Review: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Title: A Shade of Vampire
Author: Bella Forrest

Series: A Shade of Vampire #1

Number of Pages: 148

Published: December 14th 2012
Source: Author / Paperback

Genre: Paranormal > Vampires 

Reading Level: YA

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?

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I was contacted by Author Bella Forrest in the beginning of the year and asked to read her YA novel, A Shade of Vampire. To be completely honest my first thoughts were "Ugh, another vampire book". *insert loud sigh* Don't get me wrong I love vamps but I kind of burned out  with reading about them. There are so many out there and so many of them are THE. SAME. STORY. Re-done over and over again with no originality.  I agreed to read Bella's book in hopes to find something "more" within this story.  I was very surprised to find out I did just that. I finally found a unique and fun vampire novel that doesn't follow all of the same old cliches. Why am I telling you this instead of going straight into my review? Simply because I think it's important for you to understand that A Shade of Vampire is yes about vampires, but to me stand out among the rest.

As the book begins we meet Sofia Claremont who is the main female protagonist in the story. Today is her birthday and she is turning 17 years old. With the promise of meeting her best friend "secret love interest" Benjamin at the beach to celebrate her birthday, things go from bad to worse. Benjamin never comes. He has forgotten her birthday. Again. Although... someone or "something" has indeed decided to show. A sharp pain. A Scream. Then nothing. Sofia's world goes black. 

Waking up, Sophie realizes she is no longer at the beach but trapped in a dungeon. Alone and confused, she soon will find the answer to where she is and who and what has taken her prisoner. Although the answers she finds will change her world forever. Sophie is in a place called the shade. The Shade is basically a Vampire hive where they live, eat, and are hidden from the rest of the world. Sophie has been taken for the sole purpose of being food to the King or leader Vampire, Derek Novak. But when Derek meets Sophie and is about to feed on her something rare and unusual happen. He doesn't. Why? To find out what happens you'll have to read it for yourself. 

From here the story really takes off. Bond are formed. Friendships and even romance finds it's way into the story. 

I really enjoyed A Shade of Vampire. It was a very short read but really told such a fascinating story about what happen when a girl ends up of falling in love with her captor. The world building was phenomenal. I love how Bella did her best to describe "The Shade" which really helps the reader to feel like they're right there with Sophie seeing it through her eyes. The book is told from multiple narrators, Sophie and Derek. This was a HUGE plus for me because I loved seeing the scenes play out from both sides. Both Derek and Sophie are highly likable main characters and both give the story so much depth, and personality.

I was pleasantly surprised by how I truly DID enjoy this book. I am super happy that I did not pass up on reading such an amazing novel and so cannot wait to read what happens next. 

 Totally Awesome! I loved it, would read again.