Quickie Book Review: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Title:  A Shade of Vampire
Author: Bella Forrest
Publisher: Self
Date of Publication: Dec. 14, 2012
Source: bought, Kindle, 149 pages
Rating: Young Adult


Goodreads Summary:

On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.
A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.
She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.
Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.
Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.
Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

My Thoughts: 

First, I am completely and totally in love with this cover!  I think that is what made me come back to this story over and over again.  It is gorgeous in a creepy , shade of night sort of way, right?  
But then I started reading this story and yep, I fell in love all over again. A  Shade of Vampire   just sucks you right in, and you are immersed in the world of the royal vampires.  We don't even get to see what kind of life Sophia has before she is kidnapped and taken to the island where all her dreams and nightmares seem to exist.  
After reading the entire and very short story, I see why we don't really go into much detail of Sophia's life before becoming a "slave" to the Novaks.  And I say slave loosely, because she isn't treated like that from Derek's stand point; but being kept against your will is still considered slave behavior.  

Anyhoo, anyone else laugh when Sophia got the nice guards to talking?  I was not expecting them to be like, "dude" at all.  I was expecting a more refined demeanor so I think I was pleasantly surprised that the guards were cool.  I know that had nothing to really do with the story at all but I don't know I liked it and it solidified that I really would like Bella Forrest's writing style.  Small details like that, really make me happy because it shows me how the author can make everything flow easily through the story.  
Yea, I'm weird.  I've accepted it.

The characters are awesome in Shade of Vampire.  I like Sophia a lot and I like that she really thinks through certain areas before doing some things.  She is like a leader in her own right just as the sexy prince, Derek, is too.   
I love Derek!  Although, I think he should have been more kick ass to certain people in the early pages of the book, but it still made for good entertainment.  

For such a small book, a teaser if you will, there is a lot of world building that really gives us a great view of The Vale.  I love the tree house idea, especially since I never had tree house growing up.  I now want one as an adult, just like the villas in A Shade of Vampire.  Thank you, Bella Forrest for realizing my adult wish now!  

And then there is the one thing I didn't like about the story and his name is Ben.  (Now, I know what you're thinking: that's who you didn't like? What about Lucas?)  And yeah that's it.  Lucas is the antagonist, of course he has to be a dick and I don't like him but he is still crucial to the story.  But Ben? Uggh! He just gets in the way of my idea for the story everyone.  I feel like he keeps Sophia from being herself and he thinks Sophia can't think for herself.  I just don't like him at all.  Sorry.  

Overall, though, A Shade of Vampire was a great story that made me shoot through it until I was shocked to know I read it in about an hour, and then reeling from the fact that I don't have the second one.  Because the ending to this little morsel will have you saying, WHAAAAT???  

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