M. D. Bowden

Loved it. Always love a good vampire story, especially when I can find something unique. The synopsis sounded intriguing and I didn't hesitate to dive in to this surprisingly out of the ordinary vampire love story. Okay, that might sound like an oxymoron it already being a paranormal book, but I didn't expect to find something so familiar but yet so new in a loved genre.

Dark Wine has many elements of vampire lore within it's pages, some familiar, and some from the creative mind of M.D. Bowden. What was surprising and different for me was the fact that the heroine was married with young children. I wondered how will that work, this doesn't sound like a happy ending for our hero vampire and that would have just made me sad. Not looking for a story that would just break up a family for a happy ending of my liking, but I hoped to see things make sense if the hero is to get the girl. As it turns out Sarah's life isn't as perfect as I thought it was going to be.

Daniel made me swoon as expected, he's a vampire after-all. What is a vampire story without a hunky swoon worthy vampire and the more enigmatic the better. And Daniel was all that. I loved the scenes when they were first introduced, it was so cute and funny.

Hey, and what's a vampire story without a villain? The villain in this story reminded me of those old television show villains, especially the cartoon ones. In a good way of course. They like to taunt their nemesis and never stick around to make sure their plan of destroying them is going as planned. It's just all pure arrogance. I think a villain like this makes the story that more entertaining. They're always surprise when there plan of sabotage or destruction doesn't work without their undivided attention.

To sum up, if your looking for a fun and intriguing love story that just happens to be about a vampire and a human, then Dark Wine should be a good choice. With familiar and unique elements that makes this story stand up, and out on it's own merits I think this series has a lot going for it and I will devour it as quickly as I can.… (més)

2.5 out of 5

Gateway to Faerie was provided to me by the good folks at storycartel.com for an honest review. Of course, that in no way adjusts my review of the book, but it does give me access to some books that I wouldn’t have normally picked up to read. Whether I like those books on a personal level sometimes varies.

Gateway is a book that I would recommend to the Young Adult and Teen audience looking for a dystopian novel that qualifies as an ‘easy, clean’ read. Bowden has written a nice story with sharp edges and an unusual world build.

Fayth Blackman lives in a dystopian world, set two hundred years or so after a global apocalypse blamed on religious fanaticism and growing to nuclear war. In reality, the destruction is the outcome of a gateway between worlds, allowing the faerie world to intersect with our own through a gateway opened by evil fae.

I have read and enjoyed many YA books, some of which as exceptionally written. Sadly, this isn’t one of them. Though not offensively incompetently written, there is still a great deal that could be better about the book. The story line when dealing with the three main characters is pretty much ‘rinse and repeat’ – the whole walk, fight, walk, fight, teenager finds love in a time of terror situation. The editing of the book is poor, the sentence structure is choppy, and overall I wish that the author would find a really good editor and work to outgrow the “See Fayth Run, Run Fayth Run” flow of the books narrative.

The concept pulls the book back from a lower star rating, simply because the government line of what happened to the world two hundred years ago vs. the reality is interesting. Even now, the books and schooling which Fayth receives are “humancentric” rather than realistic. The book also ends rather abruptly. I note that there is a second volume, but I won’t be reading it, as I understand from reviews that it is not written any better than the first, is novella length and basically would have been better served to be added into this volume.

Overall, this is a “tell it” not a “show it” and it simply didn’t enthrall me, even with the understanding that it is designed for a YA audience. Just because that is your audience doesn’t mean that your audience should be talked down to. A great number of the YA readers out there are smarter, better educated, and more literate than their Adult counterparts.

I would rate this book a 2.5 on a 5 point scale based on back story only.
… (més)