Jessica Sweet thought she was just an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. A life with visions of the future, that is. She goes about her normal country life in Fallen Cross, Ohio until one of her visions comes true and sends a hurt, bleeding naked man unconscious on her doorstep. She had no idea that that man was a vampire and would become the love of her life. Now, before you go “Oh, it’s one of those stories” I have to tell you that this is not your average vampire meets girl story. There’s not only Vampires and Werewolves, but ancient Sorcerers too! Aliya DalRae’s first novel in the Jessica Sweet Trilogy is a uniquely riveting and quite addicting story of redemption, love, and plenty of action to go around.
The Review:
From the beginning of this book I was immediately drawn in. Aliya DalRae has done a great job of showing, not telling and throws words in there that make me vividly see the world she is building. Her writing is up there in the top for me and I applaud her for this great talent in storytelling!
What I like about Jessica is that, even though she falls in love with a guy with a horrifying past she has no idea about, she is self-sufficient and independent. After her adopted parents die, she (I’m assuming) inherits the old farmhouse and small, family business of refurbishing old furniture. I like how she doesn’t have a stereotypical job liked waiter or assistant. She’s the boss and sets her own hours. It’s also realistic. I have to admit that I have a soft spot for a good vampire/human love story, but this one is my favorite by far because Jessica Sweet isn’t some weakling and she even has a talent of her own. Did I mention she sees the future? That’s pretty cool. The only problem I had with this is that it seems like she doesn’t get that sometimes she shouldn’t do exactly what her visions show her. There were frustrating moments when she only thought of two options and I’m here like “you have a third option! It’s so simple!”. But then I would assume that’s the author’s intent, right? To get you invested in the character and send plot twists to keep you frustrated/hooked and boy did it work!
Remember me mentioning a naked guy? Well, the naked guy is actually a vampire named Raven. Jessica thought she had another vision of the same scene of him on her porch, but after seeing him at the Mayor’s fundraiser she realizes that it wasn’t just a vision and that it actually did happen. Jessica is dragged to this fundraiser by her best friend Piper, along with her other best friend Alex, a guy who is sweet on Jessica (see what I did there?) and makes Raven growl a lot. I didn’t want to like Raven after I found out about his past of being the Rapist vampire, but his past was 500 hundred years ago and he literally tortured himself for five centuries. He also repented and has continuously repented for just as long. I think five centuries of repentance and torture (which is twice as long as he lost his humanity) is enough of a punishment and shows you that he has actually changed. He also loathes himself. He desperately wants to leave Jessica alone, for her not to get mixed up into his world, but in over 500 hundred years of being dead with grief he finally finds himself alive with love. He has found his true love and can’t seem to stay away and at this point in the story none of us are complaining! I loathed Raven at first, but I think he deserves a break since he shows us by his actions that he has truly changed his ways. Jessica is his one true love. She is his redemption.
I don’t like Malcolm. Malcolm the cat is a weird and creepy concept! At first I thought it would be just her guardian, but now that I know it’s some creepy guy cat who thinks she’s his? Not a fan of that. It’s just weird. Raven needs to tell her because that is awful. I don’t think it was meant to come across that way, but Malcolm is a creep and should be ashamed of keeping this secret from Jessica. And who is he reporting to about Jessica? Who is his Overlord? I hope we’ll find out at some point through this trilogy.
The villain of the story, Fuhrmann the Sorcerer, is definitely an evil one. How he’s connected to Raven and Jessica is astonishing and the ending will definitely surprise you. Also, what happens in the Epilogue? Wow! That’s a story I’d like to find out more about and could change Jessica’s life even more!
Star Rating Report Card:
4.43 Stars out of 5
1) Were the characters believable?
★★★★ – 4 stars
2) Did you like the characters?
★★ – 2 stars
3) Does the story move at a good pace?
★★★★★ – 5 stars
4) Are there holes in the plot?
★★★★★ – 5 stars
5) Is there conflict?
★★★★★ – 5 stars
6) Is the point-of-view consistent?
★★★★★ – 5 stars
7) Did you enjoy the story overall?
★★★★★ – 5 stars
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