Afterlight (Dark Ink Chronicles, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 03, 2010 Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) rated it liked it

Shelves: books-read-2011, vampires, genre-paranormal-romance, witches-shaman-magic

This review was posted at Under The Covers

3.5 Stars

Riley Poe is pretty kick ass! She has turned her life around and gone from being a junkie and being completely in with the wrong crowd and doing the wrong things, to going to college, owning a tattoo shop and being a well known artist in Savannah. This in big part thanks to Preacher and his wife who took her and her brother Seth in and helped her along just a bit so she could find her way after her mother was killed.

The premise for this book is This review was posted at Under The Covers

3.5 Stars

Riley Poe is pretty kick ass! She has turned her life around and gone from being a junkie and being completely in with the wrong crowd and doing the wrong things, to going to college, owning a tattoo shop and being a well known artist in Savannah. This in big part thanks to Preacher and his wife who took her and her brother Seth in and helped her along just a bit so she could find her way after her mother was killed.

The premise for this book is Riley's brother, Seth and his buddies apparently release two brother vampires who were captured centuries ago. While doing that these vampires make the teenagers into their minions, and they slowly begin a transformation to becoming vampires which will be complete when they make their first kill in about a month's time.

Riley never knew these creatures of the Afterlight existed but as she sees the changes in her brother and worries about him, Preacher takes her to meet the Dupres. The local family of vampires, who centuries ago made a pact with the locals they wouldn't drink from a human or harm a human as long as they were supplied blood by other means (i.e. blood bank bags). Preacher also confesses that she has a rare blood type, which is like a magnet and a drug to vampires, and that he has been giving her special herbs her whole life to mask that blood so no vampires would be attracted to her and killer her.

The Dupres assign their oldest son Eli to watch over Riley while she helps them infiltrate in Savannah's underground, which she used to be a part of, in order to recapture these two rogue vampires before the full moon so that her brother can be saved and not turned.

Except the magnetism and attraction Eli and Riley feel for each other has nothing to do with her blood and everything to do with her.

It took a while for me to get into this book. I had a bit of an issue with all "Twilight" type references. I felt like I was reading an adult (and at times, very adult, much to my liking) version of the Twilight book. To list a few:
- Riley's blood being a drug to vampires, which they can scent and have to show a lot of restraint not to drink from her.
- The pact between the Dupres and the locals and if they were to bite anyone (even Riley, and no, biting doesn't automatically change them into vampires) they would break the pact and they would be executed.
- Josie is the weird, quirky younger sister, and her personality, comments, actions are almost too much like Alice. Almost the whole Dupre family could be characterized with the Cullens.
- The ending still leaves us with Riley being wanted by one of the bad vampires and he's coming back for her. Sounded too much like Victoria.

All of that aside, I will read the second book in this trilogy, I want to see where the story goes from here. This could've been a much better story had the author worked out all the similarities and just made up some other ways to fill in those details, since those things didn't really make the story. My rating might've been different then as the book and the story were not too bad after about halfway through, and I really like the hero and heroine. ...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Daffodil rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy

One of my favorite finds of the year. Riley Poe is a strong female character with a dark, wild-child past that informs all of her actions. And yes, occaisionally her insistence that she's survived those days so she can survive anything can get annoying. At least it's a believable character flaw that fits her personality. Also, she usually admits when she's wrong and misjudged her ability to handle a situation. Hopefully in future books, she'll grow away from this habit. Since she's taken over ra ...more

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Sep 03, 2010 Chelsea rated it really liked it

Shelves: vampires, uf-pnr, smexy, magic

This review was originally posted at Vampire Book Club.

Riley Poe left her wild past behind when she became the only person her kid brother could rely on. She has a booming business as a tattoo artist and her little brother — now 15 — is, for the most part, a good kid. She stops in for tea and breakfast with her surrogate grandparents, Preacher and Estelle, each morning.

Preacher is deep in gullah magic. While Riley’s been filled in on all of it, she’s always seen it as his belief. That is until s This review was originally posted at Vampire Book Club.

Riley Poe left her wild past behind when she became the only person her kid brother could rely on. She has a booming business as a tattoo artist and her little brother — now 15 — is, for the most part, a good kid. She stops in for tea and breakfast with her surrogate grandparents, Preacher and Estelle, each morning.

Preacher is deep in gullah magic. While Riley’s been filled in on all of it, she’s always seen it as his belief. That is until she discovers just how much of the world she hasn’t been seeing.

But when her brother and his friends are marked by vampires, she learns more about herself, her family and the underside of Savannah, Georgia. The Dupreé family of vampires, with Preacher’s OK, helps Riley stay safe and seek out the information that may be able to save her brother and stop the other, cruel vampires.

The awkward part is her on-site bodyguard, Eli, ignites something in Riley. more than just being a sexy guy, there’s a unique chemistry between them. Riley has been on her own for a long time, so letting Eli tell her what to do — even if it’s to keep her safe — isn’t really going to fly.

Elle Jasper makes sparks fly between Riley and Eli. Expect some funny banter and intense heat between these two. Also, romantic interactions with them on the opposite sides of the room and…wait for it… walls, rain, stairs…well, you get the idea. It’s an urban fantasy story that packs some heat.

The ancillary characters are bright spots in some of the darker moments, especially the Dupreé siblings.

Merging voodoo/magic and vampire mythology gives Afterlight a new flavor. While Jasper doesn’t dig too deep into the gullah magic beliefs — as they aren’t those of our heroine Riley, but of her surrogate grandparents — the unique relationship between the root magic folk and Dupreé vampires is fertile ground for more novels.

The ending felt abrupt, though. While the plot ties up, emotionally I was left hanging. I’m sure Jasper has more in store for the next book, but I finished Afterlight without closure. That said, you can bet I’ll be picking up the second Dark Ink Chronicles book.

Sexual content: Jasper brings the heat with more than one sex scene. Adults only. ...more

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Nov 15, 2010 Vivian rated it liked it

Shelves: first-in-series, read-2011

This is a fun book, but definitely could've been better.

Some of my rambling thoughts:
Parts of it read like bad YA, in that the author is incredibly generous in her use of the word "wicked". All her adjectives are paired with a wicked in front of it. Clothing is described in way more detail than necessary. Yes, I get it, you dress wicked hot/cool/etc.. I might have rolled my eyes at more than one point in the book as Riley finishes off her ensemble with yet another choker. Riley also insists on ...more

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