For 500 years Lenah Beaudonte has been a vampire. 500 years of seduction, blood and destruction. But she is sickened by her dark powers and longs to feel the sun on her skin, grass under her bare feet, and share the breath of a human kiss. She wants to be mortal again.
But is she really capable of being human, after her long years of darkness? Waking up as a sixteen-year-old girl brings Lenah many things the life she has missed, taste, touch, love. But a vampire soul is not easily shed. And her coven of four vampires she led in decadence and thrilling destruction want their queen back...
It took me a very long time to like this book, I mean it. I picked it up a few months ago and ended up putting it down because I couldn't get hooked. I tried again last week after I got the sequel for review and couldn't get into it for a long time. I don't think that I was ever completely hooked by this book since it took my five days to plow through. I'll admit that this book was good enough by the end to make me want to read the sequel but it took it's sweet time getting to that point. Just saying.
Okay, let me point out the one MASSIVE thing that annoyed me about this book. Lenah is this 600 year vampire that has been in hibernation for like, 100 years and when she wakes up she's human. So far, so good... BUT when Lenah wakes up and starts to go about her life as a normal sixteen year old girl she gets on with it so easily, surely you'd expect her to be amazingly confused by like, how people talk and the newfangled contraptions, right? Nah, our Lenah (who by the way is awesome in everything and is flawless) gets right in there, using words like digital and stuff, it just didn't work for me.
I liked some of the other characters. I especially liked Tony who, although being kind of close to stalker at some points is loyal and sweet and I think Lenah should so have picked him over popular and hot but completely boring Justin, with whom there was zilch chemistry. I also liked Rhode, or what Lenah remembers of him, he seems absolutely amazing! I also really enjoyed the Rhode/Lenah romance aspect. Vampire/human relationships always freak me out, since Lenah is like 600 years old...
I have to admit that the flashback parts of this book engaged me WAYYY more than the parts set in the present, and the best parts are the bits where things actually happen. I liked the bit at the end where Lenah's old coven come to track her down, I found that I was gripped at those parts and I hated the cliffhanger, it's definitely made me want to read the sequel (which i have TBR).
Overall, despite a slow start and a main character that I just couldn't stand I did actually enjoy the premise. Apparently Lenah sorts herself out in the sequel and the romance becomes more realistic so I will be reading the sequel. The ending gripped me and so I'm blaming the low rating of this book on a first book world building syndrome.
Overall Rating: D+
Released in the UK April 1st 2011 by Panmacmillan
Book received via swap
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