Wednesday, September 10, 2014

99¢ Challenge ~ City of the Fallen

*Book source ~ Purchased on Amazon
Series ~ Dark Tides, #1
Author ~ Diana Bocco
Publisher ~ Diana Bocco
Published ~ 27 June 2013
Genre ~ Paranormal
Pages ~ 191

My Rating ~ 4 bites

Isabelle Bryant, her brother and a handful of others have survived five years after vampires rose from the shadows to claim Earth as their own. The human race has nearly been wiped out and Isabelle is tired of hiding and scavenging to survive. Her plan is to turn herself over to the vampire king’s compound, become a vampire pet and hopefully get close enough to kill the king. Cut the head off the cobra and maybe humans can survive. She hadn’t counted on becoming pet, and more, to the king himself or for Marcus to take her into his confidence. You see, there’s a bigger threat than vampires out there and if she kills Marcus as planned then she would be dooming all humans to extinction or worse. Caught between love and loyalty Isabelle has a tough decision to make.

I have a soft spot for post-apocalyptic/dystopian tales and this one is a bit different. Instead of zombies overrunning the world though it’s vampires. Tired of hiding in the shadows they have risen up and they have no intention of letting humans have control again. Going from seven billion to a million or two is a huge blow, but Isabelle wants to try to get humans back in the driving seat. I’ll give her an A+ for guts.  The world building is decent and I can picture what it’s like to live in her new reality. Told from the POV of both Isabelle and Marcus, I got a pretty good idea of their personalities. There are a few decent secondary characters, but for the most part it’s an interaction between Isabelle and Marcus. I like that there is a bigger picture than just Marcus and his followers.  There’s his brother who wants the throne for himself as well as a virus that is consuming vampires at an alarming rate. My only complaint is that the story ends in a cliffhanger. I am so not a fan of those especially when there is a climatic scene at the end that has no resolution. Harumph! All-in-all though, a decent start to a series and a great intro to a new-to-me author.


6 comments:

  1. Oh that sounds SO good until the cliffy. I just don't care for those most of the times. There are a very very few authors I think do it incredibly well but for the most part I don't get into that.

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    1. Yeah, the ending is a bit of a disappointment. I am not a fan of cliffhangers.

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  2. Vampire apocalypse - sounds exciting. Too bad about the cliffhanger. I don't mind when the main story is complete and it's the set up for the next installment. Breaking in the middle of the climatic scene? Yikes!

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    1. I'm the same way. I like some resolution, but Isabelle bugs out in the middle of an attack and that's it. I'm not happy about that.

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  3. Sounds like a great one, but it's no wonder, Isabelles are the best ! 8)
    But if there's such a cliffhanger at the end, I'll wait until the next book is released. Thanks for sharing :)

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    1. LOL Yeah, if I had known it would end like that I would've waited. I do not like cliffhangers, but if I have the next book I'm more forgiving.

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