Nocturne - A Vampire Book Review

Nocturne
by Syrie James
Vanguard Press (January 4, 2011)

The complete story takes place over four days with only two characters.

Nicole Whitcomb is racing against a snow storm on her way to the Denver airport. The storm comes quickly. While driving through treacherous mountain roads Nicole skids into a ravine. Desperately hurt she loses consciousness. Fortunately there is a witness, albeit an unwilling one.

    Michael Tyler lives in splendid isolation at his beautiful home in the Rockies. While plowing snow on his private road he watches as Nicole's car spins out of control. With the brutal storm no 911 help will be available for several days. Reluctantly he checks things out only to discover that the attractive female driver is still alive. Michael has had no face to face contact with anyone for an extraordinarily long time and wants to keep it that way. Now, however, he has no choice. This beautiful  lady will be his guest until the snowplows make it to this area.

I loved this story. This charming, beautiful romance convinced me that love will always find a way.  Both Nicole and Michael are very accomplished, especially Michael whose vampiric life has given him many centuries to develop his various artistic talents. Both individuals are wounded souls and each can understand the other's pain in a way someone else might not.

What struck me was the spiritual - and I don't mean religious - aspect of the story. Michael shows through his character and actions the power of redemption. How that comes about is told to Nicole one night when his affection for her, which is deeply reciprocated, becomes almost overwhelming.

Nicole has her own demons to deal with. Michael gently prods her to unburden herself, which she does. These two remarkable people help each other to heal and feel hope.

Understand that this theme of healing and redemption while strong does not make for a sappy, sentimental story. Two vibrant, believable characters who have suffered severely find refuge from a storm literally and figuratively.

For those who want a bit of zest the author includes a couple a deliciously steamy love scenes.

James is the gifted author who also wrote Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker      Read a review

[A copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. Thank you!]

Marissa Farrar - Guest Blog and Contest

Today PVN welcomes Marissa Farrar author of several books of the paranormal including the recent vampire novel The Dark Road. Marissa is graciously offering a copy of this ebook to one lucky reader. Please see the end of the post for more information.

[Correction: Although Marissa has written about vampires in other novels none appear in The Dark Road. Still it's a darn scary, paranormal book - PVN]

Dark Genres

As an author, I've struggled to place my work into one category. I've always classed myself as a horror author, but recently things people have been saying about my work are making me think differently.

First of all, I don't write gross-out, slasher horror, or anything like that. Though I write about the paranormal, often the horror element is as much the storyline running alongside the paranormal one. Though I love the paranormal, really itís the real life things that scare us the most.

In my vampire novel, Alone, although the vampires themselves are dangerous and should be feared, the real horror comes in the form of the main character's abusive husband and the torment he puts her through.

In my third novel, The Followers, due for release mid 2011, (though you can get a sneak preview at www.freefantasticalfiction.blogspot.com, where I am posting chapters each week as an on-going serial) again the true horror is in the reality part of the story. There is a supernatural element to the novel, in the form of a hideous old lady who is apparently killing men in their sleep, but the true horror nature of the novel is in the fundamentalist actions of the town's prophet, Eli.

The Dark Road is slightly different. The horror element is certainly there, and the driving force of the novel, but it's the characters and their own personal struggles which make the novel. Its theme is sacrifice - what would you sacrifice to redeem yourself amongst your peers, to have the life you want, to save the ones you love?

Here is the blurb: 

When a group of backpackers are thrown together on a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia, they have no idea of the journey ahead of them.

Shortly after crossing the Cambodian border, one of the group disappears off the side of the road, and they quickly discover they have more than the threat of land mines to worry about. They are plunged into a terrifying world of ancient temples, curses and long-dead kings and, one by one, they start to lose both their minds and their lives, as what was supposed to be an adventure turns into a fight for survival.

I'm often asked if I've ever been to Cambodia, and the answer is yes. I was lucky enough to spend three months backpacking around South East Asia and the idea for the novel came to me while I was on the same bus journey my characters take. Luckily my journey wasn't quite as horrific as theirs turns out to be, but it was pretty nerve wracking just the same!

For all you vampire fans out there, Alone is now free to download, for a limited time only. So head over to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9972 and download your copy!

Also, for anyone who comes and likes my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/marissa.farrar.author they can also get a voucher code to get my short story collection for free as well!

Thanks for having me, Patricia!

CONTEST

I'd like to give away one copy of The Dark Road to one lucky commenter, and you can buy the novel at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/30776.



*Readers, leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. 

*Contest is international. 
*Contest ends Jan. 28, 2011 at 11:59pm EST

Firefly Rain
by Richard Dansky
Wizards of the Coast Discoveries (January 8, 2008)

Reviewed by Sandy Rainey

Readers who seek a quick break from vampire fiction while still getting their paranormal fix would do well to check out Richard Dansky's creepy ghost story, Firefly Rain. Dansky sets this modern-day tale near a fictional town that time has left untouched, located in his native North Carolina; a distinct Southern Gothic sensibility thus pervades the novel. Our protagonist is Jacob Logan, a  young man who has left his rural roots behind to seek success in Boston. When a business venture founders, Jacob finds himself at a crossroads in his life and decides to visit his boyhood home to regroup. Jacob returns to his parents' empty house, which has stood unused on the Logan property since their deaths, intending to stay only a short time while he clears his mind and considers his options.

It isn't long before things start going awry. Jacob notices that the fireflies that are so plentiful everywhere else--"Fireflies are how angels find things when they come down from heaven," his mother had once told him--are nowhere to be found on the Logan land. Indeed, the firefly he captures off the property and brings back to the family spread dies at once. Jacob's belongings, shipped separately from Boston, never arrive, destroyed in a freak accident en route. Even odder, Jacob's car disappears from the driveway. The extreme isolation of the Logan homestead makes Jacob dependent for his every need on the ageless, unreadable but preternaturally loyal caretaker of the property, Carl Powell. When Jacob sees his missing car slowly pass the property in a driving rain, he gives chase, glimpsing a heavyset driver he can almost, almost identify. Distraught, Jacob collapses in a muddy ditch and is rescued hours later by the no-nonsense lady police chief of nearby Maryfield, Officer Hanratty.

Hanratty, as inscrutable in her way as Carl, has a few skeletons in her own closet. In fact, all the townspeople with whom Jacob becomes reacquainted seem simultaneously the same as he remembers, yet strangely unfriendly and even secretive. Only the pretty new librarian, Adrienne, seems forthright and welcoming. Jacob strikes up a relationship with her, but the mysteries at the house where he grew up keep accumulating. Why do his father's toy soldiers keep appearing where they couldn't possibly be? From whence comes the snarling, vicious dog that tries to break into the house each night? Most unsettling, why does the deserted Logan homestead seem alive with sound and movement when Jacob is the sole occupant?

Dansky is not a completely polished writer--not yet. But there is something frank and refreshing in his narrative voice that I found appealing; the novel definitely does not read like a hundred others. Dansky's strength is in building suspense slowly and methodically. The most mundane and completely explicable of details, as they gradually pile up, contribute to a creeping and claustrophobic sense of dread. When Jenna, a tough, citified friend of Jacob's from Boston, is introduced toward the end of the book, Dansky reinforces his central theme: the tension between childhood and adulthood, between loyalty to home and family and the desire to break away and make our own way in the world.

I wish he had kept the story smaller and more intimate than it turns out to be in its final pages, but that is a common complaint of mine. Genre writers are always wanting to paint on a larger canvas in order to up the horror-story ante; my impulse is always that what is most personal is often most credible and, therefore, most horrific. No matter: Firefly Rain is, in the final analysis, an atmospheric page-turner of a ghost story that keeps some of its surprises until the very end. Give Richard Dansky's first novel a try--but don't be surprised if you never look at a firefly in quite the same way again.

Release of Awakened by P.C. and Kristin Cast Including Contest

To celebrate the new book trailer and  release of 'AWAKENED', P.C and Kristin Cast's latest novel in the House of Night series, St. Martin's Press is offering a fantastic once in a lifetime chance for a fan and their guest to fly to Tulsa to tour the sites from the books and have lunch with the authors!

CONTEST

*The lucky winner will receive a 3-day, 2-night trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma for two people which includes airfare, hotel accommodations, a tour of Tulsa and lunch on Saturday, April 30th, 2011 at the Chalkboard Restaurant with the authors. In order to enter the promo, you must answer three questions about the series.

More about the contest: http://bit.ly/fO0Jnp

Contest rules: http://houseofnightseries.com/pages/tourtulsaofficialrules.html

Also, St. Martin's is also holding a contest via the House of Night Facebook fan page. Fans can enter for a chance to win 1 of 30 complete sets of House of Night books. http://on.fb.me/i9W8cZ

Watch the trailer:

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year to everyone in PVN land. I appreciate your support and love hearing your comments. Have a wonderful 2011!