A romantic and emotional journey of an abused woman and her path towards healing - all within a vampire urban fantasy.
Synopsis: Set in a present day Los Angeles, a young woman named Serenity is in a difficult and very abusive marriage. Her self esteem is poor and she questions whether she deserves her nightly beatings and emotional abuse from her creepy and jobless husband.
When she stumbles upon a very compelling and gorgeous stranger named Sebastian, all her feelings rearrange. As she begins to question her relationship with her husband, his abuse, and herself - the inevitable relationship develops. When Serenity realizes Sebastian is something other than human there is the inevitable conflict, some evil meddling, and ensuing drama.
Thoughts: This is a romantic, mildly horrific, urban fantasy – with some important real life aspects and concerns. Some are based upon domestic violence and the inevitable emotional journey into the experiences of an abused woman. Additionally there is the internal conflict which one can only imagine a monster must feel when needing to kill to exist. With much angst within the pages one sees into the emotional travails; caring and empathizing with some characters while loathing others. Marissa Farrar does a fine job of showing the reader her character’s complexities in a easy and readable and page-turning manner.
My only very small quibble around the book is that although the book was set in the US with the main character being American, the language is distinctly from the UK and British in nature, creating a mild internal conflict for me. I would say that some American readers may have a slight lag in the reading flow with a few small bits of the language. Thinking it would not be a detriment for most, especially if you like the Brits, I give this romantic and redemptive vampire novel a 4 stars. It was grand!
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Alone is available for purchase at B&N, and Smashwords. Both are under 5 US dollars. I also believe that Vamplit/EbookUndead is planning to publish its books in paperback? For basic information about Alone and Marissa - please see Layers of Thought's preview for Alone, and to download a sample of Alone - link to EbookUndead.com.
To connect with Marissa Farrar link to her blog, where she has a lot going on, as well as on twitter, and facebook!
Alone will be included in several reading challenges: The Speculative Fiction Challenge, New Author Challenge, Woman Unbound, The Basics Challenge, and Frightening Fiction Review Blog Hop.
Happy Friday everyone!
3 comments:
Shellie, I really enjoyed Marissa's novel, too. I am a romantic at heart who enjoys moments and not necessarily whole romance novels. I appreciated the turmoil that each character went through. I especially enjoyed the female lead as she slowly grew in confidence and strength. I think Marissa did well with her pacing, and I highly recommend this novel, too.
-James Garcia Jr, Author of Dance on Fire
Yay for Marissa and Alone!!! Another great read by Vamplit Publishing -- so glad you liked it, Shellie!
James -
When I first picked up Alone because I was on a roll with Nicole's book I thought this is good. So different but a page turner never the less.
Yes I loved Serenity - she moves toward a healthy relationship which is more than so many women just do not they - Stay.
Is that what its called Pacing? I learn so much everyday doing this. Yes she did do a great job - and a perfect exemplification of the term.
Nicole -
Yep.. it was good but then I knew it. I just wish I could read and review faster. :)
I am working on getting you all on the blog roll under Vamplit Authors... just one step at time.
Cheers!
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