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Published ~ 9 June 2013
Genre ~ Paranormal
Pages ~ 386
My Rating ~ 2 bites and a nibble out of 5
Mysterious
28-yr-old Matheus Taylor is living his life they way he wants when he is
abruptly murdered. Quin, a 1700-yr-old vampire uses Matheus to get an artifact
then callously murders him in a filthy alley. Well, technically Quin turned
Matheus into a vampire, but in order to do that he had to kill Matheus first.
And Matheus never lets Quin forget that he was murdered and turned against his
will. However, Matheus has a little problem. He’s attracted to Quin even though
he swears he’s not gay. So, not only does he have to get used to a new way of
living, he has to confront things about himself he’s buried deeper than the
Mariana Trench. While he alternates burying his head in the sand and reaching
self enlightenment the vampire world is under attack and his past comes back
with a vengeance. Will he, Quin and their friends survive the war to come?
The
title drew me in because I am so not a fan of that crap that is Twilight. After
reading the blurb I figured this would be a good vampire story to, um, sink my teeth
into. And to a point, it is. I love the humor and snarkiness in this story.
Whenever Matheus isn’t whining like a little girly baby he is pretty damn
funny. Quin is sexy and a saint to put up with him. Honestly I both hated and
loved Matheus. I can’t decide if he was more annoying or more entertaining. He
may have the distinction of being the only character I’ve ever read that is
50/50 with me. When he’s being a snarky smartass I love him. His observations
and the way he interacts with his world is so entertaining that when he’s being
unreasonably stubborn, digging in his heels only to be contrary and whining,
whining, whining it kills me that I just can’t stand him.
The
writing is very good and the plot flows fairly smoothly with only a few bumps
in the road, but what really did it in for me is the abrupt ending. It was like
how I feel when I ride a roller coaster. I’m going up, up, up,
clankityclankityclank, I’m cresting the hill and then…whoosh! Right over the
top and dropping straight down. Only with this book, that was it. The drop and
then nothing. The end. Where’s the end?! I was massively confused. And mad. It
was only after I looked around on the internet to see what was up that I
realized the book in my hands was only a portion of the story. It’s apparently
only Volume One and I didn’t see that at the bottom of the blurb. It doesn’t
say so in the title. I loathe abrupt endings. If I had known the whole story
wasn’t out there yet I would have waited. Now, I can go to the website and read
a new chapter every Sunday (there are now 41 additional chapters from where my
book stopped), but I don’t have time for that and I have no idea when it will
be done. So, I’ll wait until the book is truly done, complete, fini before I go
back to it.
I also need to mention the editing in this one needs some work. A few mistakes I can ignore, but constant mistakes need to be mentioned. The biggest problems were missing or duplicated words. If a fine tooth comb was used then a finer toothed one is needed.
Series ~ The Actuator, #1
Published ~ 13 August 2013
Genre ~ Sci-Fi
Pages ~ 278
My Rating ~ 4 bites out of 5
Red
McLauren is a Key Hunter and when he’s told to escort a group of Machine Monks
out to survey some rocks when The Actuator is getting ready to fire up an event
he’s uneasy. Something feels off and when the event happens and everything goes
haywire he ends up being a leader even if he doesn’t feel like one. Someone has
sabotaged the dampeners and the entire world has changed and not for the
better. Eighteen confirmed Machine Monks created pockets of alternate realities
and four more unconfirmed means the world is in chaos and people are dying by
the millions, possibly by the billions. Those from the base are the only ones
who know what happened and they need to put the world back before humanity is
wiped out. A task easier stated than done.
I
can’t recall having read a book that has a machine that can alter reality in
the physical sense. I mean, completely change the world into whatever reality
parameters the person has selected. The Machine Monks are addicted to the
Actuator and get a high from when it substitutes reality for their own. Each
Monk has a favorite genre, be it horror, steampunk, historical romance,
paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi, etc, so when they feed 20 or so fantasies into the
Actuator and the dampeners (which restrict the change to a small testing area)
fail those fantasies become realities all over the world. It’s chaos and death.
The thought of having to find the keys in each reality in order to change it
back exhausted me and I wasn’t even one of the people doing the rescuing. :D
Well-written
and fast moving the story made me feel as if I was really there. The characters
are great even the ones I wanted to bash over the head, but I have to say that
I love Red best. There’s something about a reluctant hero, one who never really
thought it would come down to him that I really like and Red is very likeable.
The multiple POVs really help with the vast scope of the story and make the
experience just that more rich. The thought of the world being carved into
different sections of fantasies made real just boggles my mind. It got me
thinking…if I was a Machine Monk, what would my slice of the world be like? Uh,
oh…I have a feeling it would be a very naughty world indeed. *fans self* All-in-all a solid sci-fi adventure.
