Guilherme Damiati Damiati itibaren North Branch, Míchigan 48461, EE. UU. itibaren North Branch, Míchigan 48461, EE. UU.

The seventh book in an amazing series, Joey W. Hill's Vampire Queen series is one I hope never ends. I've fallen in love with all of the characters and although this is a prequel to a few others in the series it is in timeline after A Vampire's Claim. Elisa is a servant to Lady Daniela, a born vampire in the Australian outback. After taking back her home Danny also ends up foster parent to a few made vampire children. These vampires were made not only before an appropriate age but also made by vampires out of control who abused the children. After an accident at the ranch Danny decides the best course of action is to allow the children to be taken to a preserve. Malachi is a made vampire who has never really wanted to be part of vampire society, he's content on his preserve with his large cats and the family he's created. Mal agrees to take in the children but doesn't realize he's also inheriting a servant in the form of Elisa. She's committed to the children and will not be forced to leave the sanctuary, both Mal and Elisa have bitten off a bit more than they can chew. This book is heart-wrenching, the struggles faced by not only Elisa but also the children made me cry a few times. I couldn't put this book down which has come to be expected from books by Joey W. Hill.

My favorite story is Child's Play, about two children who become step siblings living together with their two parents who had an adulterous affair. They come to terms and have fun together acting out the steps that led to this momentous change in their lives. I also thoroughly enjoyed After Rain, about a woman who spends time in a childhood vacation spot when her love affair ends, The Piano Tuner's Wives, about the two women who marry the same man decades apart, and A Day, about a woman who drinks to numb the sorrow she feels about her cheating husband and inability to bear children. Each of the stories in this collection is beautiful, in its own quiet and melancholy way. For the most part, tragedies are small and everyday and relationships stay together despite jealousies, affairs, desperations, and love lost. The people in these stories mostly suffer quietly in order to keep their lives from falling apart and the few who speak out and take risks are punished by their own families. As a whole, the stories are a lesson about complacency and how hiding your feelings keeps things from falling apart, but it doesn't bring happiness. Themes: love, marriage, jealousy, family relationships, melancholy, indifference, silence, fate and its unchangeabililty

I started this novel with very high hopes as it was recommended to me by one of my best friends who has a very similar taste in literature as me. I listened to the audiobook and was so entranced that I borrowed the hardcover from the library to read when I wasn't listening. I devoured the book, rushing to what I expected would be a fabulous conclusion. No such luck...Nothing really happened in the whole book which made me think that the ending would have a wonderful twist or resolution, yet it seemed to just fizzle. The plot of this book centers around Lee's experience at a prep school in Massachusetts. The majority of the students at the school are affluent and Lee finds it difficult to assimilate once there. The novel follows Lee as she makes friends, develops crushes, ends friendships, and goes through the ups and downs of teenage life. There are certainly passages that are heartbreaking as Lee struggles with herself, her friends, and her family while trying to find a balance in her life between who she wants to be and who others expect her to be. If Curtis wanted to capture the "typical boarding school experience", I think that she did a pretty decent job but it read too much like a boring diary than an insightful look into a young woman's growth during her teenage years. As a former faculty member at a boarding school, I thought that this novel would be filled with the exciting and sometimes outlandish things that happen at prep schools. However, I had no such luck. I am a bit surprised as to why this novel received so much attention when it was first released as it only really scrapes the very surface of adolescent troubles. I feel that YA novels such as "Speak" or classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" are far more poignant than this book. www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com