Seventeen year old Alexis finds herself on the eve of her eighteenth birthday. What generally means a step into adulthood instead opens its way to a terrifying truth about not only her family, but herself. She comes from a long line of vampire hunters, and her real dad wants her to carry on the family quest. At the same time, she is falling for a new boy at school who has his own secret. He is a vampire. Alexis is forced to make a decision from which there is no turning back. – Will she deny this newly discovered heritage, or embrace it.
K.A. Poe's books aim to remedy the limp, helpless heroine that plagues many paranormal and urban fantasy novels by introducing strong, kick-ass female leads. Combining suspense and adventure with non-explicit romance, her Nevermore and Forevermore series have enticed hundreds of thousands of readers. From vampires to witches and werewolves, you will find what hundreds of five-star reviews confirm - once you join the adventure, you'll never want to stop.
She resides in Indiana with her husband and daughter. Accompanying the trio is K.A. Poe's writing assistant Aries (who happens to be a cat and doesn't do much in the way of assisting or writing, unless you consider sleeping on the keyboard helpful... ) and their two other furry companions - Lyra and Gemini.
I abandoned this book about half way through. Actually I gave up before that put it down and then picked it up again forgetting why I gave it up. About one more page and oh I REMEMBERED!
Problem one I came across was that Alex mentioned in the beginning that her dad took off when she was six. A little later she is talking about her love of music and mentioned that she had lessons when she was young but quit after her dad left. Do you know of anyone who gets lessons at 5? Maybe it is just me but that seems a little young for piano lessons.
The second problem I came across was when Alex left school the first day. It is a Friday and she is sitting on the bleachers with her two friends, Karen and Jason, saying goodbye and Karen says, "I'll see you next week, then." Umm.. It’s been a while since I was in high school but I don't remember going a weekend without seeing or at least talking to my friends and that was before cell phones and internet in every household.
Then she runs in the new guy, Salem, leaning against her car in the parking lot. That whole situation was just really odd. Small town sure but in this day and time would you give a strange guy a ride down an old dirt road into a totally secluded area? And then how the author does the dialogue! She has a century old vampire "beam" at Alex?! Maybe again it's just me but I don't get that at all! When I read that someone "beams" I am usually seeing an expression on a small child or someone who is being praised by someone they admire or look up to. It made me think the guy was a little umm... slow maybe.
Anyone else notice how time FLIES in this book? I mean she gets out of school, drives Salem to his secluded home, and all of a sudden it's 7pm! That was at least a 2 1/2 hour drive!
Let's see how many issues have I come up with so far? I guess we are on Problem five. After Salem drops this bomb on her about how her parents aren't her parents she appears to be quite upset, understandably of course, but then not a few pages later she is giving in to his suggestion to just go to sleep. Hmm... Again just me, but personally with that kind of revelation I think I would have trouble sleeping.
Alex's 18th birthday party reminded me a child's birthday party.
"'Let me handle this,' Karen said in disgrace when she saw my face. I watched her casually enter the living room and shut off the radio. 'How about everyone get ready for Alex to open her presents while I order us some pizza?' Everyone settled down after cheering at the idea of pizza. I smiled thankfully at my blonde friend as she passed by to order the food. The crowd of teenagers deserted the living room and filled the small dining room area, surrounding me and the table of unopened gifts. Karen joined them after hanging up the phone."
Anyone think Karen sounds like a mom and the little teenagers more like 10 or 12 year olds? I saw little girls in pink dresses and boys dressed in slacks and dress shirts when I read this.
One other strange observation is how Salem keeps putting her to bed. Fully clothed - no night time rituals of teeth brushing, face washing,or clothes changing for this group.
I think the straw that finally broke it for me was this little part: (Alex is talking to Paul at his home)
"I popped the can open, flashing him a smile in thanks before I took a sip. It was even warmer than expected, but I drank it anyway. 'I had a weird dream last night, and I was wondering if you could help me figure it out.' I wracked my brain trying to figure out how I was supposed to ask Paul about this without mentioning Salem. 'Well, I ain't much of a psychiatrist or anything,' he chuckled, 'but I'll do my best.' I took pride in the fact that my vocabulary and speech varied from his - I had Desmond to thank for that one. Before he decided to leave Janet and me, he was an English teacher and actually made an effort to dedicate some of his time helping me expand my vocabulary."
That ticked me off. Talk about egotistical! I come from an area where "ain't" is an everyday word. It's not because these people aren't educated, it is a slang word coming from a lot of habit. And again I have to remind you that her father, Desmond, left her at age SIX! Yes, children are little sponges but come on!
Alexis is a completely empty person. There is nothing memorable to her. Even though I just read 5 chapters and put the book down about 4 minutes ago, I had to pick it back up to look up her name. She's that invisible.
I've had more emotion about a smudge on my glasses than Alexis had over the revelations about her life.
A laptop? A high school guy picks up a part-time job, saves up every penny to buy a friend a laptop?
The town has 3000 people but the high school only has 100 students? And 15% of them show up for her birthday? And she doesn't really know them even though everyone in town knows everyone else in town?
In five chapters, her shoelaces are mentioned. Seriously. Shoelaces. Twice. In five chapters.
When I see "vampire hunter" in a book, it should be at least as bizarre as Abraham Lincoln with an axe or as cool as the Winchesters with their Impala or as clever as Buffy and Mr. Pointy.
Turning eighteen for Alexis, means taking part in the family business. Which just so happens to be vampire hunting.
All she wanted was a new laptop - maybe even the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe. But discovering that her parents aren't her real parents, that her Uncle Paul is actually her father and that vampires exist, was not on her birthday list.
Dealing with the news remarkably well, Alexis finds an ally - and a friend - in the new boy at school, Salem Young.
Who just happens to be a vampire.
On first dates, some guys get the talk from the girl's dad. Salem gets the crossbow.
Her father, a vampire hunter himself, is less than pleased with his daughter befriending a vampire - let alone falling for one, which Alexis seems to be in danger of doing. Alexis tries hard to balance spending time with Salem with her hunter training; reluctant to actually do any of the killing, despite her father's enthusiasm for the 'hunt'.
But Paul isn't easily placated. No daughter of his will date a vampire while he's got breath in his body.
Myths are just myths...or are they?
Alexis believes it's a co-incidence that her last name, Waldron, translates into the word 'wall-raven'. But when Salem tells her of the myth that speaks of how some hunters can transform into ravens, Alexis begins to have doubts. Does she have abilities she doesn't know of? And will they aid her in dealing with those vampires out there that wish to harm her?
Or will they make her a target?
Like a beautifully composed piano composition, Twin Souls connects with readers - presenting a vampire novel that makes them question who the real monsters are.
It was a good story, but certain parts felt like a copy of twilight. Also, the story seemed rushed instead of smooth. The storyline was interesting, though.
Being honest here, I read this book as part of a sampler collection.
I ended up skimming through more than half of it because I just couldn't take it anymore (by skimming, I mean that I still picked up on all major events without reading too many details).
Why did this thing get one star? So, so many reasons.
Alexis and Salem fall in love after about, oh, I don't know, 2 hours of knowing each other? Time is weirdly fluid in this book, making me think SOMEONE never bothered to proof read or edit critically.
Alexis leaves school and suddenly it's 7 pm. She has a conversation with someone mid-morning, and suddenly the sun is setting.
The adverbs kill me and often don't make sense: "I slowly jerked the car..."
Do you know what jerking means? It's by definition kind of a rapid action, but whatever.
Also, I think the author has never actually read The Raven. It is not a book on its own, it does not take hours to read. It's a poem. For someone who based their pen name on Edgar Allan Poe, I'm severely disappointed, K.A.
Alexis' secret ability was obvious the moment the foreshadowing tried to hint at it. Then there's the whole mom/dad etc. situation.
No spoilers, I promise, but may I just note that it's highly unlikely that if you've known someone your entire life, maybe you've seen their house before? Or their place of work? Or, you know, have their phone number? Somewhere?
There were just so many issues with this type of story. Never mind the painfully transparent plot and bad guy, and the fact that Salem is just a weird little dude. The way he's described, the way he behaves. He doesn't come across as a Welsh vampire, he comes across as a sixteen-year-old who takes high school drama class too seriously and is PRETENDING to be different.
Such a meh read. Everything was pretty obvious from the start. And the ending was abrupt. I liked Salem though. He was so helpful to our main protagonist. Spoiler alert I don't know how she can live her life with a vampire without turning into one.
This was the second book in a free 13 book bundle. At first glance it is a story about a girl who was just abandoned by the woman she knew as her mother on the eve of her eighteenth birthday. Suddenly she's approached by a mysterious boy who takes her to his home and tells her that her parents weren't her real parents, and that Witches are real, but he's not one. I'll admit that I had no desire to finish this. Even skimming became tedious after a bit. By the time I reached her birthday party I lost all respect for her. She somehow managed, in a small town, to convince her very close friends that she was into things she really wasn't into. For some reason, she didn't want them to know that she liked Classical music or books...Uhhu... Then she gets all offended when they put down the new guy for getting her a book for her birthday, and that they don't know you well enough to get you anything you want. A laptop? First, what an amazing gift! Not that my friends didn't love me, but if they'd gotten me a laptop for my 18th I would have been ecstatic, and yet you with your supposed intelligence are disappointed? Oh, and how the new guy gets her! Because he has given her no time to start hiding who she really is, as she probably would have eventually. So, I got lost on what the plot of the story was supposed to be. The most of what I can gather is maybe it was the author's attempt to cash in on the Twilight scene by writing another, worse version of angsty Bella and stupidly enigmatic Edward. As soon as it was revealed that he's a daywalking vamp I groaned. Bet you they both turn out to be virgins too, but I didn't stick around to find out. I refuse to waste my time reading about another whiny teenager who hates the bed she made. I have some choice words for someone like that. Not recommending this to anyone I really care about. Great Kindling if I had it in paperback form! Just as a side note: Having the main character reading Edgar Allen Poe was not as clever as the author thought it would be. It just made me roll my eyes, and as other's have pointed out, the Raven is a poem, not a full length novel.
{Disclosure: I was sent a review copy of this book by the author in exchange for my review. I received no monetary compensation nor am I expected to give this book a positive review...all thoughts and feelings about this book are my own.}
I'm going to say right away that this book was out of my comfort zone, or so I thought. In an attempt to read something that wasn't fluffy and light and wonderful I agreed to read this at Ms. Poe's request.
I am so glad I did. I loved every page I read of this book. Alexis was a great lead female and Salem was a strong male lead. I wasn't overly fond of Paul, but he does redeem himself a bit as the book goes along. There were parts of the ending that were quite the surprise as I never saw them coming.
Alexis's whole life changes the day she turns 18. Her mother mysteriously disappears leaving a rather cryptic note and a beautiful boy shows up at school and talks her into going to his house. There she learns that her entire life has been a lie and she's not exactly who she thought she was.
I had to stop reading halfway through to email Ms. Poe and ask her if there would be a sequel as I didn't want this to be the end of Alexis's story! Thankfully she told me that there'll be a sequel coming soon. I can't wait to read it!
Again, thank you so, so much! It was a pleasure to read Alexis and Salem's story!
This was an amazing read and it was such a close 5 star rating but It wasn't quite that good so I will give it 4.5 stars.
First I need to say that yes part of the book reminded me of twilight. But Poe really made this her own story and even though a few things reminded me of twilight she made it her own abd she did it good! I would say that it can be difficult to write about vampires after twilight since it bacame such a big hit so everyone who have read the books will compare them to other books in the same genre unless you come up with somrthing uniqe.
In a way Poe really did something different with these books!
I love the story between Alex and Salem! They are both intruiging characters and Salem does have that mysterious vibe about him that just makes you love him more! Alex is a strong female but she is not aware of it but when she comes to terms with what she is by blood and when she sort of accept it she aslo finds her strength!
The love story is great but perhaps a little fast in it's pace. Everything happens so quickly. Meeting - falling in love - moving in ...... A little fast but perhaps That was how it had to be for the story!
I loved this one! It is a mix between Twilight and Vampire academy but with it's own unique style! An awesome read that I highly recommend.
Is it possible to give a book negative stars? This one is a train wreck. I only chose to read it because of the reference to Edgar Allan Poe. I cannot even finish it. It's a mess. Bad grammar, inaccurate references to literature, horrid "plot" (wait, was there a plot? I missed it entirely). Side note, I forgot to mention the author kept referring to The Raven as a book. At one point, the main character was reading the Raven in class (as a book assignment from the teacher) and later found it and "picked up on the story where she left off", reading it all night until she finally fell asleep. The Raven is a goddamn poem, not a story, not a book. The author has not read The Raven. Do not disrespect Edgar!
This was a great book in my opinion, the type of book that once you start you can't seem to put it down. When i read about Alexis' life and how in changed completely in a month, finding out she was adopted, a vampire hunter, but also falling in love with a vampire. She changes through out the plot by dropping out of school, hunting with her real father, and living with Salem, her supposed soul mate. They fall in love, which makes her father furious doing anything to keep her away from vampires. Overall, the plot was exciting and sort of reminded me of Twilight, but instead had a little twist on it.
The book takes off like a rocket. Within the first paragraph I was hooked and couldn't wait to find out what happens next. All of the characters in this book are well written and very believable. I could close my eyes and even picture the town of Wilowshire, CO. I HATE BEING A SPOILER so I won't say much about the plot. But after reading this book I have already started the 2nd in this series and I'm nearly done.... and WHOA it is good too!
Very Twilight-ish. She discovers she comes from a long line of vampire hunters while she is secretly dating a, wait got it..., a vampire. Not a like-able character. She drops her friends and drops out of school in her senior year! to go live with a boy (the vampire--gasp) in the woods and takes long walks by the lake and reads. Yawn. Why did I finish it? I was hoping for a twist, something exciting. Nope.
Refreshing read, plus no werewolves! Story about a girl who falls for a vampire, then finds out she is a vampire hunter, oh and she turns into a raven when angry. Wish there was more romance in book one, very YA. Already started reading book two and its great so far. Look forward to reading all Mrs. Poe offers.
Wow, this author loves adverbs. Everything must be done swiftly, or abruptly, or sorrowfully. Often they don't even make sense, e.g., "I slowly jerked the car..."
The writing distracts me from the story, which is actually fine, if not unusually paced. (Time stretches, then speeds up, then stretches again.)
Also, I'm pretty sure the author hasn't read The Raven. She consistently refers to it as a story, not a poem-- and, thematically, there are zero similarities between this book and the poem.
I loved reading this story! I had a hard time putting the book down. The story was well writen and the relationship of the main characters Alexia and Salem was heart warming. What would you do for the one you love? I was a bit skeptical in the beginning about Salem, but I fell in love with him throughout the book. If you love vampire romance......You must read thisbook. You won't be dissapointed.
I enjoyed Twin Souls. It had a pretty good amount of twists and suprises. I like the new ideas on vampires. My favorite was the character development and evolving. I like it when a stone hard charcter is forced into a situation that may change his very makeup.
The main character is about as interesting as plain toast. Her vampire boyfriend is adorable and perfect as expected. Honestly, it was a very easy read but hardly left an impression. Honestly, I was hoping they would both die at the end. To its credit both of the characters are better people than the characters in Twilight story is about as interesting.
An interesting tale that keeps you entertained. It's not one of those books you must pick up every day, you can take your time with it as it plods along. I thought the main vampire character a bit wishy washy, and I got a bit lost of who was who, but overall it is a good plot.
From start to finish, this book was captivating and fascinating. K A Poe has a unique way with words that I thoroughly enjoyed. I can't wait to dive into more of her works in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is the kind of book you read and when you are finished, or you set it down for whatever reason, you forget what was happening. I didn't care for the insta-love between Alexis and Salem. I'm not interested in continuing the series and wouldn't recommend this book.
The characters are unrealistic and stupid. I understand this is a fantasy novel that revolves around vampires and vampire hunters. However, when real life scenarios are in your novel, you should have your characters act how any real life person would act. Janet just up and leaves her daughter, Alexis, all alone. Alexis is seventeen, about to be eighteen. Janet gives her the house and some money. Janet leaves to go live with a new boyfriend in the next to overland doen't want to forcer her daughter to move while she goes off to try and find love. Alexis has never met this guy. Janet says everything will be explained.
NO Mother would leave her daughter like that. I don't care if the daughter is adopted and about to find out she's a vampire hunter. No Mother would leave her child alone when she knows that is coming. I could see this being the case if Janet had done this before or if she wasn't really a mother to Alexis. However, that does not seem to be the case. Alexis really doesn't seem that phased by the fact that her mother left. She just goes off to school and is slightly upset. She tells her friends and all her friends can say is let's have a party. NO!
Why must so many people try and rip off Twilight? If you want to go down the whole 'our souls are fated' route, that is fine. However, you need to make it more realistic. Alexis barely leaves Salem's side one they lay eyes on each other. The day before her birthday, knowing the guy for an hour, she goes to his house and spends the night. That is stupid. That is not smart. Why are there lines like 'Salem wasn't wearing the grin she had often seen on him', or something to that affect. Alexis has barely known him four hours at this point! That does not make sense! Why is Salem, the guy she doesn't know, explaining her FAMILY lineage to her? Again, NO MOTHER WOULD THAT TO HER DAUGHTER.
Is it really that uncommon for teenagers to enjoy classical music and classical novels? It's not that uncommon. I don't understand why that is something she has to hide from her friends. The author has done that so Salem and Alexis can have more in common. Many people in the world, teenagers included, enjoy those things. They aren't a staple for the vampires!
The Friends. I would love a friend like Jason. He gave her a laptop for her birthday! Does Alexis appreciate this at all? No, she does not. Why let him through the party at her house, and then not even show up? After not showing up to the party, Jason confesses feelings for Alexis! He plans a birthday party for Alexis that she doesn't even make an appearance at, AT HER HOUSE! There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Alexis is not into Jason. Don't make characters that stupid. None of these things make sense.
Details. This novel contains the sentence or two of details. I really don't like novels that don't give enough detail, it makes me feel like I am ready chapter books for children.
Janet is dead. Alexis has basically moved into Salem's house. Alexis is not attending school. Her solution is to drop out! Why does she have to drop out? The messages being sent in this book are horrible. Spend the night at the house of a guy you just met. Done. Ditch all your family and friends for him. Done. Drop out of school because you can't be bothered to go to school when you could spend more time with him. DONE!
The worst part, because there is more, after Alexis and Paul returned home from facing Mark. Alexis has BRUISES ON HER NECK from Mark. Salem is upset. Then, Salem says, 'Please tell me that he is dead?" Alexis says that Paul killed him. Salem says, 'you didn't have anything to do with it [killing Mark], did you?". BRUISES ON HER NECK! This infuriates me to no end! Pick a side! You can't have Salem get pissed at Mark for the bruises on Alexis, want him dead, and then not what Alexis to have killed a vampire! Stupid Characters! So if Mark would have killed Alexis would that have been fine, as long as Alexis didn't kill a vampire!
Also, this is a small town, I feel like more people would be watching out for Alexis considering her mom just died! NOPE.
Lastly, The Raven is a short story.
This novel doesn't do anything right! Save yourself the hassle and go read Twilight! If Twilight is not your thing, or you've already read it, pick something else!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I need to review this book because it was just so much worse than almost anything I've ever read. And I've read some really bad books. I received this book for free as a part of a free box set. Major spoilers lie ahead. I will not be marking them specifically, because that would imply that they're worth discovering through reading this book. I suggest only reading this if you are offered cash in advance to do so.
Twin Souls is a paranormal romance between a vampire and a seventeen-year-old, Alexis, who has just discovered multiple things: her parents are not her parents, her uncle is her real father, and her family is a famous (famous to vampires, I guess) family of vampire hunters. This book was completely awful, and I'd like to give some reasons why:
-The characters had no depth to any of them. Even the scant personality traits given to the protagonist Alexis (plays piano, likes Edgar Allan Poe) were not demonstrated. A suggestion often repeated to those honing their writing skills is show, don't tell. Being told that Alexis' favorite writer is Edgar Allan Poe does not actually inform a reader about Alexis as a character, nor does it actually convince a reader that she does, in fact, like Edgar Allan Poe. If she seemed to brood and gravitate towards darker themes, that might introduce the reader to why she like Poe, thus fleshing out her character more. If she spent any time reading Poe during Twin Souls, I might actually believe her too. She might've kept a diary, maybe about the numerous changes going on in her life and how she's handling them, and looked to Poe as both writing inspiration and imaginary confidante. The point, of course, is that there are myriad ways any of the characters could've been made two- or even three-dimensional, but instead, the reader is left reading from the perspective of a personality-less blob whose only demonstrable character trait is that she likes someone.
-The conflict was almost nonexistent, which is weird for a vampire novel, especially where multiple characters are vampire hunters (usually vampire hunters + vampires = action, bloodshed, rivalry, etc). The biggest conflict in this novel involves Alexis' ex-mother Janet: Janet's new boyfriend Mark is a vampire, and the protagonists suspect that the string of animal attacks plaguing Denver can actually be attributed to Mark. This really could've been interesting. Instead, the characters live on the other side of Colorado, far away from any potential conflict that could remotely affect their safety and their daily goings-on. Alexis, the vampire boyfriend, and her uncle/father/local-vampire-hunter (Paul, for short) do eventually make the trip out to Denver to investigate. This takes up maybe a few pages, most of which is their completely uneventful trip from the local airport to the Denver airport. Once onsite, they immediately find the evil vampire Mark and Alexis' mother. There is a brief skirmish, which was actually mostly dialogue, in which nothing is resolved. And then they fly back to Nowhere, Colorado. Okay, so now that we've established that there's no vampire-on-vampire conflict in this book, you might think that the real story is Alexis' psychological conflict. She's really been through a lot in 200 pages (abandonment issues, death in the family, learning who she really is, a struggle between her love for her vampire boyfriend and her innate desire as a vampire hunter to eradicate vampires from the Earth...), so you might think her internal conflict would play a major role. It does not.
-The protagonist Alexis is primarily characterized by a complete lack of intelligence and common sense. This might serve a purpose in other works (if she had an intelligent sidekick to play off of, it could be a fantastic buddy comedy, or if she was forced by circumstances to grow into a more mature character, it'd make for a decent coming-of-age, or if her mistakes created a snowball of problems that become progressively more elaborate and absurd, she'd be the center of a comedy of errors). In Twin Souls her stupidity is frustratingly dull and contributes nothing to the story. The first offense is the romance in this paranormal romance. Alexis falls in love with the vampire Salem within about a day of meeting this guy. It was not love at first sight, no; because that might've been excusable. Instead, she's just desperate for validation and falls head over heels in love after he compliments a piano piece she wrote (this was, by the way, the one and only time she ever plays or mentions the piano in the entire book). She also blindly accepts that the two of them are fated to be together because he told her so. Suffice to say, even seventeen-year-olds aren't this dumb in relationships. My second quip is how her relationship made her oblivious to the entire rest of her life going on around her. She doesn't actually express any interest in learning more about her new life (namely her family and the supernatural aspect of her life) except for when it suits her a few chapters from the end. She starts just straight-up living at the vampire's house and stops going to school for literally no reason (which leads to her losing touch with all of her friends and dropping out of school, which she thinks are excellent decisions). She could've just gone to school! The only thing stopping her was the absence of an alarm clock, which Salem could have easily summoned into existence! YA authors have this trick, where the characters are in school but never actually are seen going to school, and it's a widely accepted method to make YA books not boring. Instead, the author here decided the best way to handle the protagonist's life outside of school (which wasn't interesting anyway? She just talks with the vampire all day), was to actually have the character mention how much school they're missing and subsequently drop out. The principal of the school actually talks to her and is like Hey, you only have a year left of school. Please don't drop out. It'll ruin your future, but Alexis was like No, screw this. Someone actually wrote a book for young adults and thought You know what, the best message for teens today is that they should drop out of school to spend time with their romantic partners.
-Outside of the poor characterization, the bland plot, and the dumb protagonist (though really, shouldn't that be enough?), this book also made no sense. At the very start of the book, the protagonist mentions that she lives in a very small town (the aforementioned Nowhere, Colorado). I'm not an expert on small towns, but how is it that no one notices anything that is going on in the book? I feel like CPS should've been called at least once, and that maybe the eagle-eyed vampire hunter should've realized some of the goings-on that were going on in their very small town. To recap: Alexis was abandoned by her mother, was living alone in her mother's house, and then was completely moved in with the new transfer vampire student, neither of them ever attending their public high school. Did the school never call the mom? Did the neighbors realize the mother left the teenager on her own? Did the other neighbors never realize that the two minors were shacking up together? And the uncle/father/local-vampire-hunter Paul: he, as a vampire hunter, obviously has a beef with the vampire boy, and tells Alexis to stop seeing him. Somehow though, the guy whose job is to assassinate blood-sucking super-speedy vampires, who lives in the same small town as everyone, who sees Alexis every other day when she comes barging into his auto shop, does not realize that she's literally living with the vampire. They were not sneaky about this. How does any of this happen? My favorite thing that made no sense was the magic part of the book. Don't get me wrong, I love fantasy and magic and paranormal shit. That doesn't excuse this. The magic in this book is justified as it's magic, it doesn't need to make sense, which is complete bullshit. Useable magic (read: anything that's not a one-off, surreal, or magical realism) should be guided by an internally consistent system. In paranormal fiction, when magic doesn't follow those rules, it usually just serves to create boringly over-powered characters and unjustified plot twists. In Twin Souls, the characters have these random power-ups for no damn reason. Alexis, as she finds out is "[a super-strong vampire hunter]" (readers, of course, know this to be factually untrue, considering she is very bad at vampire-hunting, excepting her magical powers), and this gives her the bizarre ability to turn into a venomous raven that can use its voice to injure vampires. It was very off-the-wall, and that was never really resolved. If you thought to yourself, Hm, but birds aren't venomous?, congratulations, the author addresses this concern: "[Vampires are real, but you're questioning the venomous were-ravens?]" Venomous were-ravens are, in fact, far less believable than vampires, and do require a written explanation, despite the author's insistence. Finally, the vampire boy, Salem, maybe had a witch as an ancestor, so he is able to literally summon anything out of thin air. Does he use this for anything except groceries? No, of course not.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Being abandoned by your dad was one thing, but when your mom walks out on you too, what do you do? Alexis is going to be 18 soon and things in her life have suddenly gotten more complicated than she bargained for. Feeling completely abandoned, she does her best to go on with her life while her dad left a long time ago and her mom just left to go live elsewhere with her boyfriend, Mark. Her best friends, Karen and Jason, do their best to cheer her up, but should Alexis even care anymore? Interestingly enough, she meets a mysterious new guy at school that is showing quite a bit of interest in Alex while her life is going down the drain. She ends up going to his house and after midnight on her 18th birthday, he has to explain that she is from a line of vampire hunters and her mom and dad were not her real parents. Her Uncle Paul is her real father and her real mother has been dead for a long time. Paul hid Alex in order to protect her from the monsters he was hunting. But the twist is that Salem, the new guy from school, is a vampire too. He just doesn't drink human blood. And he can conjure pretty much anything he wants to, food included. The more that she gets to know Salem, the less she thinks he is a monster. In fact, she really likes him and he cares for her very deeply. But Paul is a hard case and feels like all vampires are monsters. Then Alex sees her mother on t.v. after having been mauled by a bear. She was in the hospital, but alive. Alex has a bad feeling about what is going on, thinking that it was a vampire, like Mark. Salem doesn't think it's him at first because he used to be like Salem. But after a series of strange and short conversations with Alex's mom, Salem grows more suspicious of Mark being the perpetrator. In a desperate move, Alex asks for she and Paul, along with her real aunt, to go see about her mom. But she has no idea what she will find and how it will impact her life.
In a way you want to say poor Alex because of all of the hardships she had to endure. However, she is one tough girl and does her absolute best to deal with things as they come. It is a lot to take in being abandoned by two parents only to find out neither are your real parents and your real dad wants a relationship with you. He wants to be dad while Alex is not ready to accept that just yet. It is a tenuous situation and things get more and more strained with the situation with Alex's mom and then finding out that Alex has an exceptionally rare gift. Then there is Salem, who Paul has tried to kill a few times and almost succeeded at one point. Will Paul be able to accept their growing relationship? And more importantly, will Alex be able to accept who she really is?
Seventeen year old Alexis finds herself on the eve of her eighteenth birthday. What generally means a step into adulthood instead opens its way to a terrifying truth about not only her family, but herself. She comes from a long line of vampire hunters and her real dad wants her to carry on the family quest. At the same time, she is falling for a new boy at school who has his own secret. He is a vampire. Alexis is forced to make a decision from which there is no turning back. Will she deny this newly discovered heritage, or embrace it? Firstly, I completely forgot how I got this book. Secondly, I'm watching a soccer match, while reviewing this. Thirdly, I'm still not sure if I'm reading the next book after this hmmmm. Not that the book isn't good, it's just that I've been rushing through series after series, that I kinda wanna slow down. But, ohwell. HEHEHE. Anyway, this book basically reminds me about Twilight, only better. HAHA. Vampires apparently CAN go out in the sun, and this particular cute vampire can materialise things out of the air. Like, mmmm mouthwatering food. Though, Alexis' dad, Paul, annoys the fuck out of me. HAHA. I mean, NO, don't you dare ruin your daughter's relationship, not when you've NEVER admitted her as your own, not even if she is dating a hot vampire. HAHA. Anyway, this book is quite good, though it seemed too narrative to me. Like, the amount of dialogues, especially in the starting, was so minimal, such that it almost bore me. But it was fine after that. Hopefully, the second book will be better. :)
I read this book because it was free and in my usual genre favorite. I had read the reviews first of course. I wasn't sure if I wanted to because so many people said things moved too fast. This I completely agree with. It's also why I gave it 3 stars. I think the writer was so eager to get past the meeting and romancing that she just flew right through it. I did, however, love the idea of the story line. That is what kept me engaged. Once I got past the quickness of Alex and Salem's relationship, it really was a good book. It was unconventional IMO. It did have some scenes that completely made me think "I read a scene like this in Twilight". I guess it's getting hard to write original stories anymore. Since everyone seems to be doing it. But in the end I liked the story and I look forward to reading the rest of the series since the other 3 books are already available.