Jun 172013
Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 1)
Praise for Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 1)
“Prophecy: Child of Light is the first of an epic vampire romance series that will surely stun, delight and engross the reader with each sweep of its pages. Ms. Heaton captivates the reader from the beginning.” — Dawn, Love Romances and More — 5 hearts
“Readers will be enchanted with F.E. Heaton’s imagination and her way of pulling you into this world and different places so easily you will not want to
List Price: $ 0.99
Price: $ 0.99
It has problems, but it’s good.,
I think I’ll start this review with what I didn’t like. It felt as though there was some questionable editing. Not something I usually notice, errors happen, even with good editors. Humans make and miss mistakes no matter how perfect we’d like them to be and who am I to complain, I’m neither an editor nor a writer. Still, when *I* am noticing them, it’s probably a problem. (Ex. “She looked around her, hers eyes darting over every face….” Hers eyes?).
Also it felt like the author struggled to find words at times. I was starting to get a serious case of déjà vu about the hundredth time that she knitted certain characters brows to express an emotion. I was also left wondering how many times one could intimate something. There were times that things like this made me want to finally just say: you can use other words. It’s actually unfortunate as I do feel that those things distracted from a fairly decent story. Which leads to what I did like, the story itself.
Prophecy is a vampire who has been locked up in her home, for… well she doesn’t seem to know how long. In fact, she doesn’t seem to know much of anything, including why all of the other vampires get to hunt whereas she does not. When she asks her mother when she’ll be allowed to hunt with the others in their family, she is told only that her time will be soon. Impatient, she sneaks out, meeting Valentine. Valentine being a fellow Vampire. A forbidden fellow vampire as he belongs to a different bloodline. The rules are very clear in this vampire world. Vampires do not consort with vampires of differing bloodlines. Except in their case, it appears they may not have a say in the matter, as we quickly learn that perhaps her name is not just a name. There is a prophecy and depending on who you ask it’s either about the fate of vampires or maybe of the entire world. And yes, Prophecy is smack dab in the center of said prophecy. The problem with this prophecy is that there are two takes on it. Valentine will have to choose between staying true to his own family by killing Prophecy or risking his own life (and hers) to find out which version is the truth.
And now onto what I’m on the fence about. Generally when reading a series I like for the book to be its own book. Sure, there will be continuing story lines, but each book should stand on its own. This is not really that. It ends with a major cliffhanger. I’d prefer that not to happen until later in the series once I’m more invested in it. I feel as though I HAVE to keep reading, like it or not, as this adventure isn’t yet done. Luckily, despite its flaws I really do care about the characters enough to WANT to know what happens, otherwise I’d be ticked that I’d have to buy the next book if I want to know about how the adventure from this book ends, not to mention the fate of a major character is left up in the air.
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|Interesting idea bogged down by superfluous humdrum,
There are two things guaranteed to leave me with a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to romance novels/series:
1. Failure to note somewhere on the outside of the book that the romance is not adult in nature.
2. Failure to complete a novel. Regardless whether a book is part of a series or not, each installment should resolve the majority of plot arcs. If a series has an overarching plot across many stories, then each book should identify, address, and resolve whatever section of the broader plot it introduces.
This book failed at both. This book is long, some 5800+ locations. That is plenty of time to establish the tale, introduce the opening of the overarching series plot, resolve the initial conflicts between the hero and heroine, before revealing the next part of the broader story at the end of the book. Instead, Heaton spends most of the book filling it with superfluous jaunting about Europe where, other than the occasional fight to break up the monotony, the reader is underwhelmed with repetitive scenes of the hero and heroine suffering inner monologues about how they feel about the other person – all the while, “awkwardly” stealing glances at one another, avoiding any actual conversations about how they feel, and generally not getting to the point of things. Or they spend it rehashing all the information, which isn’t much, they already have and contemplating all that the other has given up for the quest. Again, not with each other but in their own thoughts. And then, at the very end of the book, I kid you not, after a terrible revelation of a horrible mistake in judgment, Heaton actually tacked on “The End”. What? The story abruptly stops – that’s it. Of course, the tale will be continued, but after the length of the first book, and its failure IMO to actively move the narrative much, I’m simply not inclined to continue.
To the second point, I want to be clear; I have no problem with romance novels that avoid adult situations or keep everything besides chaste kissing behind closed doors. I choose not to spend money on those kinds of novels but I don’t think others have to share my views. For folks who enjoy a romance that has no completion whatsoever – neither in culmination nor even in a happy for now style of leave off – perhaps you won’t be nearly as irritated and disappointed as I am. But as I noted above, easily a third of this book could – and should IMO – have been cut out. It didn’t move forward the plot, it didn’t give the reader any new information. If that bit of unnecessary flotsam were removed, perhaps Heaton might have been inclined to give readers a grown up romance wherein the main characters acted more like(at least in the case of the hero) a several hundred year old vampire who’d been around the block, so to speak. The heroine, I could understand, until about halfway through the story. At which point, she sets her mind to the task at hand and matures by leaps and bounds. Facing certain death, then, and especially considering all the talk in the heroine’s own mind about how important the hero is to her – I expected at least a touching – if not graphic – intimacy. A last grasp, a tight grip, of the protagonists on each other. Guess I have to wait until the next book? The last? Never? So let down.
The overall writing is above average and the world building compelling. But a book would have a difficult path winning me over if it suffered under just one of the above pet-peeves of mine. Being guilty of both, from this reader’s perspective, means that I simply cannot recommend it.
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|great find!,
I was close to my kindle budget for the month and I saw this for .99 and it looked interesting….all I can say is that I am very glad I got it….this book is great! I love Heaton’s writing style…reminds me of showalter’s….this book is wo good, I stretched my budget and downloaded the next two lol….totally different take on vamp stories..
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