Kindred and Ashes
By: Erica Stevens
Genres: Paranormal/Fantasy (Supernatural, Supernatural Romance,
Urban Fantasy, Vampires), Young Adult, Fiction, Romance
( The Blurb for Ashes can be found here)
What do you do when the one you love is also you worst enemy? Trapped in a destiny she does not want, Cassie finds herself lost and adrift, until he walks into her life, turning it upside down and awakening her in ways that she never dreamed possible.
Cassie is stunned and devastated to learn that she belongs to a long line of vampire slayers known as The Hunters. A murderous rampage by a group of elder vampires has left the Hunter line decimated and the remaining Hunters scattered around the world. With her friends Chris and Melissa’s aid, Cassie struggles to rid the world of the monsters that murdered her parents. Though Cassie knows it is her fate, she chafes against her heritage, and is resentful of the shortened lifespan that has been placed upon her by the circumstances of birth. Struggling to get through every day, Cassie finds herself simply going through the motions of living. That is, until Devon arrives. Tall, dark, and mysterious his arrival turns the school, and Cassie’s life, upside down. Fighting against her fierce attraction to him, and the chaos he represents in her carefully ordered days, she is irresistibly drawn to him. Though worried that what she truly is will place Devon in danger, she is unable to fight her feelings for him. He is the one light, and the only source of hope she has in a world that revolves around death and fear. What she does not know is that Devon has some dark secrets of his own, secrets even more frightening and dangerous than hers. Secrets that threaten to tear them apart forever.Book 1 of 5
This is a young adult fictional story that includes some language, violence, and mild sexual situations. Recommended for ages fifteen and up.
Woah, woah, woah! Slow yer roll! FOUR REVIEWS IN A WEEK?! Three of them from KAILEI?! Wooaahhhhh, what's going on here?! Is this what productivity feels like??!
Okkkaaayyyy, so, I can honestly say that I am quite disappointed in myself. Lemme tell you why; I read this series probably more than two years ago, and I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what they were about. So, on my quest for some trashy romance, I kept scrolling through the kindle (which I recently discovered houses over 550 books). Now, with over 550 books right at my fingertips, you'd think that I'd have no trouble at all finding some trashy romance..after all, it's my mother's favorite genre. Back on track. I was scrolling and scrolling and I kept passing this series. I knew I'd read it, and I was mad that i couldn't remember anything, so, I said to myself "K, Kailei. Haha, 'K, Kailei'. Why don't you just reread the books? If you remember, do what you always do; quit reading." So I did.
Oh lordy, I haven't the words. These books so closely resemble Twilight that I think I might metaphorically die. But is it bad that I enjoyed them?.....Yes, yes it is.
I feel like Erica Stevens looked at Twilight and said "Hm....what would I do if I wrote it?" Now, I'm not saying they're absolutely horrid, I mean, I got exactly what I wanted; A quick, thoughtless read. I needed a break after reading author requested ones that make me have think.
While the whole "Make-eye-contact-once-with-stranger-and-instantly-in-love" thing bothers me. I liked that it was a different spin on the whole thing; Cassie, Melissa, and Chris are Hunters, so they know about vampires, they hunt them, the whole nine yards. But Cassie and Devon's insane amount of inappropriate PDA made even ME uncomfortable. And the internal dialogue. Ugh, don't even get me started. I found myself skipping several pages to get around Cassie's annoying thoughts. It's like there's an hour between her replies....how annoying. I ask myself how she can ever hold a conversation with anyone.
So, with the knowledge that they hunt vampires, and that they know of their existence, and the fact that Cassie is the most strong-willed of the three, you'd think the author would have had some sense to not make her a blubbering fool every thirty seconds! Oh my god! "I never cried before Devon, but now I cry ALL the time bc I'm a little baby haha!" Seriously?! IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A CHARACTER STRONG PHYSICALLY AS WELL AS EMOTIONALLY IN THE BEGINNING, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO NOT COMPLETELY ALTER THEIR ENTIRE PERSONALITY OVER A FREAKING BOY! Oh my god, really. I get it, she's happier or whatever, but you don't go from a hard-headed, strong-willed person, to someone who needs a man to breathe. It's just wrong. God, Cassie was especially annoying in the second book. She cried alllllllllll the time, oh my GOOODDDD. I bet she's dehydrated ALLL the freaking time, with as many tears as she's been shedding. And with as many time's as I've read the words "cascading", I'm probably saying it in my sleep! "Her hair cascaded around her shoulders", "her cascading hair", "her cascading golden hair", blah blah blah cascading.
You know, I'm actually really worried about Cassie. As many times as I've read about her heart leaping, being in her eyes, being in her throat, sinking, melting, and everything in between, I'm beginning to think she has some serious heart problems....that, or her heart is trying out to be an Olympic runner... Yeah, I'm going with the former. (Seriously, I was going to try to do a slideshow thingy of the screenshots of highlights about her heart, but there were literally over a hundred....)
Something else I noticed that was annoying...Let me explain how I discovered it first; When I read books, especially since CommonBookSense started, I find myself highlighting points in the book that I either want to touch in my review, or are what made me decide whether the book was good or bad. So, I was going on my merry way, reading through the book and I come across a yellow highlighted section. Mind you, I do NOT highlight on my kindle in yellow. Nope, it's pink. So I read it and clicked it wondering what in the world had made that pop up. I played with the idea that it was from when I read these books before, but I had a different phone then...So I read the highlighted portion AND IT WAS AN EXACT COPY OF SOMETHING I HIGHLIGHTED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK! Once I noticed that, I couldn't help but continue to notice repeated lines again and again. It honestly really annoyed me. I also feel like, in this book, she took out the shortened versions of words (ex: We'll and I'll) that she had in the first book just to get her word count up. I feel this way because, not only was this not the case in the first book, but it really doesn't match the characters' way of speaking.
Now, I know what you might be thinking..."But, Kailei, you're already on the third book, if you hated them so much, why do you keep reading?" To tell you the truth, I don't even know. I guess it's because it's a thoughtless read; I missed getting lost in the words of a book. I missed reading over 400 pages in less than 6 hours. I got lost in this book, no matter it's insane number of flaws.
Honestly, I can see why I forgot about what happened. Nothing about these books lingers. I honestly feel like they could have all been a single book, seeing as they get nothing accomplished in the first 2.5. If it weren't for the fact that I'm sitting here, writing this review, I imagine I'd forget about it again. There are times when I kind of remember reading it, but when you read so many books, a book or a character really has to stand out, or else it'll just bleed together with all the others.
Anywhoo, I'll leave you guys with this. I doubt that, after my mean words, you'll be interested in picking up this book, but the links are below; to each their own This accidentally turned into a combined review of both books,,,whoops. No turning back now. Okay, enough of my rambles. Keep your noses in the books and I'll blog you later, my lovelies!
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