writing

This book unfolds around Sarah, youngest daughter of the Vida Line. In this story, vampires are bad, humans are good..and witches are in between. The witches job is to slay vampires to protect the human race. Sarah, has been trained nearly all her life to slay vampires.Tthe first day of school she senses two people as vampires. Nissa and Christopher, who are too weak to sense Sarah's powers. She first takes the impression that they are dangerous but soon she realizes then are not. As this book continues you'll realize many things. Although this book seems confusing from time to time, the plot is awesome and will have you guessing. I think if you enjoyed other books by this author, like I did...you'll find Shattered Mirror just as great!
I highly recomend this for the Atwater fans, and I know there are plenty. Other books that are awesome, written by Amelia Atwater Rhodes are : In the Forests of the Night, Night Predator, and Demon in my View. I can't wait for this author to write and publish more!

Of the three Atwater-Rhodes novels I've read, this is my favorite. I think it has the most real feeling characters, although the heroine is a bit soft hearted.

In past books, Atwater-Rhodes tells the story from a vampire perspective, or a vampire sympathizer. In this novel the tables are turned, and it's told from the point of view of a vampire hunter, a member of the Vida line for hunters. Sarah isn't as good a hunter as her mom or sister, but she's determined to find her place in the Vida line by killing Nikolas, a vampire that killed one of her line centuries ago, and still causes, carving his name into his victims and making them fiercly loyal to him.

Sarah is attending school like any normal kid, and she meets a brother and sister pair, Nissa and Christopher. They're both vampires, and as it turns out, hundreds of years old. Christopher is taken with her, and leaves her poems and drawing, and in a relatively short period of time Sarah falls for him.

Later she finds out that Christopher's twin brother is Nikolas, the vampire she wants to destroy so badly. While hunting him down she risks her friendship with Nissa and Christopher, as well as her standing in her line. Her mother is furious she'd make friendships with the 'leeches.'

The novel continues in the same vein, introducing another brother and sister pair, this time normal, which gives Sarah a chance to strengthen her resolve that Nikolas is a monster. Later she finds out things about Christopher that she wishes she hadn't, which puts her in a more precarious position.

I admit I didn't quite expect the ending, and I'm disappointed by it. Not only does Sarah meet the same fate as Jessica from Demon in my View, but Nikolas' vow to take care of a problematic vampire doesn't seem to happen. You're left wondering where everyone's going to go from the ending.

The blurb about the story is a little misleading. Christopher isn't a benign vampire, and nowhere does he boast about only living off the blood of animals and willing victims. Sarah notices from the start that he doesn't seem to feed of humans, but the issue of who or what he feeds off of doesn't come up until much later in the book. When it does come up, it's a big deal too, so I think that part of the blurb is misleading.

But I think that's only because I wrote a fanfic about it. So I guess I'm liking the book just because what I wrote tied the story up nicely for myself to tolerate.

A lot of the elements in this book were taken from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of my favourite shows, so that's probably another reason why I liked it. Regardless of that, however, I can say this was probably one of her best unintentional works. Why unintentional? Because I can't conceive of Amelia actually working up a sweat on making a story believable and likable to anyone but herself.

Sarah Tigress Vida, a vampire hunter witch raised in the black and white society of her people, finds her world beginning to blur over when she finds herself the centre of a vampire's (Christopher) affections. And for whatever reason she meets this vampire at school. Because all 1000+ year old vampires are just dying to see what modern day educational facilities are like, lemme tell you. That part alone is cringe-worthy, but it can be overlooked if you want it to be. So throughout the majority of the book not only is Sarah burdened with not living up the standards of her older sister and mother but she has that nagging vampire Christopher to deal with, who is just too darn sweet despite what she was told about vampires and who she can't seem to get rid of.

I just hate what she does with names in this book. The switch from Christopher and Nicholas to Kristopher and Nikolas is so friggin' ridiculous I almost vomitted. Is the K supposed to symbolise something evil or creepy, Amelia? Because I think it's just lame. Another thing is that she needs to learn that not everyone is beautiful, eyes don't come in the colours she makes them out to be, and every story must have an ending. Even a crappy story. But she doesn't like endings, she just gives up wherever she wants and that's what happens to this story. But even in the linear conclusion one goes away with a feeling of relief. I have no idea how the ending was suitable, maybe she managed to get a stroke of luck when making this book.

I don't know how she managed to pull it off, but by George, Amelia did it. So that's the only reason I'm giving her credit for this book. Two stars for stumbling over something that was worth my ten bucks plus one star for the fanfic I wrote about it. Seriously, other people should consider doing the same thing with her stories if they don't like them so much. It's surprising how satisified you'll feel afterwards.