Saturday, October 20, 2012

DEAD Memory Review and Giveaway

Now on to book 4 of the DEAD series, DEAD Memory.



Frustrated with her father’s demand she find a mate, Tawny does, but it’s not one that will receive her family’s blessing. Plus, her new love has no memory of his past…even his name.

Discovering an unconscious man who may be vampire, in the neighbor’s yard leads werewolf Tawny Howls down a love path that’s not going to make her father happy. She senses this man is different, but that doesn’t stop her attraction. Werewolves and vampires are traditional enemies, and it doesn’t help when he remembers nothing about his prior life.

Awakening to find a beautiful woman hovering over him, he remembers nothing of his past life. When Tawny decides to call him David, he’s fine with the name and the attention he receives from his nurse. But why does the scent of the prey she hunts excite him more than the food she cooks?

Can the strong attraction between a shifter and a vampire overcome years of distrust for each other’s species? Will the discovery of his true identity ensnare them in a battle that endangers their lives, in an effort to save mankind from Demon rule?


My Review:


I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

*WARNING! This review contains mild spoilers, so read at your own risk*

I love the world in the DEAD series. Each book adds more and more details to it and the paranormals just keep growing. Now angels, witches, shifters, and humans are joining the fray.

The overall plot is very interesting. Each book has a resolution to the conflict in it, but also lays the foundation for the overall plot in the series, the war against the demons and evil. Something that interests me is that this series is starting to have more and more ties to religion. Heck, David’s a vampire preacher who was saved when God sent him an angel. Satan and Beelzebub make appearances, they’re fighting evil demons, and David keeps quoting the Bible. In fact, Satan insinuates that vampires don’t go to Heaven, which I have a problem with. We have a cast of good vamps who fight against evil, yet they’re all doomed because of something that happened to them against their will? How messed up is that? Hopefully, future books will provide an answer. This book raises another question for me that I want to see answered. If vamps and shifters and demon hunters live so long, then what happens if they mate a human? If a werewolf mated a human, would the werewolf not age, but the human would? How would that work out? Anyways, moving on.

As for the characters, I liked David. He was an interesting character, a preacher turned vampire who never gave up fighting evil. I enjoyed seeing flashbacks to when he was human and was changed; it definitely helped me judge him character-wise. I will say, out of all the male leads, David is my favorite, though Bobby or Rahund just might replace him. As for Tawny, she’s probably my least favorite female lead. I like that she’s independent yet cares about her family. I just didn’t click with her at all. It seemed like I barely got to spend time with her. David was much more in this story than she was. She wasn’t in this book very much, which is odd seeing as the book is supposed to be about her and David.  As for all the secondary characters, this book introduced a couple of new ones, my favorites being the nephilium Rahund and the werewolf Bobby. I definitely want to read a book about Bobby and Evan, and Rahund as well. Bobby is a sarcastic alpha male who also has been dedicating his life to fighting evil. Sexy, right? And I spent most of the book feeling sorry for Rahund and hoping that he’d get a happy ending (and maybe his own book). I also liked Lila, Tawny’s mom. She reminded me so much of my mother that I just started laughing at things she said or did exactly like my mom. All the characters from previous are still there as well, and are as wonderful as ever.

However, this leads me to a complaint I’ve had consistently. This isn’t romance. It’s a thriller/action book with romantic elements. The blurbs lead you to believe the romance is the big focus, but it’s not. The romance feels thrown in to me, like the author just decided to add it for the hell of it. If you removed Tawny and the romance, this book would still work and you probably wouldn’t notice it was missing, which is a definite indicator that this is more of an action/thriller than a romance. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the action and the fight against evil, it’s just that I was expecting much more focus on the romance, and as the books went on, the romance lessened in each one. On top of that, the main characters, the ones mentioned in the blurb, aren’t the focus either. In this one, poor Tawny got pushed to the side in my mind. David was huge in this book, but aside from the beginning, Tawny wasn’t really in it much. Between all the action, drama, and secondary characters, Tawny and the romance felt like afterthoughts.

All in all, I like the way the story is going, things are getting excited and I can’t wait to see where we go from here. I just think that the blurbs need to be better written and not as misleading as I think they are. I would definitely recommend this series to everyone, it’s a good Halloween read :)



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Sound like your kind of read? Here's where you can get your very own copy:






BIO:
Award winning author, Lizzie T. Leaf started life in Kansas, continued her growing in North Carolina, and currently shivers through the winters in Colorado.  She has numerous e-books in varying lengths and her first print book, Struck by Lightning, won dual 2007 Beacon awards, in addition to being a finalist in two other contests.
In addition, Making Christmas, a Christmas Historical novella set during the Civil War won Love Romances Café Best Historical for 2011 and is a finalist in the Aspen Gold for Best Novella.
Beyond Magic, the first book in the Magical Love series won the 2012 Award of Excellence Best Paranormal/Fantasy/Sy-Fi, and is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the Aspen Gold.  Winners are announced in mid to late October.
 Since discovering the fun of writing paranormal, she plays with creating vampires, faeries and other immortals. Her current focus is the DEAD series.  Musa Publishing has re-released the first four novellas in the series and DEAD Hot, a new novella, is scheduled to release in October.  Emerging Magic, the second novel in the Magical Love series will also release in late October or early November with Passion in Print Press.
When not creating mischief for paranormal beings, she can be found exploring the other genres she wants to write.  She also serves as the 2012 President for the Heart of Denver Romance Writers.
Lizzie loves to read, spend time with her family and travel with her best friend husband during her free time, on which most of friends ask…“what free time?”


ONLINE LINKS:
 Don't forget to check out the other blogs on the tour:
 
10/19   House Millar
10/19  Book Purses  
10/20  Inside BJ's Head  
10/20  Once Upon A Book  
10/20  The Clumsy Coquette  
10/20  DanaSquare  
10/20  Krystal's Enchanting Reads



And don't forget to come back November 5 for the 5th book, DEAD Hot!

1 comment:

  1. I skimmed your review since it has spoilers. This looks like a great read overall. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete