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Book Review of Captivated by J.R. Thorn

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Captivated

Author: J.R. Thorn

Review by: Dani Hoots

Rating: 3/5

Amazon

Back cover:

Four sexy vampires. One mortal-born witch. An ancient secret that will test them all.

I’m not a very good witch. It’s not my fault. Being born a mortal sucks and my black cat familiar follows me around like a security blanket. All the other coven brats make fun of me.

My vampires don’t seem to mind. They pose as my mentors and get Aunt Sandra off my back. My initiation into the Royal Covens is only three days away. They’re supposed to teach me how to hide what I really am: a reincarnation of some ancient and powerful witch. I think they’re just telling me that to get in my pants.

What my vampires don’t hide is their hunger for me, both for my blood and my body. That dangerous kind of thrill is going to get me into serious trouble.

Captivated: Royal Covens Book 1 is a medium-burn reverse harem romance and part of a 3-book series.

This book has a great idea but I feel it wasn’t executed very well. There were a lot of characters who weren’t consistent and a lot of stuff wasn’t well research. Although magic in fiction can be whatever you want, there wasn’t enough put in to catch my interest. There were only three or four flowers/herbs mentioned when plants were supposed to be big in getting energy, and the blood magic was inconsistent in that everyone used blood but then someone was considered a rare blood witch. Then she used runes, which is cool, but never named a rune, and never described a rune, and didn’t explain what the runes were. This made me lose interest as there didn’t seem to be much research or world-building. Also slicing large sections is getting old in fiction in general, even if you can heal fast. It is unnecessary for blood magic and would be very, very messy.

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I did like the vampires and the idea that they are her guardians was pretty cool. I just wished I could find out more about them, and wished they weren’t quite as resistant in helping her when they are supposed to be her guardians. The grammar and writing was done well and it was easy to read. Recommend for people wanting a different take on the vampire x witch genre.

(Also, this is not for young adults as there were many sex scenes)

~Dani

Book Review of Birth of the Bacchae by Stephanie Mirro

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Title: Birth of the Bacchae

Author: Stephanie Mirro

Review by: Dani Hoots

Rating: 4/5

IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Back cover:

When the Roman god of wine and frenzies claims you as his own, things get chaotic. Fast.

Ever since archaeology student Serafina Finch found an ancient Roman amulet on a dig in Italy, she’s been having dreams. Strange dreams that leave her with an eerie sense of foreboding. But between a busy college schedule and a boyfriend she’s hoping to marry, she doesn’t have time for strange.

When a mysterious cult takes an obsessive interest in the artifact, Serafina finds her life in chaos. She’s thrown into a supernatural world, where Immortals and witches alike claim ownership of the amulet. Her amulet.

As her connection to the amulet grows, she discovers a dark secret about her past. Serafina realizes she must protect the powerful relic at all costs–even if it means losing one of the people she loves most.

If you didn’t know, I am trash for a good vampire story. I read the description of this story and found the idea of vampires being connected to the god Bacchus to be a cool take on it. I dowloaded the book and was not disappointed.

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I liked the connection of the vampire element with different mythologies. In this story, it was mainly based on the Roman mythology, with Bacchus being the main focus. Our main character, Sera, his an anthropologist, which I loved since I have a degree in anthropology. Man, I would have loved stumbling on some cool vampire artifact, but I digress. Her and her friend are pretty badass, but I didn’t like how much was kept from the main character. A lot could have been avoided if people just told her the truth.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and am in the middle of the second. I will be sure to review the second book as well.

~Dani

Manga Review of Bloody Mary

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Series: Blood Mary

US Publisher: VIZ

Imprint: Shoujo Beat

Genre: Vampire/Drama/Supernatural/Boy Love

Rating: 4/5

CLICK HERE TO BUY

Description:

“Bloody” Mary is not your typical vampire. He can withstand sunlight, holds a reflection in mirrors, refuses to drink blood—and wants 17-year-old student and priest Maria to kill him. But to Mary’s dismay, Maria doesn’t know how to kill vampires. Desperate to die, Mary agrees to become Maria’s bodyguard until Maria can find a way to kill him at last.

The art for this series really drew me in (and the fact it was about vampires). The story started out a little slow, as we are introduced to the world of Bloody(Mary) and Maria. There is a lot going on in this world, so it took a while to a hang of what was going on, and every time you thought you understood, a secret was revealed that always threw me for a loop. It was definitely a well-crafted series.

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One problem I did have with the series was that it didn’t feel as romantic as what seemed to be hinted (mainly by the covers). While it is touched on near the end, I felt the author could have elaborated more and hinted more about what was going on through their heads about each other.

All the characters that were introduced were well established and their reasoning and background made sense. I hated a few of them, but at least their drive made sense to me. My favorite character was Bloody because lets be honest, he’s so adorable!

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All in all, I definitely enjoyed this series, especially as a fan of vampire stories. I would recommend it to anyone who loves the vampire or BL genre. It is a completed series so you don’t need to wait for any more to come out and the author ended it in a good spot and it felt complete. Be sure to check it out and let me know what you think!

Also, did I mention I like vampires?

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~Dani

 

Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet

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I am now getting back into comics! If you have any comics to recommend, please do so by commenting below! I can’t promise I will review them, but I will definitely check them out.

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Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet 2014

Posehn – Duggan – Brown – Koblish

MARVEL

*Note: I haven’t read any other Deadpool comics and the only things I know about Deadpool are from the movie and random things online*

Deadpool has gone to England for some time off to forget about whatever is going on his life, and he suddenly finds himself getting a job from Dracula. He wants Deadpool to retrieve his fiancé from a tomb in Egypt and bring her to England. Of course he runs into trouble every step of the way.

As a fan of vampires and Marvel, I found this comic to be hilarious. Deadpool is a hilarious character and I love how he makes fun of himself, comics, and how he breaks the third wall all the time. I found the plot to be interesting, the myths, history, and pop culture references incorporated in the story to be perfectly selected, and the art to match the story. I really liked the art and coloring done. It matched the feeling perfectly.

My favorite part of the comic was when they visit tombs in Paris. I won’t give away what happened, but it was really well written and I thought it was a great scene.

I give the comic 5/5 stars as it was well-written, the art was perfect, and the humor in it left my husband staring at me like I was crazy.

Anime Review: Vampire Knight (Season 1 and 2(Guilty)

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Vampire Knight follows a young girl by the name of Yuki Cross who is guardian between the Day Class and Night Class at Cross Academy. What the Day Class doesn’t know is that the Night Class is full of vampires who want to bring peace between the humans and vampires. However, Yuki can’t remember anything before ten years ago and the first memory she has is being attacked by a vampire, and saved by the vampire Kaname. She struggles to find out her past, meanwhile the present peaceful times are being disrupted by vampires, humans, and hunters alike. Little does Yuki know that things that happened in the past may want to stay forgotten.

I love this show, as I have binge watched it many times… The artwork, although sometimes not as smooth as it could be, is very beautiful. The voice actors did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life, and I especially like the voice for Kaname (Yes I am team Kaname, get over it).

The story itself is very similar to the manga (which I will be reviewing later) and I’m very thankful for that (unlike Black Butler…) and I really wished they kept this series going. There is still a lot that isn’t answered, and from reading the manga (almost done) the history of the vampires is a lot deeper than they provided in the show.

The story itself, I wish we got to see more interaction with the Headmaster, as he reminds me of Vash the Stampede, with being rather crazy then all of a sudden serious. I also wish Yuki was a little less naive at times, although it made sense given her actual past (I won’t give spoilers).

All in all, if you haven’t seen this series and love vampires and romance, this is for you! 5/5!

Dani Hoots

Release announcement #15: Asanbosam

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The fifth novella of A World of Vampires is now available!

Vampires around the world are coming forth to remind humans they are not romantic fantasies to be sought, nor are they souls that can be redeemed. These are the stories they must tell.

Maryanne just wanted to explore the world and learn everything there was to it, as she had become an anthropology doctorate candidate at Oxford University in the 1930s. Accompanying her research professor, she traveled to the Akan Empire to do field research, but little did she know of the consequences of stepping into the jungle at night.

This novella is independent. None of the A World of Vampire Series need to be read in order.

Available on Amazon: Click Here

Available on Barnes & Noble: Click Here

Manga Review: Blood Alone

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Blood Alone

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Written by: Masayuki Takano

Published by: MediaWorks(former), Kodansha(current)

Well, here is my first review of a manga series! Normally I will only review a manga that is finished or review an arc of a storyline, but since this manga only comes out every once in a blue moon, I am going to go ahead and review it.

Blood Alone is an ongoing manga published in Japan about Kuroe Kurose, a private detective and author, and Misaki Minato, a young vampire girl, and follows different investigations that Kuroe receives. It can be very dark in some scenes, but in others be very cute and sweet. It is well rounded and a rather serious manga compared to others. Misaki loves Kuroe, but she is forever trapped in an adolescent’s body. Kuroe cares for Misaki a lot and has given up vampire hunting in order to protect her. The vampire inside of Misaki is slowly taking over and taking away her memories of being human. it is a slow change and Kuroe hopes to help keep her humanity in tact, or he might lose her for good. There are a couple of arcs that the series covers, in English at least, and all of them are quite enjoyable and suspenseful. All the characters are well rounded and I love Higure, an elder vampire who looks like a little boy. He is wise and dark but on the outside he just appears to be a boy. I find those to always be the scariest vampires, ones that look like an innocent child but are quite the contrary.

I really enjoyed the published books so far (1-6), but am very upset that 7-10 have not been released in the United States. I ordered 7 in Japanese, hoping the kanji would have kana next to it because then at least I can translate it, but unfortunately it doesn’t. So far I have translated a page. Either I need to be patient and wait for them to publish in English, or further my understanding of Japanese. I’m not quite sure which one will come first.

All in all, this series is worth buying, even though not all are available in the United States. I have read and reread the 6 books so far and hope that they decide to publish more in English. If you are looking for anything vampire, series, cute, yet suspenseful, this is a perfect series to pick up.

Hope you enjoyed my first review, let me know what other manga series you think I should check out!

Dani