Publisher: Self Published
Source: ebook provided by author for honest review
Amazon | Goodreads
If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it’s to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn’t hurt either.
Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents step in and save Aurora’s life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska. Basically she’s a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job… by hand.
Now Aurora’s only friends are groupies of the undead and the only boy she can think about may very well be a vampire. And if he’s a vampire, will she be forced to kill him?
For ages 16+
My Review:
Being a big fan of all things fangy (or is it fangie or fangish...whatever) I jumped at the chance to get my hands on Transfusion: Aurora Sky Vampire Hunter. Girl nearly dies, girl gets saved by Government Agents, girl turns into lethal vampire killing machine, girl falls in love with blood sucking hottie. What's not to jump at there? It's like a Buffy and Alias mash up. Yes, please!!
We meet Aurora in the midst of her ho-hum senior year where she has big dreams of moving away from Freezer Burn, USA and heading to Notre Dame for college. Dreams of slinking away from her ever- present mother and noticeably absent father; starting fresh, starting new, starting her own life.
Funny how all your plans change when you die. A super secret sect of the government picked Aurora out of the wreckage of a car accident, put her back together and injected her very rare blood with a vampire virus along with an antidote to keep her just human enough. Just human enough for them to train her to be a serial slayer.
Now, Aurora does not go from 0 to 60 in warp speed. She starts off confused, disbelieving and angry. But when she is thrown to the wolves (or vampires, as the case may be) it is catch on quick or die. Again.
Once Aurora begins to come to grips with how her life has changed, she becomes such a fun character. She has this dry sense of humor that I really enjoyed and the rebelliousness she finds was endearing. Her goals go from remarkably lofty to just plain pathetic. Her New Year's resolution is a short list of firsts: kill a vampire, get drunk, kiss a boy, lose virginity. And let me tell you, Jefford holds back nothing on the virginity scene. It is the most realistic take on a girl 'losing it' that I've ever read in a book. So any virgins out there that want to know what it's really like, read this book!
Fane is a conundrum. He's snarly and almost creepy one minute then the most gentlemanly sweetheart the next. There is a lot to question where Fane is concerned but it just makes him all the more alluring. There is definitely more than meets the eye with this guy.
There are heart pounding moments spread throughout the book and a ton of very interesting characters that we get brief glimpses of. Transfusion is the perfect set up to what will be a very fun and addictive series; complete with action, intrigue, angst and forbidden love. The ending will have you chomping (at the neck) for more, I know I am!
Scroll down for Nikki Jeffords guest post, where she discuses her reasoning for writing a series on Vampires and the thoughts behind the science of the Aurora Sky series.
Nikki Jefford tells us a little about vampires and Aurora Sky:
Vampirism: The Myth, The Legend, The Disease… The Inspiration Behind Aurora
I
didn’t want to overwhelm readers with too much of this history in
volume one, but I plan to explore it in more depth in volume three,
origins.
Funny
enough I swore up and down that I’d never write a vampire novel. Then I
watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and got such a kick out of the show
that writing about vampires seemed like the only solution for getting
over my Buffy withdrawals.
The first obstacle was coming up with a unique approach.
A New Spin on the Vampire Tale
One of the most fascinating books I came across while researching was Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend by Mark Jenkins.
What
particularly stood out was the fact that much of the vampire folklore
originated during times of plagues and other outbreaks throughout
history.
In 16th and 17th
century Italy the legend of the “chewing dead” was taken so seriously
that bricks were rammed inside the mouths of suspected plague-causing
vampires before their burial as a means of stopping the creatures from
rising from their graves and claiming more victims.
One
of the most frequently cited medical causes of vampirism is rabies. In
the 1720’s, Spanish neurologist Dr. Juan Gomez-Alonso found that nearly
25 percent of rabid men had a tendency to bite other people.
Other
genetic disorders further fueled the legend. Porphyria, for example,
usually lies dormant in the bloodstream, but once awakened causes
hyposensitivity to sunlight – so much so that it can destroy a person’s
nose, fingers, and gum tissues – making teeth appear more prominent (ie:
fanglike).
Vampire Blood
The second spin on the story is that only people with AB negative blood (the rarest blood type in the world) can turn into a vampire. It can also be used to combat the undead, as is the case with Aurora Sky whose blood has been genetically altered to put a vampire into temporary paralysis, giving her time to finish the creature off.
Romeo & Juliet; Slayer & Vampire
I’m
a sucker for star-crossed lovers. I also have a thing for foreigners.
In my Spellbound series Raj McKenna is half-Indian. Aurora Sky’s Mr.
Baddie is Francesco Donado, “Fane”, of Italian origin.
Aurora
and Fane don’t like each other at the start of the book and then bam!
Their attraction becomes a force of nature and much more complicated
when it turns out a relationship between the pair is forbidden.
I can't resist a good vampire read, and this one sounds like it has an interesting take. Looking forward to checking this out!
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy it as much as I did Lee!
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