Carries Book Reviews

Splintered Souls by Erica Lucke Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In 1654 a soon to be mother turns to a witch to bless her child before it is born. She asks that her baby will always be able to find his soulmate. Little does she know that she is about to give birth to twin boys and this blessing will turn into a curse.

In the present day Ava Flynn gave up her dream to attend Georgetown after the death of her father. She agrees to move with her mother and younger brother and attend the local college to keep the rest of their family together. When Ava spots an intriguing mystery man she feels an instant connection with him.

I would warn that anyone that has an intense dislike of instant love or love triangles would probably not enjoy this story at all but I actually found myself completely hooked on this book and didn’t want to put it down. I enjoyed all of the characters and loved that the author found a way to make the brothers each have their own personality.

This will certainly be one that I will be watching for the next book in the series as my only complaint would be the ending just had to be a cliffhanger.

Overall, curses, time travel and a intense love triangle, would definitely recommend.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fat Vampire by Johnny B. Truant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reginald Baskin has been overweight and made fun of his whole life and to make matters worse he works in the fitness industry with mostly perfect co-workers that make fun of him. When Reginald tries to befriend one of the only other outcasts at work he gets a bit more than he bargained for. Maurice is actually a vampire and when Reginald’s life is at stake Maurice turns him to save him. Unfortunately for Reginald that means he will forever be 350 pounds and out of shape.

Most of the vampire portions of this book follow the general ideas of vampires… sun will burn them, killed by a stake to the heart, feed on blood etc. The idea however of an out of shape vampire was a new concept and did lead to a few funny parts although not quite as many as I had hoped. Also, it touched on the idea of why vampires are so in shape, they train as humans before being turned thought that was a good add.

Liked Reginald overall and enjoyed the relationship development with Nikki and Claire. Also, the ending was a bit of a surprise there, wasn’t expecting Reginald’s plan and had a bit of an eeww gross moment which was a great add to the horror portion of the book.

Overall, quick read with a few laughs and a bit of horror mixed in.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This Twilight novella tells the story of Bree Tanner, a small character introduced in Eclipse. Bree was one of the newborns that Victoria turned to try to form an army to defeat the Cullens. From Bree’s perspective we get a glance at what was going on behind the scenes with Victoria, Riley and the newborn vampires.

Not a bad add to the series although I think my biggest complaint with this was the format of the entire thing was all one long chapter. Even at novella length that was a bit frustrating to just have one long story when it seemed there could have been places to break chapters up.

It was interesting to see the things that were being told to the newborns to try to control them. Bree however really didn’t seem to portray the out of control newborn image we were given in the series. She seemed more in control than she should have although I suppose then it wouldn’t have made a good extra story to get the reader to care about this extra.

Overall, an OK addition to the story if you love the Twilight series.

Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition by Stephenie Meyer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition is basically half of the book is the original Twilight and the other half is a Twilight parody where all the characters have switched genders. The new version with new genders follows along with the story with a little bit of change here and there to account for the swap until the ending which is different.

All I want to say when done reading this really is please save your money, this is just so not worth it. It makes me sad that so many people will probably still run out and buy a copy, luckily I just picked it up at the library and didn’t waste a dime. I really really try to never write anything overly negative even when I’ve really disliked a book but this is just stupid, I’m sorry but yes I said it, stupid. The gender switching just so does not work on so many levels and the entire thing had me wondering why I was even bothering but morbid curiosity won out so I had to keep reading.

Truly you start off with things like when Beau experiences the first snowfall and the teenage girls start tossing snowballs at each other and having a snowball fight… Really?? What teenage girl is going to be ok with being hit in the head with a snowball and not start a cat fight over it? Or how about Beau fainting from the blood in biology? A teen girl struggles to help him along until Edythe comes and puts Beau’s arm over her shoulder and half drags him to the nurse…. this so does not work the same visual as Edward picking Bella up.

Scene after scene of things that just don’t work with the gender swap all throughout the book. And then some are so hard to gender swap and make sense that they get bigger rewrites which loses all the power that the original version held for those of us that actually loved this series just the way it was.. For example Bella/Beau getting attacked and Edward/Edythe saving the day, didn’t work, hated it.

In the end I just kept thinking why did Meyer’s do this?? I know the answer had to be money, but in that case why not finish up the version from Edwards point of view instead?? That version I was actually enjoying reading but she just dropped it and never put a finished copy of it out. This seems like someone purposely set out just to make fun of the story that so many people loved and defended. Sad that it was the actual author that made me see all the flaws that others had pointed out for years in a much brighter light by writing this version.

Overall, I can’t recommend this at all…. run far away from it. And if you feel the need to read it anyway like I did then just pick up a library copy.

Xoe: or Vampires, and Werewolves, and Demons, Oh My! by Sara C. Roethle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alexondra Meyers, or Xoe as her friends call her is a seemingly normal teenager who lives with her single mother in a small town, she’s never known her father. Lucy and Allison have been her friends forever and that’s all she needs, she hasn’t been interested in boys or expanding her social circle.

When a new boy enters the cafeteria and stares at the girls Xoe immediately thinks there is something strange about Dan but Allison invites him over to have lunch with the trio. Lucy and Allison then proceed to invite Dan out with them to the movies despite Xoe thinking it’s a bad idea. Things don’t go as planned of course and the girls are introduced to a world they never knew existed outside of the movies.

My first thoughts when starting this book is it reminded me a lot of Twilight which wasn’t bad as I enjoyed Twilight. The girls meeting Dan in the cafeteria at lunch after he had stared at Xoe was a reminder of Bella and Edward but there was no instant attraction, instead Xoe had more of an instant hatred if anything of Dan. Other than the cafeteria scene the story had a complete life of it’s own though.

If it weren’t for a few typos here and there I may of even given this a five star rating. Rather a fun read bringing normal teenagers into the world of supernatural beings of Vampires, Werewolves and Demons. While this didn’t end on a cliffhanger there are more books in the series and would be interested in reading Xoe’s story further some day.

Overall, great, quick read that fans of Twilight might enjoy. The first book is available for free on Amazon for download if anyone would like to check it out.