpless little girl. I hope if I do choose to continue that she comes into her own and develops a more definite character.

As an overall view of this so far, the story is fast paced but has got nowhere fast.

I started reading this book on the 12th of January 2015 and completed it the same day
I gave this book a 3 star rating on Goodreads