★★★★☆
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Action, Vampires, Fantasy, Elves, ShapeshiftersFormat: E-Book
Buy it: Paperback, E-Book
Forbidden Temptation of a Vampire is one of those books that sticks with you far after the last page is read. It's intricate, detailed, and a well mapped out story that I'm so glad is one of more to come. For fans of the paranormal romance genre, or fans of young adult books in general, this book is pretty awesome.Is Jared an answer to prayer or her worst nightmare? Seventeen-year-old, Katie McQuillen is a halfling (vampire/elf mix) in a world where halflings are not acceptable members of polite society. Unfortunately, her grandpa is chairman of the Vampire High Council and she is forced into attending a summer camp meant to create peace between the Sídhí races. She is in the middle of Sídhí puberty going from scrawny to beach bunny in less than three weeks when she and her twin brother arrive at camp. Camp starts off with a bang when vampire hottie, Jared Andrews, becomes one of her new seven cabinmates, especially when he can't keep his eyes off her. But is he interested in her, her family's money, or her blood? She might actually enjoy summer camp, if she can stop finding dead bodies and if people stop trying to kill her.
In Forbidden Temptation of a Vampire, Jodie B. Cooper delivers a well developed and excellent story of love, suspense, action, and plenty of hilarious moments that will leave any reader grinning from ear to ear. It's the perfect combination of laugh out loud incidents and grind your teeth drama and mystery that also includes everything in between.
The characters are very human, even though they're not, easy to relate to for anyone because there are so many different personalities. I loved Sarah's character, bad ass outcast and exile (maybe that says something about me). The girl is a mystery, and it was interesting to see how the story unfolded. It's one of those books that keeps you guessing, and then you think you've finally figured it out, and something else happens that causes you to doubt previous predictions. And, I loved that about it, kept me on my toes. So much happens in this one book that there's never a dull moment.
I will say that first and foremost this book is a love story. Within all of it's paranormal elements: vampires, elves, shape shifters, and so much more, lies a very basic and beautiful almost Romeo and Juliet inspired story of forbidden love. At times the lines were cheesy and blush worthy, but overall it came across as sincere. I enjoyed the lifeMate aspect of the book, which is explained in the glossary at the back as: "two people drawn together by the synth crystal in their blood, who fall in love and bond,". It's an interesting spin on soul mates with an even deeper connection.
I can't wait to read more about this interesting world and delve deeper into the stories of these characters. Everyone is forcefully brought together with all of their differences and it's sometimes emotionally draining to keep up with all of them. A bunch of teenagers thrown into one camp together dragging all of their baggage around is quite a bit to deal with. Then add in suspicion, some jealousy, and discrimination and you've got yourself a party in Dragon Valley, kind of, I will say they do try and make the best of it.
I am a fan and cannot wait to check out some more of Jodie's work. She's an incredibly talented author who knows exactly how to connect with her readers. In addition to the glossary at the end of the story is also a map of the camp grounds, which I found to be a pretty neat feature.
Stolen: Song of the Sídhí #3
Every vampire has a destined mate. Eric is Katrina's mate, but he doesn't know it. Katrina's high school rival literally steals Eric from her by twisting a very old 'unspoken' Sídhí law. It's a story about finding and losing what is most precious to a vampire, their mate. This story actually takes place prior to Forbidden Temptation of a Vampire. In Stolen, you will meet Jared and Clarisse, two characters from Forbidden.
More about Jodie
"In the real world, I live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and I love making new friends! Online I can be found at:
Website: http://www.jodiebcooper.com/
Sídhí World News Blog: http://sidhinews.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JodieBCooper
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JodieBCooper
I'm currently working on several projects: book two in the Sídhí Summer Camp series, book four in the Song of the Sídhí series, a new series not related to the Sídhí, and daily blog posts (micro-fiction about Sídhí.)"
Carole,
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for the wonderful review!
You did a great job pointing out several aspects that I had fun writing.
I love giving all my characters unique personalities, but Sarah is my all time favorite. She is truly a bad ass. ;)
Jodie