Location: Australia
Member Since: Aug. 07, 2013

Niamh

Smashwords book reviews by Niamh

  • Vampire Origins - The Strigoi Book 1 - Project Ichorous on Nov. 13, 2013

    I received a copy of this book for free as part of Goodreads' Read for Review and I thank the author for her generosity. I really like the premise of this story and it's a really intriguing take on the origin story of vampires. The characters are interesting and the book contains a couple of great twists. I think the story is really good but the way the author jumps between different story lines without any kind of pattern or effective device was annoying and at times confusing. Sometimes she even advanced the story by a week at the same time as shifting story lines from one paragraph to the next. This did get easier to tolerate but it took hundreds of pages to happen. The author writes emotions well especially the darker ones. The tensions between Alex and Lachlan and Lachlan and Caleb are some of the most enjoyable reading in the novel. I'm interested to know why there is so much antagonism between the werewolves and vampires. I also enjoyed learning Rose's back story, though I think there's more to learn and I'm curious as to the reasons for Vlad's attitude to her. So while I found the time and story shifts disconcerting and poorly done, the fact that I'm left curious about what happens next and about what has happened in the past is a sign of good story telling and well-constructed characters. I also think the author makes daring choices with her vampires that are a nice break away from the trend towards vampires as good guys that a lot of current vampire lore uses. Congratulations to the author for an original work of vampire fiction: something that is getting harder to find these days.