Book Review: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Goodreads Summary: On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.
A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.
She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.
An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.
Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.
Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.
Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

Title: A Shade of Vampire
Series: A Shade of Vampire #1
Author: Bella Forrest
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: 14th December 2012
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy Romance
Format: eBook
Source: supplied by Author for an honest review and then I purchased from iBooks

Well, all I can say is HOLEY MOLEY, that was awesome! I have no idea why I haven’t read this book sooner, it is amazing. It is only fairly short at 150 odd pages, but it was full of story and unbelievably awesome characters. I cannot wait to read book 2, A Shade of Blood and book 3, A Castle of Sand comes out June 26th. I will have snavelled that one up by the time you read this review. A Shade of Vampire was extremely well written, with fast pace and unique world building that I read it in a day. Highly addicted to the characters, I had to find out what was going to happen with Sofia, Derek and Lucas.

Sofia is a 17 year old that has no parents. She is staying with her best friend, Ben and on her 17th birthday Sofia is abducted. Sofia couldn’t stand seeing Ben with another girl any longer and had to take a walk along the beach that night. BIG MISTAKE!

Sofia wakes up in a dark cell with hay under her feet. Thinking she is in a dungeon and frightened out of her mind, Sofia doesn’t know what to expect. Lucas walks in and pushes her up against the wall; he wants to claim her for himself, but she is to belong to the Prince of the vampire coven, Derek. Derek has been awakened from a four hundred year slumber and needs a harem of young 17 year old girls to keep him occupied.

The Shade is a sanctuary for vampires; an island that is hidden from everybody and everything. No satellites or maps know about this island and it is hidden forever in darkness by a witches spell. There are hunters trying to kill off the vampire race and as such, The Shade was created.

Sofia is introduced with four other girls to Derek. Since being asleep for four hundred years, he is obviously starving for blood. But there seems to be a connection between Sofia and Derek that is unbelievable to all, even themselves. They form a bond of sorts and Sofia becomes Derek’s personal slave; this has its benefits but also its dangers. Lucas is still determined to have Sofia for himself and will scare her to death if she says a word to anyone about his visits.

Derek is extremely protective of Sofia and will give her whatever she desires (except for freedom obviously). There is a prophecy that Derek is to lead the vampire race to peace, but he has no idea why he would be the chosen leader when Lucas is older.

Sofia is a brilliant character, she is full of attitude and passion and patience. Still determined to escape eventually, she is starting to have feelings for Derek who has his own passion and humanity. The characters have such growth throughout A Shade of Vampire and with full on action, romance and the twists along the way, it really has everything. I am a new fan of Bella Forrest’s and cannot wait to read A Shade of Blood. I highly recommend this book to all young adult fantasy romance readers.

5 FANTASTIC ROMANTIC FANTASY BOOKS

About the Author

I guess my life as a writer started when I was five; I'd sit under the kitchen table with my box of multi-colored wax crayons (I miss those) and create picture books.

Creative writing was always my favorite subject and I used any free time I had to sit down with a notepad.

Not much has changed, except that now I have developed vampirish habits: my writing "day" typically starts at 1am.

I'm an avid reader, a big fan of cookie ice cream and I'm often travelling.

When working I have to disconnect the internet for fear of being endlessly distracted by websites such as www.icanhas.cheezburger.com.

~ Website ~ Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~

Other books in the series:

SPOTLIGHT - A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Today I am spotlighting A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest. I have been hearing some fantastic reviews about this book, check it out below.

Title: A Shade of Vampire
Author: Bella Forrest
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: 14th December 2012
Format: Paperback and eBook

On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.
A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.

She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.
An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.

Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.

Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.
Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

Purchase Links

~ US Amazon Paperback ~ US Amazon eBook ~

~ UK Amazon Paperback ~ UK Amazon eBook ~

Excerpt

I’d been meandering along the shore for about an hour when I suddenly sensed that I wasn't alone. Someone was approaching me from behind. My heart leapt. I was so sure it was Ben, that when a stranger showed up beside me, I couldn't hide my disappointment.

He must have noticed, because a smirk formed on his lips. “Were you expecting someone else, love?”

I eyed him suspiciously, remembering how many times my father had told me not to talk to strangers. I looked him over, taking in his appearance. My eyes widened. I couldn't find words to describe how fine a man he was. He was almost beautiful. The first thing I took notice of was how his blue eyes were about three shades brighter than any I’d ever seen before. It was such a stark contrast to his pale – almost white – skin and dark hair. Standing beside me, he was easily more than half a foot taller. His height, broad shoulders and lean build reminded me of Ben, but he had a presence that was far more imposing than my best friend’s.

My gaze settled on his face.

I realized that he was inspecting me just as closely as I was him. His eyes on me suddenly made me feel uncomfortably vulnerable. I gave my father’s advice a second thought, but quickly cancelled out all notions of heeding to his counsel when I reminded myself that he stopped caring a long time ago.

I straightened to my full height and mustered all the courage I had to keep myself from running away from this stranger.

Big mistake.

The confident smirk didn't leave his face for even a moment.

“Like what you see?”

“A bit full of yourself, aren't you?” I scoffed, annoyed by his audacity.

He stepped forward, closer to me, and leaned his head toward mine.

“Don’t I have the right to be?”

He knew he looked good and wasn't about to act like he didn't.

“Whatever,” was my oh-so-brilliant comeback.

My shoulders sagged with defeat as I took a step back, unsettled by how close he was now. I rolled my eyes and did a one-eighty, not quite in the mood to play whatever game this stranger was proposing.

I would soon realize that I was about to play his game whether I liked it or not.

He grabbed my arm and turned my body to face him. This motion alone made every single internal alarm I had within me go off in a frenzy.

This man was danger and I knew it. I tried to wriggle away from his touch, but I was no match for his strength.

“Tell me your name,” he commanded.

I was about to refuse, but was horrified to find myself blurting out my name in response.

“Sofia Claremont.”

As soon as I revealed my name, his eyes lit up with a kind of sinister approval. Then he reached for my face and traced his thumb over my jaw line.

“Hello, Sofia Claremont. You’re one stupid girl for taking a walk alone at this time of night. You never know what kind of evil a pretty little thing like you could happen to come by.”

I found myself wondering exactly what kind of evil he was. But I was suddenly overcome by the sensations that were surrounding me. My senses took in everything at once. I heard the waves, felt the sand, smelled the ocean salt, tasted the flavour of cherry and saw the stranger’s manic appearance as he stuck a needle to my neck. The effect was instant. I was barely able to gasp, much less scream. I went from sensing everything to sensing absolutely nothing.

My last conscious thought was that I may never see Ben again.

---

About the Author

Bella Forrest ~ I've been telling stories pretty much since I could talk. Instead of having my parents read me bed-time stories, I would prefer to share with them my own made up tales.

As I grew older, I developed a passion for the fantasy genre.

I’m an avid reader and a hopeless Potterhead.

If you sign up for personal email updates from me here: www.forrestbooks.com ,
you'll be the first to hear about my new releases.

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