Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Book Review: The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire

 
 
“Kidnapped by a vampire, death by a squid. How tragic” 

-          Violet

 

Come on, with a line like that, who couldn’t love the book?
 

The novel centres around the character of Violet who is witness to a violent murder in Trafalgar Square, spotted, she is then kidnapped, only to learn that they are in fact vampires. Their leader is none other than a Prince of the realm, Royalty amongst the vampires, known as Kasper and he is far from likeable. Infact, it wasn’t until the latter half of the book that I began to see that there was more to his character than his arrogant and self-indulgent attitude (very vampiric of course). Violet on the other hand is very unsure of herself and of her inner voice (who she is constantly sparring with) yet she is strong and holds her ground, even when faced with the possibility of death and giving up her human existence for the greater good. 

I really did enjoy reading this book, however, I would have liked to have seen more emphasis placed on the supportive characters in the novel. Fabian for example played a key role in the first half of the book, yet after Violet chooses Kasper he more or less disappears. This was disappointing because he was so likeable and after all, Kasper’s best friend, to just drop him seemed rather careless. It also would have been good to have had more background to Violet (the connection she had with Kasper/her father’s role) and about the vampires in general (Kasper’s mum/how they functioned alongside the humans (government) etc) but then again this could all be included in a prequel/future book as I’m sure it would make a book in itself as I can imagine it could get lengthy. In all honesty, all that aside, I read the book in two days and I still find myself thinking about it. 

This was an impulse buy because a) I just bought a new Galaxy Note and b) the cover looked so gorgeous and c) it contained vampires…all in all, a pretty awesome combination don’t you think? Definitely! I tend to buy books I have been recommended or that have high ratings on goodreads and after having already purchased this book, then reading a few reviews I was hesitant to start reading thinking I had just purchased a Twilight inspired YA novel. Boy was I wrong. This novel was nothing like Twilight; I understand that the author is very young, but the concept of the inter-dimensions, the prophecy and the dark heroines was so unique, that I praise the author for her originality. I think, particularly in this genre, it’s so hard to be original, most vampire stories are strictly romantic or strictly traditional, so it’s hard to pull out something a bit different which I think Ms Gibbs did quite well. 

I look forward to reading the sequel due to be released in August as it centres around a rather fascinating character from the inter-dimension’s, can’t wait to see where this series will go, I think it has great potential and I’m totally bummed I missed out on purchasing the author’s extended version, I’m sure there were goodies in there I missed!



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