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Evanescence (Evanescence #1)

by Alexandra Pelaez (Goodreads Author)

2.91 of 5 stars 2.91 · rating details · 11 ratings · 8 reviews

For the girl who has everything, Mercedes Strand can't possibly ask for more. But more she will get. She's earned it after all. She's kind, altruistic, and a total whiz on the computer. What will her rewards entail? How about a hot vampire boyfriend? Yeah, nearly draining her dry of blood and informing her she's earned the wrath of an evil psychopath vampire doesn't usuall...more

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Published October 8th 2011 by Alexandra Pelaez (first published October 7th 2011)

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Jun 13, 2012 Miranda Stork rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: blog-reviews

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was given this book to review by the author, to show alongside her giveaway. It was quite an enjoyable read, of around 50,000 words, and I’ve put up the good points and the bad points.

Good Points
I quite liked the characters. The main character, Mercedes, got on my nerves a little bit, as she was so goody-two shoes. But the author did inform me that she purposely wrote her this way for irony. I love Alexandra’s imagination, the storyline had so many different things going on, and there was a lo...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Cassandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

Evanescence was a slow read for me. It is only 97 pages long and took me over 8 hrs to read. I put my e-reader down several times to step away from the story. I was a bit confused on the vampire hierarchy, I didn’t fully understand the rankings and how each vampire was classified. I liked Mercedes online persona Countess better than her real life persona. I liked how Mercedes who has everything in the world is giving back to others and helping women who are from abusive relationships. That was p...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Cameron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sara's Review from Whatthecatread.wordpress.com

First I want to give a tail wave and massive purr to Pelaez for writing to us and asking that we review her book. That takes a certain amount of bravery we felines applaud. Thank you! ~purrs~ Secondly, I wish to say that I’m honored to have been allowed the opportunity to read and review this story. Murr!

So what were my thoughts on it? Well, I liked it! Though it is short novella consisting roughly of 50,000 words, Pelaez has some great ideas and ve...more Sara's Review from Whatthecatread.wordpress.com

First I want to give a tail wave and massive purr to Pelaez for writing to us and asking that we review her book. That takes a certain amount of bravery we felines applaud. Thank you! ~purrs~ Secondly, I wish to say that I’m honored to have been allowed the opportunity to read and review this story. Murr!

So what were my thoughts on it? Well, I liked it! Though it is short novella consisting roughly of 50,000 words, Pelaez has some great ideas and very interesting characters.

I loved her inclusion of Aztec and Indian social structure and how it defined the rank of the vampire characters within the story. It made me pull out a few textbooks and do some background reading because I wanted to learn more about it. Pelaez did some excellent research for her story and it shows.

Mercedes is an interesting young woman. I like the fact that though she is rich, she doesn’t let that define her as a person. Her willingness to help those less fortunate than her is a trait I admired greatly. I will, however, admit to finding it a bit hard to believe that she is only 17 in the story. There were several moments where she sounded more like a grown adult rather than a High School girl. Still, she’s an enjoyable character and a good match for Shadow, who is himself a very complex character and one I would like to learn more about. I found his code of honor to be very reminiscent of the Greeks and Samurai who value the idea of an honorable death above all else.

The only problem that I had with the story was that the ending felt rushed. Pelaez does a fantastic job introducing and building up her characters and the plot, and so I was disappointed when the demise of the antagonist came suddenly and without much fanfare. I’m not saying that the ending doesn’t work, but I just felt that more could have been done with it. I will say though that I really liked the cliffhanger at the very end. That was a brilliant twist that I didn’t see coming and it sets things up nicely for the second book in the series. Murr!

So when all is said and done, I enjoyed the story and am curious about what happens next to Mercedes and Shadow. I also would love to see Pelaez turn this into a full-length novel at some point. =^-^=
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Dec 21, 2011 Mello ❣ Illium ✮Harry✮ ☀Myrnin☀ Torin Ichimaru rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nice short story. I'm interested in seeing where it will go, so I will be getting the second book. I like Shadow and Mercedes is quite sweet. She does seem to be set up as that perfect girl that can do no wrong, though. There are people like that out in the world, so her character isn't unrealistic. Brandon is an interesting guy, too.

That cliffhanger is a doozy. Blackhole asked for Shadow's trust, so I hope he shows that he can be trusted. He's likable so far.

I enjoyed the multiple viewpoints fr...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Naj (Unputdownable Books) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

Evanescence is actually a creature in the book. Alexandra describes it as looking like a beetle with a lizard tail and rows of teeth. It is also the size of a medium dog and it purrs like a cat. At first, it kind of freaked me out but as the story goes a long you'll actually start thinking these things are cute.

The book started well, during the year 2075 (or sometime after), it was written wonderfully and the transitions were smooth. The book was entirely easy to read and I loved the characters...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Lindsay (The Violet Hour) added it

Shelves: arc-review

This, along with ALL the reviews posted on my Goodreads account, was originally posted on my blog, The Violet Hour.

EVANESCENCE is the first from Alexandra Pelaez, a novella that I am really hoping to get more of! After she contacted me for a review, I was so stoked to start reading. The summary sounded great. We've all read books where our vampire lore is scoffed at by vampires, but in EVANESCENCE some of them are actually real. A shot of concentrated garlic can knock out a vamp for a period of...more This, along with ALL the reviews posted on my Goodreads account, was originally posted on my blog, The Violet Hour.

EVANESCENCE is the first from Alexandra Pelaez, a novella that I am really hoping to get more of! After she contacted me for a review, I was so stoked to start reading. The summary sounded great. We've all read books where our vampire lore is scoffed at by vampires, but in EVANESCENCE some of them are actually real. A shot of concentrated garlic can knock out a vamp for a period of time, or be fatal, depending on the dosage. I think this might be the first book I've read that took this approach and I really enjoyed it.

Mercedes was a great lead for this book. Mature, strong, selfless, and extremely intelligent. She used her computer skills to help women in need of a fresh start. I liked Mercedes, but at times her 'goodness' was a bit overwhelming. Generally it was other peoples' praise of her that was a bit over the top, but I think it was just to help emphasize her pureness of heart and make her character stronger in the story. So no big deal there. She thought of others' before her own well being, and that is really a great trait to have. It was on her way home from Womens' Aid one night that her life started changing.

Enter Shadow. Dark, mad, degraded... He was the perfect example of a tortured soul. The way he had been treated his entire existence by the vampire elite was terrible. He wrestled with inner demons of wanting to escape such a life, but his honor would not release him to end it. The physical violence Shadow endured literally made me gasp. It was awful. Watching him come from a place of desolation to feeling and accepting love was a wonderful thing. He put up a good fight in admitting his feelings because he had long ago denied himself the ability to feel anything except despair.

It was very interesting that Pelaez used the class system from India to describe the different levels in her vampire society. I love reading fresh ideas and learning something new, so this was another aspect in EVANESCENCE that I really enjoyed. You can tell that a lot of research went into the book. I must say that I would have liked for the chapters to be a bit longer simply because I wanted more. Pelaez had her characters solidly developed, so while the point of view changed with each chapter, it was evident who was speaking. A few times though, I would have rather witnessed the goings-on from Mercedes' or Shadows' perspective, and that may have helped make the connection to the characters a bit more immediate.

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to read EVANESCENCE. With a cliffhanger like this one, you can BET I'm looking forward to reading more of Shadow and Mercedes' story. After writing this review, I discovered that the sequel, THE MIRROR, is already available. I'm excited to see what adventures Pelaez has in store for all of us!
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Apr 10, 2013 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book even though I don't think it's great literature. I thought it was an easy read and probably wouldn't care about another until the last page or so… Now I have to get the next to find out what's going to happen.

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Aug 21, 2012 Melanie Cusick-Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Review to follow - an interesting story and an unusual take on vampire society - 3.5* but I marked up because I found myself going back for more, which tells me the story had a grip on me :)

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Apr 29, 2013 Chantelle Morgan rated it 2 of 5 stars

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Mar 17, 2013 Shana rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Mar 05, 2013 Brenda rated it 2 of 5 stars

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Apr 11, 2012 Merry marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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About Alexandra Pelaez

Have been stuck in Florida for as long as I can remember, and much as I'd love to see snow sometime in the future I'm happy as can be. I'm a Liberal and Progressive, but also well aware that corruption is always inevitable in politics which explains my strong Machiavellian streak. Since I discovered my passions will always lie in the arts a few years back, I've been teaching myself how to draw and...more

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Evanescence (Evanescence #1)

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