Monday, July 2, 2012

Amanda Hocking: My Blood Approves series

Luckily for me, the first book I read by A. Hocking was the Hollowland which is why I went in search for other titles by her. I say luckily because if this was the first series I read, I don't think I'd go in search for other books she has written.
That said, I still read the 4 books without stopping so it's not as bad as it might sound from my introduction (and the review that follows).
Books in the series I read are: My Blood Approves, Fate, Flutter, Wisdom.

I don't know if it's me or the writing but I kept getting upset. :)
The main character, Alice, comes off as really stupid at times (as in ignorant and slow to make connections) but in such a manner that when she has moments of intelligent thinking, they don't sound like her, they are a bit unbelievable.
The other thing that I really didn't enjoy is the fact that this reads like a Twilight spin-off. There is a family of vampires that really like her and want her to become one of them (only in this case she has a brother so he's included as well). There are two possible love choices, and she loves them both but goes with her heart instead of her blood bond, the  feelings of love are very melodramatic and in the end, they fight some bad vampires off.
Oh, and Alice and Milo (her brother) are more special than other vampires but I won't say why (which is part of the story that was rather obvious at some point).

One last thing about the books, I couldn't find any point to the story.
It feels stupid saying this, as most of the books I read are the type of fiction that doesn't really come with a moral of the story, but the endings usually have some kind of a point. I didn't feel there was any here but then again, I could be wrong, Wisdom might not be the last book in the series, even though it felt like it was.

Ok, all that said, the first book hooked me because the tragic parts of the story really brought tears to my eyes. And then it was also very intriguing by not revealing much (albeit, Alice comes with the idea Jack might be a werewolf but vampire never crosses her mind?!).
The second book was still ok, but with the third all  my notes were revolving around Alice's ignorance (not to say something worse).

So, if you're looking for something similar to Twilight, look no further. You will probably enjoy the series a lot.
The good thing about the books is the pace. It feels like there is always something happening even though it might just be the usual running of their lives. Which shows that A. Hocking certainly knows her way around with words.
And she obviously got better when it comes to characters and story because Hollowland is much better in my opinion. And I'm looking forward to the next book in that series very much.

No comments:

Post a Comment