Broken Bond & Bonded with Love

Title ~ Broken Bond

Series ~ With Love, #1

Author ~ Tiffany Heiser

Publisher ~ Tiffany Heiser

Published ~ 26 December 2011

Genre ~ Paranormal

*Book source ~ Purchased on Amazon

My Rating ~ 3 bites out of 5

It’s 1932 and Bristol Dupont is a vampire living in a vampire community in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. He has his true mate and the future is looking pretty good even with the rogue vampires causing problems. And then the unthinkable happens and Bristol is left anchorless and going insane.

This prequel to the With Love series is interesting, but there isn’t as much background about the vampires as I had hoped. I wanted to get a better feel for what they are about, where they came from, why the rogues were allowed to live, why Irene was taken, etc. The dialogue could use some work and the characters need some fleshing out. Otherwise, not a bad start to a series.

Title ~ Bonded with Love

Series ~ With Love, #2

Author ~ Tiffany Heiser

Publisher ~ Tiffany Heiser

Published ~ 14 November 2011

Genre ~ Paranormal/YA

*Book source ~ Many thanks to the author for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

My Rating ~ 2 bites out of 5

Rena and Cecile are seniors in high school when something strange starts happening to Rena. Nausea, headaches and fainting. Coincidentally two hot guys named Drake and Cryder show up at about the same time. They explain that Rena and Cecile are destined to be something else, not exactly human. And they are in danger because the rogues want them, too. They have to accept what is happening and quickly or fall victim to the rogues. It’s not just a matter of surviving high school anymore. It’s a matter of life or death.

I’m not sure where to start with this book. Rena’s parents died a year ago (assuming junior year), yet authorities let her live not only on her own, but Cecile lives with her because her parents are worthless. A really big stretch in my opinion and hard to overcome.  The writing is jerky, disjointed and sometimes hard to follow since it jumps around so much. The dialogue is at times stilted and other times very teen-speak. It varies from slang to formal with no warning. The characters appear bi-polar the way their emotions and behavior swing so wildly from one extreme to the next even in the same paragraph. Rena in particular is hard to like since she is so unstable. Cryder is supposed to be a vampire king and yet he has no control over Drake. Drake is completely unlikeable and very stereotypical as is Cecile. Even the villain is clichéd. None of the people populating this story have any depth or richness of character. This is an exasperating story to read. The bare bones of the plot are good, but the execution needs a lot of work.