Review: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Title: A Shade of Vampire Author: Bella Forrest Publication Date: December 14, 2012
Synopsis:
On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.
A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood. 
She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.

An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains. Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince. 
Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.
Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

~My Thoughts~

Sofia Claremont is celebrating her 17th birthday. After a fight with her best friend Ben, whom she also has deep feelings for, she is walking on the beach alone when she is suddenly attacked. When Sofia wakes up, she realizes she is very far from home and in serious trouble. She has no idea where she is and is chained to a wall. Enter Lucas Novak, a blood-thirsty, vicious vampire who makes it immediately clear that Sofia is now his property. 
There's only one problem: Derek Novak, brother to Lucas and vampire prince. When Sofia is taken as part of Derek's harem, Lucas is not happy. Even though he publicly acknowledges Sofia belonging to Derek, in private he claims otherwise and he will stop at nothing to make this clear to Sofia. This, of course, sets the scene for disaster in the vampire kingdom and sets Sofia on a mission to escape.

It's no secret that I am not the biggest fan of vampires. I used to be, back in the day when they were actually scary and bad and had specific rules they had to live by. Not like nowadays where they are just moody and depressed and hang out in the sun all day with their human girlfriends just sparkling in the sunlight and not turning to ash like they should have. Sorry, mini rant there. Anyway, this is why I am always careful when it comes to vampire books. They can go either way and unfortunately, more often than not, they don't go in the way I want. 
But when I received a review request for A Shade of Vampire, something caught my eye. I think it was a combination of the absolutely stunning cover and the fact that the synopsis even mentions that these vampires live by the true rules, no sunlight. So I decided to give it a go. And you know what? I was more than pleasantly surprised, this book was fantastic. 
Sofia is not your average victim. She is very strong willed, caring and defiant. I loved her. Even though she is in serious danger, she isn't about to just roll over and die. In fact, Sofia is not only set on helping herself escape, she won't leave without the other girls in Derek's harem. I loved this quality in her. Even when she was scared beyond belief, she still had the strength to comfort the others. I'd like to think that if I were in her situation, I wouldn't freeze in the face of death and would offer as much support to the other captives as possible. 
But there's more to this story than just Sofia and her situation. There's the obvious friction between Derek and Lucas, and there's also the situation of the entire vampire clan. Something is happening under the radar but we don't know what just yet. Why was Derek finally woken up after 400 years, and where is his father? 
Overall, I was definitely impressed with this story and couldn't turn the pages quick enough. It reads as if you are having a conversation with a good friend, one that you haven't seen in a long time and you are desperate to learn about where they have been. Time ceased to exist as I was caught up in this world of creatures that shouldn't even exist. Oh yea, did I mention that there's a rather surprising twist thrown in here that I did not see coming AT ALL?! Yep, totally through me for a loop. 
The only issue that I came away with after reading this book is that there wasn't enough. I wanted more. I needed more. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel and read more of Sofia's story. If you are a vampire lover, or if maybe you are just in the mood for something dark and captivating, look no further. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of A Shade of Vampire and prepare to be up all night. You won't want to put it down!

For more about Bella Forrest and A Shade of Vampire, visit her website here.

~Purchase~
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You can also try your luck and enter to win a copy from Goodreads here. Good luck!







* I received this book for free in exchange of an honest review. This did not influence my opinion in any way and all views and opinions expressed are 100% my own.