Book Review: The Vampire War (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #5)

Release Date: December 22, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 217 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

Find the Holy Grail. Win the war. Save the world.

A lot has changed for Annika since being kidnapped by vampires to become a blood slave in their hidden kingdom of the Vale. Not only has she learned she’s a Nephilim—a race that’s supposedly extinct—but she’s found herself on a dangerous quest for the Holy Grail. Luckily, she has the vampire Prince Jacen by her side, and the two of them feel ready for anything—especially now that they trust each other more than ever.

But finding the Grail is only the beginning. Because when Annika learns that a demon is leading a pack of wolves to war against the vampires, she must stop him before it’s too late. If she can’t, he’ll open a Gate to Hell… and the world as she knows it will be lost forever.

Get ready for an action-packed, adventure-filled ride in the EPIC conclusion to The Vampire Wish series!

  

Review:

Characters: Does anyone recognize these characters from when they were first introduced because honestly, I don't. Don't get me wrong, everything that led here has felt more or less in character and the development of each of these characters has felt realistic and deserved, but in truth, these characters have developed more than almost any I've read before. Annika is a prime example of this. She went from being a blood slave, wishing for the strength to protect herself to impersonating a vampire princess to an activated Nephilim to the potential savior of the world. To say she's been on a wild ride is a severe understatement and there's still more development for her in this book. While these characters are recognizable, their motivations and their goals have constantly shifted throughout the series and it's a joy to see how the change and develop over time. My personal favorite character to watch grow has been Camelia, previously a Jafar-type advisor, her humanity has leaked out at moments and I've really grown to root for her success, maybe not with her more duplicitous actions, but I wanted her to find a happiness that didn't conflict with characters I cared more about.

Romance: So, there really isn't much more to say about the romances in this book than I've already said before. I really do enjoy seeing Jacen and Annika work together in this story and their bond is stronger than ever as they race to save the world from near-certain doom. I love how the author never treated their romance like a race to the finish and has really developed and established their bond and chemistry before rushing into anything with them. Next, there's Karina who's soul mate comes back from the dead, the same soul mate she can't remember, and to make things even more complicated, without her memories of Peter she rushes off to tell Noah that she wants to be with him. Okay, here's my biggest problem with this book, and in all honesty, it's a very small problem, but this subplot wasn't touched on all that much. It is resolved by the end of the book, but without any real focus on it, it just sort of fell flat and I kind of lost interest.

World Building: So, wow, does this book go into the world building. It's not nearly as informative as the previous installment but there's a lot going on. Annika's quest for the Holy Grail leads to some very interesting information and everything that's been building since, well to be honest the second installment, but was truly established at the very end of book 3, finally comes to a head and we learn just what that demon has been doing in Marigold and where it came from. It's so weird to connect this book with the first because while this story started off as Aladdin with vampires and other supernatural creatures, it's turned into something else entirely unrecognizable by the time this installment rolls around, and much like the characters, everything feels both very different, but natural as well.

Predictability: Honestly I'm not sure why I'm keeping this in here I mean, there were quite a few twists and turns in the story and there were also a few things I was able to predict, but on the whole I didn't pay that much attention to how predictable or not this story was. I was just so swept away by it that I never had time to theorize and catch on to the foreshadowing, not that really was any. In fact, I've never really noticed this before but Madow's writing doesn't leave time for a lot of foreshadowing, I mean, some things make sense because they fit into a certain formula, but most of the reveals come nearly out of nowhere.

Ending: The final climax happened a lot sooner than I was expecting it to. I mean it's not like it happens in the middle of the story, but there's definitely a lot of time after the final climax to cool down and set up the next adventure. The final climax though was a lot of fun, I mean there's a war going on but the scenes were really nice and fast-paced and there was a lot of good action to soak up. The cooldown period, as I like to call it, really was all about moving forward and setting up the next series in this world, which I don't mind at all because it also helped tie up Annika and Jacen's story as well a few others for now. There is a sort of epilogue to this book that honestly does the most to set up at least one character's role in the next series, and that's all I feel comfortable saying.

Rating:

Is this book perfect, no there are honestly a few flaws with it, but in the end, I'm giving it 5 stars because it's a highly addicting story with fun and exciting characters and even though it's not perfect I enjoyed every minute of this book, well except for some of the Karina/Peter/Noah stuff but again, a very small issue.

Book Review: The Vampire Fate (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #4)

Release Date: October 5, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: TBA
Source: ARC from Author

The vampire queen is dead.

Annika shouldn’t have been able to kill the vampire queen Laila—such a task can only be done by the Nephilim, whose race is extinct. But somehow, she did kill the queen. Now she’s the number one target on multiple hit lists, and she’s only alive because she’s a fugitive at the neutral kingdom of the Haven.

As if that weren’t enough to deal with, the world is in danger and she’s the one prophesied to save it. But she doesn’t have to do it alone. When fate brings her and Prince Jacen together again, they team up on a quest to find the only object that can save the world as they know it—the Holy Grail itself.

The adventure continues in the fourth book of The Vampire Wish series, and get ready to brace yourselves, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

  

Review:

Characters: I seriously love the characters in this story. I mean, as much of an ax wound as Camelia is, there's a small part of me that really and truly wants her to have a happy ending, one that doesn't conflict with the more heroic characters that is. While for the most part, this is still Annika's story, and boy what a story it is, Karina definitely rules the second half of this book and the lengths that she'll go to to get her soulmate Peter back are staggering. Her mission takes a few twists and turns in this story and where it ended up had me gasping for air. Annika, after kind of, sort of, accidentally killing Queen Laila flees to the Haven where she learns of her Nephilim blood and what that means for her fate. She embarks on a dangerous quest that will determine the fate of the world and I loved every minute of it. Annika is a strong and capable character and watching her adjust to her newfound abilities, and her reactions to said abilities, is fantastic.

Romance: After the end of the previous installment, where Jacen learns that not only did Annika not die as he thought, but she deceived him for reasons he doesn't quite know or understand, their romance is sort of left up in the air. It doesn't take too long to know where things lie with these characters. The romance in this book isn't the building of relationships, in fact, all in all, most of the romances in this series have already been established and now they just get the chance to evolve and strengthen, or weaken should that be the case. I liked seeing Annika and Jacen interact truly as each other, and there were a few moments that really solidified why I root for them as a couple. As I said above, Karina will stop at next to nothing to be reunited with her soulmate, but she's bonded with Noah, the First Prophet, and that bond may or may not be romantic, throwing a possible wrench into her plans. Will she drop her mission to try and find love again, or will she risk it all for the smallest of chances to raise the dead?

World Building: So, I'll say that this story doesn't feel as much like filler (without actually being filler) as The Vampire Prince did, and honestly there is enough of a story for me to not even think of describing it as anything even adjacent to filler, but I did feel like there was something in this book. I think because I still feel like there's more to tell for just one more book, as this series is tentatively a five book series, and soon the whole it feels like it's missing something. As for what is in this story though, there's quite a bit. We learn a whole lot more about the Nephilim and the supernatural community at large. We learn more about the origins of certain supernatural(s) and there's some serious magic in this tale. Things are definitely coming to a head, though I was sad that there was no more plot progression on the cliffhanger twist at the end of the previous installment... maybe that's what was missing.

Predictability: In terms of things with actual foreshadowing to them, I pretty much nailed those "twists," I mean part of me doesn't even want to call them twists since the author's biggest twists don't usually have that much, if any, foreshadowing to them, and, well, this book had a few great twists. There are a few really interesting twists in this story that will be interesting to see explored as this series comes to a close and I can already see some seeds for the extensions to this world.

Ending: So, this ending is neither as anticlimactic as the previous one, nor does it have as mind-shattering of a cliffhanger. There is a cliffhanger, as this author loves to torture her readers, though she writes books quickly so it's not like there's a long wait, and this cliffhanger is more of one to really ponder on the ramifications rather than freak out over some big reveal. The final climax of this story is fantastic, and while I would have liked a bit less of a straight up cliffhanger on one character's story, overall I'm excited to see where this all leads.

Rating:

I'm honestly shocked I'm giving this book 5 stars, but looking back on it, even if there feels like something's off, it's not a big enough thing to get annoyed over since it probably won't be that long of a wait for the next (final?) book, and even though sometimes elements of this story might feel a tad derivative (something I didn't go into in this review to avoid spoilers) it's still a fun adventure and an exciting ride!

Book Review: The Vampire Trick (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #3)

Release Date: September 7, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 242 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

In a kingdom full of secrets, no one can be trusted.

Annika’s life was flipped upside down when she was kidnapped by vampires to become a blood slave in their hidden kingdom of the Vale. Now, the powerful witch Geneva has disguised her as a vampire princess, and Annika’s living in the palace to compete for Prince Jacen’s hand in marriage. But her quest to become his bride is just a facade. Her real goal? Kill the vampire queen Laila so the kingdom crumbles and she can set the human blood slaves free. 

When rebellious wolves attack the town, they leave a trail of vampire corpses in their wake, declaring war upon the Vale. But the wolves didn’t act alone. Someone on the inside is helping them, making everyone a suspect. And one major player won’t make it out alive.

Return to the mysterious, magical world of the Vale in The Vampire Trick and get ready for a major twist you’ll never see coming!

  

Review:

Characters: As the selection for Jacen's hand heats up these characters are in for a wild ride. Karina, still helping the wolves drive away the vampires on the Vale, wants nothing more than to be reunited with her one true love Peter, not knowing that Geneva's ring can never bring him back. Annika's life has been upended by vampires and she's still out for revenge but things are moving quickly and she might miss her one opening. Jacen doesn't really want this selection, he's just looking for someone who might help him take down Laila and bring a modicum of peace the Vale, but ousting Laila will be harder than he ever imagined. Finally, there's Camelia, still, on the path to immortality she prepares to meet with the fae, but what if they ask too much of her? I can't believe I'm saying this but I really love all of these characters, now that doesn't mean that some of these characters aren't evil and deserve to meet their end(s), but they are all written pretty well, and there's even a scene or two where I felt some modicum of sympathy for Camelia.

Romance: Another thing I wasn't quite expecting was for there to be some real romance between Annika and Jacen in this book. There's obviously the tricky aspect of Anikka's true identity to deal with, but I feel as though the author did a fantastic job with making me start rooting for this couple all over again. Now there are parts of this romance that did grate on me quite a bit, mainly that these two characters are pretty much the densest beings when it comes to each other. I mean Jacen keeps seeing bits of Annika in the alluring Princess Ana and even after he notes that their kiss felt familiar he still doesn't get it, and Annika doesn't realize that Jacen's cold demeanor is all an act, even when given nearly every shred of evidence needed. Even still they have a great chemistry and I'll be interested to see how much that will develop before the end of the series.

World-Building: Now this is what I'm talking about! After the previous installment, I was a bit worried going into this story. The Vampire Prince is almost entirely set up for the rest of (I assume) the series, and so not all that much happened in that book, but this book has all of the needed pay off of the previous installment. If it weren't for the fact that some of the stuff that happens in this book would feel too soon in the second book, I'd say that books 2 & 3 should have been combined. In this story, there's a lot that not only moves the plot of this story along further but also reveals a great deal about the world and still finds time to set up some pretty incredible stuff for the final installments. I really want to talk more and go into what about the world building was amazing and why, but to avoid spoilers I can't all I'll say is that if you thought about abandoning the series after the previous book, this book makes up for it and more.

Predictability: I honestly thought I knew what was going to happen in this book. I thought I knew how it would end, and a good idea of how it would be resolved, but nope. While I was able to predict a good chunk of this story it was mainly the obvious parts where the author never even attempted to be subtle with the foreshadowing. No, the really big stuff comes later, however, while I'll agree there is a twist I never saw coming, I don't think it's the twist the author was thinking of when writing the synopsis.

Ending: As much as I love this book and, in all honesty, the ending, it was a bit anticlimactic. There's something that happens at the end that while I wouldn't call it foreshadowing, practically gives arguably the biggest twist of this book away. Now, everything that happens after that anticlimactic climax is pretty fast paced and there's a definite cliffhanger here. I mean, the cliffhanger is the twist I never saw coming because there's never really any foreshadowing for it, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Book 4 can't come soon enough!

Rating:

Don't get me wrong, there's a part of me that really wants to give this book 5 stars. I mean it's so good and in comparison to book 2 it's astronomically better, but I just can't get over how, as much as I love them, these characters can be really dumb sometimes, and how the ending just fell flat and anticlimactic for me.

Book Review: The Vampire Prince (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #2)

Release Date: August 3, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 186 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

To destroy the enemy, she will become the enemy.

Everything has been taken from Annika — her family, her friends, and even her freedom — by the vampires who enslaved her in the hidden kingdom of The Vale. But now she possesses a magical ring that contains Geneva, the most powerful witch in the world, and she’s ready for revenge.

When Prince Jacen invites vampire princesses from all over the world to the palace to compete for his hand in marriage, Annika finds her chance. By commanding Geneva to turn her into a vampire princess, she can try to win the cold heart of the prince who betrayed her and left her for dead. Can she keep the emotions she used to feel for Jacen in check? Because if her deception works and she becomes his bride, she’ll have full access to the palace... and she can destroy The Vale from the inside.

But with powerful players vying for control of the ring, and a dark magic rising outside the kingdom, there’s far more at stake than just the crown.

Return to the magical world of the Vale in the second book of The Vampire Wish series and get ready for twists and turns that you’ll never see coming!

  

Review:

Characters: So, while the first book in this series had three points of view this installment introduces another main character to its ranks. I'll get to her in a minute but first, let's talk about Annika and Jacen. Honestly, I didn't feel like they did a whole lot in this book. I mean, technically they did quite a bit, but in terms of character development, they didn't develop all that much, if at all, over the course of this story. This book mainly serves to introduce some new elements to this world, that I'll get to later, so Annika and Jacen pretty much spend the whole book sulking over the other. Camelia also doesn't do much in this book. I mean, she gets some advice on what to do next, but we don't get all that many chapters from her perspective. Finally, we have our newcomer, Karina, and since she's new she's instantly the most appealing character in this book. Don't get me wrong I love (or love to hate) the other POV characters, but honestly, while they do things they don't really do anything. Karina has a bit of a tragic backstory and I'll be interested to see how she'll fit into everyone else's plans.

World Building: The majority of this book is world building and set up. I hesitate using the term filler to describe this book since technically you can't completely cut it out of the series and have it change nothing. Things do happen in this story, it's just that they're spread a bit thin. There are a lot of new elements brought into this world in this book, and at times it could get a bit confusing figuring out how everything lined up. There's a bunch of setup and world building in this book, but as I said, the plot doesn't progress very far, pretty much the author just adds a bit of thinly veiled The Selection flair into her book and adds quite a few new topics and elements into the story to sort of steer it away from the Aladdin retelling that was so integral to book one's plot.

Predictability: Okay, so this book doesn't exactly deliver on the "twists and turns you'll never see coming" that the synopsis promises. Don't get me wrong there were a great handful of times that this book surprised me, but nothing really shocked me to my very core. Again, as I said before, not much really happens in this book I guess that's the theme of this review, so there's not all that much that happens to shock me.

Ending: So, there's not final climax to this book. I mean, again, this book is mostly an excuse to introduce new elements of this world to the reader, and so there wasn't really any climactic moments in this story. Sure, the ending is kind of cliffhanger-y, but since these books come out so close to one another it's not as if it'll be that long before there's more story, so the ending wasn't all that devastating, there are some things I'd like to know but honestly, I can wait.

Rating:

So yeah, nothing really happens in this book. If you loved the first one and want to continue, should you read this book? Hell yes. It probably introduces huge elements that will come into play later. Is it as thrilling a ride as Book 1? No, not at all. In fact, the only reason I'm not giving this book a lower rating is that the story is so short and the time between books is very quick that it's not as if it'll take that long for things to heat up again. P.S. Despite giving this book a low rating, I am still highly anticipating the next installment, I still love the world, this book just sort of felt next to pointless for me.

Book Review: The Vampire Wish (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #1)

Release Date: June 1, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 204 pages
Source: Review Copy via Author

TWILIGHT MEETS ALADDIN in this hot new fantasy series by USA Today bestselling author Michelle Madow!

He’s a vampire prince. She’s a human blood slave. They should be enemies… but uniting might be their only hope to prevent a supernatural war.

Annika never thought of herself as weak—until the day vampires murdered her parents and kidnapped her from our world to the hidden vampire kingdom of the Vale.

As a brand new blood slave, Annika must learn to survive her dangerous new circumstances… or face imminent death from the monstrous wolves prowling outside the Vale’s enchanted walls. But not all in the kingdom is as it appears, and when a handsome vampire disguised as a human steps into her life, Annika discovers that falling for the enemy is sometimes too tempting to resist.

Especially when becoming a vampire might be her only chance to gain the strength she needs to escape the Vale.

Enter the magical world of the Vale in The Vampire Wish, the first book in an addictive new series that fans of The Vampire Diaries and A Shade of Vampire will love!

  

Review:

Protagonists: This story follows three characters' points of view. While there are only two characters that I would deem protagonists, with the other coming off as an antagonist, I want to talk about all three of them. First, we have Annika, a normal human girl enjoying Spring Break with her family when tragedy strikes and her parents, along with her brother, are murdered by vampires. Now she's a blood slave in the hidden Kingdom of the Vale. Wanting to no longer be helpless and a victim, Annika rebels against the vampires by stealing the food not meant for human blood slaves. Jacen is a newly turned vampire prince who wasn't able to control his bloodlust soon after turning and is now confined to the palace. Every day he practices his control and he feels he's ready to be around humans but his sire, the vampire queen, disagrees. Forcing him to sneak out of the palace, posing as a human, and entering the human village where he has a chance meeting with Annika. Camelia is a powerful witch with grander ambitions that just being Queen Laila's advisor. No, she wants to become an immortal vampire, and, more than that wishes to marry Jacen and secure her place in the hierarchy of the Vale. From a narrative standpoint, I love all of these characters. Annika is a great, and strong protagonist who is willing to fight for what she wants but she isn't as rash as some other female heroines. She understands her limitations all too well, but that doesn't stop her from doing what she knows she can do, and dreaming of a better life. Jacen is tormented by his bloodlust and while he has it mostly under control, much like Annika, he understands where to draw the line so he's rarely impulsive. He never wanted this life and he struggles with feeling like a monster. Camelia is a cold and calculating witch, she has ambitions that are within her grasp, but somehow cannot fully come to fruition without annoying trials and tribulations getting in the way.

Romance: I've had some difficult experiences with Madow's romances in her other books, and while I eventually came around to the main romance in the Elementals series, it did take a couple of books for me to get there. However, while I do feel the romance between Jacen and Annika is a bit fast-tracked, it's nowhere near as speedy as the source material, and I'll get to the source material in a bit. While there isn't all that much substance to their relationship yet, Annika and Jacen seem to be a great foil for one another. Annika has a desire to become a vampire and gain the strength, abilities, and freedoms that come with it, while Jacen is disgusted by what he's become and wishes to just live a normal life once more. They also share related interests and you can see some great chemistry that's not quite fully embraced in this story yet, but holds great potential. Another aspect I like is that Annika's desire to become a vampire doesn't stem from wanting to be with Jacen forever, though that would be a great plus, it's a more personal reason which adds some depth to her character.

World Building: Going into this story, and reading the synopsis I didn't quite see how this story could be anything meets Aladdin, but as the story unfolds I was shocked to discover that in many ways this story is a retelling of Disney's Aladdin but with vampires, witches, and shifters. I mean, it's a story that has to have been originally thought of to be a retelling, rather than a story simply borrowing elements of a classic tale. Though, it's not quite a strict retelling as the supernatural world building elements as well as the fact that this isn't a kid's book but a Young Adult one, seem to have lead the author to subvert some of the source material to match the tone and feel of the world and story she's created. One of my biggest grievances with this story is how much info-dumping there is in the beginning. I'm not opposed to learning more about this world, but it was that not only was it so dense in the beginning, but it was almost, if not, all told in first person exposition and so instead of learning about it organically, which for some of the world building would have been hard, if not impossible, to do so I would have forgiven it there, but for a lot of the exposition it would have been easy to add a few chapters before the post-prologue time jump and seen Annika or even Jacen learn about some of this world in a more organic way.

Predictability: During the exposition portion of this book as I've decided to call it before the Aladdin parallels fully kick in, this story was fairly unpredictable. I wasn't quite sure where the story would go, the synopsis does a good job to tease readers but not give them a good understanding of what they're in for, at least not in my experience. However, once the Aladdin story starts to get retold, while the author does subvert some of the plot points, it's pretty straight forward how things will progress. Don't get me wrong the author does still manage to have a bit of shock and awe in the story leading up to the rather interesting ending, but in all honestly, I was never really blown away by anything meant to be a twist after a certain point. I would just get a feeling of understanding rather than surprise.

Ending: After a certain point in the story it was obvious that the entirety of the story of Disney's Aladdin wasn't going to get told in just this one book, which makes sense as this is a series and there are more books yet to come. However, I was really interested in seeing where along the story it would end up and how certain plot points of the movie would play out with the world building established in this story. This story does end on a cliffhanger because of course, it does, and what's great about the cliffhanger here is that it isn't a huge "What's going to happen next?" question. It's obvious what'll happen next, but, at least for me, that knowing makes me all the more excited to read the next book. It's how that next chapter will unfold that has me chomping at the bit to read the next installment.

Rating:

On the whole, I loved this story. It was a fun variation on the Aladdin tale, specifically the Disney version, and I felt that Madow did a fantastic job of bringing various supernatural races into this story. However, with huge info-dumping portions in the beginning of the book and the fact that the retelling aspect was a bit too heavy-handed at times, I wouldn't feel that this book deserved five stars even though I enjoyed it so much. Also, I wouldn't call it Twilight meets Aladdin, as the world building is next to nothing like Twilight, and that characters are much stronger, at least in terms of their characterization, I would liken it more to The Vampire Diaries than Twilight.