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The Unbeliever
*** 2014 National Indie Excellence Book Awards Finalist ***
If faith can move mountains, what can the utter lack of faith achieve?
Major Max Bradley left his faith, along with a leg, in the sands of Iraq. Even the Marine Corps, the only thing that mattered to him, thanked him for his service and sent him on his way. Feeling abandoned, left adrift and without purpose, scotch and oxycontin became his only friends. He lives a hermit's life on a boat moored in a small coastal North Carolina town, struggling with addiction as well as the physical and emotional scars from a war that now seems pointless. He only just exists, caught between pain and despair, until one night his world and his perceived place in that world are turned upside down.
A call for help snaps him out of his drug laden fog and a chance midnight rescue brings him together with the woman who will pull him out of himself and will show him that he is more powerful than he has ever imagined.
If faith can move mountains, what can the utter lack of faith achieve?
Major Max Bradley left his faith, along with a leg, in the sands of Iraq. Even the Marine Corps, the only thing that mattered to him, thanked him for his service and sent him on his way. Feeling abandoned, left adrift and without purpose, scotch and oxycontin became his only friends. He lives a hermit's life on a boat moored in a small coastal North Carolina town, struggling with addiction as well as the physical and emotional scars from a war that now seems pointless. He only just exists, caught between pain and despair, until one night his world and his perceived place in that world are turned upside down.
A call for help snaps him out of his drug laden fog and a chance midnight rescue brings him together with the woman who will pull him out of himself and will show him that he is more powerful than he has ever imagined.
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2013
32 people are currently reading
197 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 20, 2014
Max Bradley didn’t believe in anything except his training in the U.S. Marine Corps and what he could put his hands on. Plans for a retirement from the service was put into motion after he lost his leg to an explosion. He goes back to the states and buys a sailboat and begins to try to put the pieces of his live back together, gluing it with a combination of scotch and OxyContin. Then he sees a hot speed boat in the slip next to his and meets its even hotter owner, Elena. She brings with her all kinds of strange believes, magic, darkness, and she swears she’s a vampire.
None of which Max believe in.
But it believed in him and suddenly he’s propelled into a wild mission of finding the corpse of a pirate, finding the map fragment that would lead them to the secret place where the dagger that would end the life of the vampire who turned Elena.
All of Max’s skills he had learned in his prior life would be necessary to get to the end of the mission, but will it give him the one thing he doesn’t have, someone in his life forever.
I read Zachary J. Kitchen’s The Unbeliever and found myself caught up in the action and things that Max and Elena managed to get into. It was interesting because I kept saying to myself “This guy knows the military and the Marine Corps, he had to have served.” The way the story was put together, the references that he made to things like Gary Owen (7th Cavalry Unit Song, if you’ve ever seen a Custer movie, you have heard it) or the way to shoot, disassemble and reassemble a firearm was way too specific to be done with research alone. And he knows medication and the ways it works.
And it was a vampire story. Marines and vampires, with snoopy little old ladies with a past of her own and a friend who practices Voodoo. And it was fabulous. The rich details of every facet of the story was woven so tightly that it kept the story flowing from the beginning to the epilogue. There is so much involved in the story that I would spoil it for you if I say much more. I found the book so good that I read a lot of it to my husband, who isn’t fond of vampire stories but likes good military fiction. It was so good that I wish I could give it six stars. The Unbeliever is both and Kitchen has made his step into the world of fiction a big one and I look forward to reading more of his work, soon.
Charlayne Elizabeth Denney
Reviewer: Paranormal Romance Guild
None of which Max believe in.
But it believed in him and suddenly he’s propelled into a wild mission of finding the corpse of a pirate, finding the map fragment that would lead them to the secret place where the dagger that would end the life of the vampire who turned Elena.
All of Max’s skills he had learned in his prior life would be necessary to get to the end of the mission, but will it give him the one thing he doesn’t have, someone in his life forever.
I read Zachary J. Kitchen’s The Unbeliever and found myself caught up in the action and things that Max and Elena managed to get into. It was interesting because I kept saying to myself “This guy knows the military and the Marine Corps, he had to have served.” The way the story was put together, the references that he made to things like Gary Owen (7th Cavalry Unit Song, if you’ve ever seen a Custer movie, you have heard it) or the way to shoot, disassemble and reassemble a firearm was way too specific to be done with research alone. And he knows medication and the ways it works.
And it was a vampire story. Marines and vampires, with snoopy little old ladies with a past of her own and a friend who practices Voodoo. And it was fabulous. The rich details of every facet of the story was woven so tightly that it kept the story flowing from the beginning to the epilogue. There is so much involved in the story that I would spoil it for you if I say much more. I found the book so good that I read a lot of it to my husband, who isn’t fond of vampire stories but likes good military fiction. It was so good that I wish I could give it six stars. The Unbeliever is both and Kitchen has made his step into the world of fiction a big one and I look forward to reading more of his work, soon.
Charlayne Elizabeth Denney
Reviewer: Paranormal Romance Guild
July 7, 2025
Finished Reading February 10, 2016
2 Stars
Book Rejected
It started off okay, but a bit slow. There are editing problems. Not with spelling, but with words in the wrong places. Also, speech is a bit stilted and there is a lot of repetitiveness. By the time I got to chapter 6 I just couldn't take it anymore, and I speed read though the rest of the book. It is a good plot, but between the layout of the plot, the stilted speech, and the repetitive parts, I just couldn't get into it. And this is the 2nd time I have tried to read it. Just moved way to slow for me.
Purchased from Amazon December 2, 2015
2 Stars
Book Rejected
It started off okay, but a bit slow. There are editing problems. Not with spelling, but with words in the wrong places. Also, speech is a bit stilted and there is a lot of repetitiveness. By the time I got to chapter 6 I just couldn't take it anymore, and I speed read though the rest of the book. It is a good plot, but between the layout of the plot, the stilted speech, and the repetitive parts, I just couldn't get into it. And this is the 2nd time I have tried to read it. Just moved way to slow for me.
Purchased from Amazon December 2, 2015
Want to read
September 5, 2015Free 09-05-15 (PNR: Vampires)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Unbeliever-...
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January 19, 2025
To Truly Believe
Max was a Major in the Marines when he lost his leg to a rigged door as he kicked it in in iraq. Elena is a vampire who just happens to be searching for something that Captain Jack Black left in the world when he died that will kill her maker. She is rescued by Max from three vampires who are seeking her to bring her back to her maker, Almos, in Hungary. When she is awaken she fears for her life cause it is daytime but then realizes that she is not catching on fire. It turns out that Max is some kind of person that magic no matter what kind does not work on him and that includes vampires. As this book progresses through the search for an obsidian knife that can kill even the most powerful vampire we are introduced to an old lady named Agnes. Agnes has had her own run in with vampires when she was younger and dispensed of them as well as she could at the timer. Agnes introduces Max to a voodoo sorceress who just happens to have a Doctorate in Anthropology and who tries to seduce Max at one point. Things end as they should and who knows maybe someday the story will give us another chapter of Max and Elena.
Max was a Major in the Marines when he lost his leg to a rigged door as he kicked it in in iraq. Elena is a vampire who just happens to be searching for something that Captain Jack Black left in the world when he died that will kill her maker. She is rescued by Max from three vampires who are seeking her to bring her back to her maker, Almos, in Hungary. When she is awaken she fears for her life cause it is daytime but then realizes that she is not catching on fire. It turns out that Max is some kind of person that magic no matter what kind does not work on him and that includes vampires. As this book progresses through the search for an obsidian knife that can kill even the most powerful vampire we are introduced to an old lady named Agnes. Agnes has had her own run in with vampires when she was younger and dispensed of them as well as she could at the timer. Agnes introduces Max to a voodoo sorceress who just happens to have a Doctorate in Anthropology and who tries to seduce Max at one point. Things end as they should and who knows maybe someday the story will give us another chapter of Max and Elena.
February 28, 2019
Started as an entertaining read, can't deny it, but through the book I got seriously ytired ired and a little annoyed with Max's personality and thoughts... kind of egocentric and a little shallow. Just my personal opinion.
May 29, 2018
3.5 stars.
February 4, 2016
This story started out with a scene from the first book Nine Line....Only problem is it's a different man running for the kid and he does a little different with the kid then the first book did but still the scene is described pretty much the same just from a different person's point of view....Not sure why the author did that knowing your most likely going to read more of the books.
I never expected the supernatural world to pop up in this military romance. Totally unexpected. Vampires, Voodoo, the Pirate named Black Beard a Marine and a treasure map. I LOVE IT!!!!
To ruin it though I found words printed double like "that that" and Max got spelled Maz....simple edited mistakes someone should have caught on to. Couldn't give it 5-star like it should get.
Overall another simply amazing book.
The Unbeliever
If faith can move mountains, what can the utter lack of faith achieve?
Major Max Bradley left his faith, along with a leg, in the sands of Iraq. Even the Marine Corps, the only thing that mattered to him, thanked him for his service and sent him on his way. Feeling abandoned, left adrift and without purpose, scotch and oxycontin became his only friends. He lives a hermit's life on a boat moored in a small coastal North Carolina town, struggling with addiction as well as the physical and emotional scars from a war that now seems pointless. He only just exists, caught between pain and despair, until one night his world and his perceived place in that world are turned upside down.
A call for help snaps him out of his drug laden fog and a chance midnight rescue brings him together with the woman who will pull him out of himself and will show him that he is more powerful than he has ever imagined.
I never expected the supernatural world to pop up in this military romance. Totally unexpected. Vampires, Voodoo, the Pirate named Black Beard a Marine and a treasure map. I LOVE IT!!!!
To ruin it though I found words printed double like "that that" and Max got spelled Maz....simple edited mistakes someone should have caught on to. Couldn't give it 5-star like it should get.
Overall another simply amazing book.
The Unbeliever
If faith can move mountains, what can the utter lack of faith achieve?
Major Max Bradley left his faith, along with a leg, in the sands of Iraq. Even the Marine Corps, the only thing that mattered to him, thanked him for his service and sent him on his way. Feeling abandoned, left adrift and without purpose, scotch and oxycontin became his only friends. He lives a hermit's life on a boat moored in a small coastal North Carolina town, struggling with addiction as well as the physical and emotional scars from a war that now seems pointless. He only just exists, caught between pain and despair, until one night his world and his perceived place in that world are turned upside down.
A call for help snaps him out of his drug laden fog and a chance midnight rescue brings him together with the woman who will pull him out of himself and will show him that he is more powerful than he has ever imagined.
April 16, 2015
Great, engaging plot, but in much need of editing
I very much enjoyed this book, and normally I despair at spelling, grammar, punctuation problems, but the plot was so fully engaging I couldn't NOT read it to the end. Bravo, what a unique perspective, Mr. Kitchen! One more detail that started gnawing at me about 1/4 of the way through was the way the female lead role didn't seem nearly as intelligent as a woman of her age should be, and she seemed to keep falling into her man's arm instead of defending herself as someone as strong as she should have (and I am by no means a feminist, but strong, smart women do exist!) Very good plot, and overall I would recommend, but do be prepared to overlook some of the observations above.
I very much enjoyed this book, and normally I despair at spelling, grammar, punctuation problems, but the plot was so fully engaging I couldn't NOT read it to the end. Bravo, what a unique perspective, Mr. Kitchen! One more detail that started gnawing at me about 1/4 of the way through was the way the female lead role didn't seem nearly as intelligent as a woman of her age should be, and she seemed to keep falling into her man's arm instead of defending herself as someone as strong as she should have (and I am by no means a feminist, but strong, smart women do exist!) Very good plot, and overall I would recommend, but do be prepared to overlook some of the observations above.
June 18, 2015
A refreshing and new take...
I really enjoyed this book. I normally do not read this kind of book. I'm not into the vampire thing, but this is a whole new take on it. Very enjoyable. Just the whole storyline. I will and have told other people about this book. And will be watching this author. I hope that there might be another book coming out to follow up. I would like to know what it was about Max!!????!!
I really enjoyed this book. I normally do not read this kind of book. I'm not into the vampire thing, but this is a whole new take on it. Very enjoyable. Just the whole storyline. I will and have told other people about this book. And will be watching this author. I hope that there might be another book coming out to follow up. I would like to know what it was about Max!!????!!
December 5, 2015
I'm not into the whole vampire hype, but I was intrigued by the premise of this book, the negating effect that someone who is an abject disbeliever has on the supernatural realm. Well executed, great characters and story.
December 10, 2016
The book is very readable, or atleast it starts that way. I was a few chapters into the book before I realised it's about vampires. I finished the book, but would recommend the authors other books as better, the story just doesn't do it for me.
August 27, 2016
Having read Nine Line, this wasn't at all what I expected but I loved it. Great characters, great story telling.
May 9, 2015
Is a great book to read
May 16, 2015
very good
January 19, 2016
Great combination of current day disabled vet and vampires. Great read.
Read
August 1, 2016Another trendy vampire book
The plot was rather predictable and the "Romance" was mundane. Perhaps this could be an okay beach read in the summer.
The plot was rather predictable and the "Romance" was mundane. Perhaps this could be an okay beach read in the summer.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews