AJ Ashe is moving on. Sure she still has not-so-sisterly feelings for Ryan, her ex-boyfriend-turned-step-brother, but there’s a new vampire in town and his name is Alexander Archer. Caught between the desire to move forward with Sexy Lexy and being drawn to her past with Ryan, AJ thinks life couldn’t get anymore complicated. Yeah, right. When her mother’s pregnancy is threatened, it looks like AJ’s long lost father is the only person who can save her. But Dad’s help comes with a price. AJ is forced join the evil side of her family, and a very creepy shape-shifting demon is there to make sure AJ cooperates. All this and she’s still got to plan the prom. Being a teenager is tough, but being a teenage vampire just flat out sucks. Pun totally intended.
Title: Love Sucks! (Bite Me, #2)
Author: Melissa Francis
Format: paperback, 224 pages
Genre: young adult, paranormal romance
Source: review copy
Published: July 2010 by HarperTeen
Buy the book: The Book Depository | Amazon
Find the author online: website | blog | twitter | facebook
Reviewed by Emily
50 words or less: When you're a high school senior, it's best to deal with your issues one at a time. Ex-boyfriend turned stepbrother, vampire mother having a baby, prom theme debates, new hotties on the scene, half vampire demons. You know, normal stuff.
Why, you ask? Because Love Bites! is a sweet cupcake of a book and although there really aren't any surprises or heretofore unexplored avenues in the story, it's a fun way to relax after a long day. (Sidenote: the adorable cupcake photo came from The Adventures of an Unconventional Kitchen Goddess, and I was extremely distracted just now looking at all the pictures. Just saying.)
Love Sucks! is the second book in this series. I will say here at the onset that that might be the reason that I have some...questions...about elements of the story. While most of the supernatural rules of the world were easy enough to figure out, there were enough elements left open that I would advise people to start with the first book in the series (Bite Me!) and go from there.
AJ is a vampire, a born one, who's trying to deal with a whole lot of drama. Her mom married her ex-boyfriend's dad and is now expecting a baby, a baby that is the key to a Really Important Prophecy. Everyone is all keyed about protecting her mom and the baby she carries, which is understandable, so when AJ and her younger siblings are attacked in their own home it's only logical to bring in a trainer that can take her skills to the next level.
That trainer is Alexander (Lex) and it is certainly here that the romantic tension takes off. Lex is kind of like a starter Bones - he's vampiric and English and if descriptions are to be believed, yummy as all getout. AJ has feelings for Ryan still, and Ryan has feelings for AJ, but apparently it was decided in the last book that they could no longer date since their parents were married. The sparks fly between Lex and AJ, and the ever-present love triangle establishes itself pretty quickly.
There is a whole lot of wandering around in the dark looking for historic artifacts and other things that I freely admit didn't really grab my interest, perhaps because the foundation for why these artifacts are important was laid in a book that I haven't read. The importance of those events in this book though is that it exposed a fundamental issue between Ryan and AJ that's going to have to be resolved at some point; namely that Ryan doesn't really trust AJ any further than he can throw her. Lex is happy to step in and makes no bones (har!) about showing his interest in AJ, but AJ isn't sure he's being honest either, and she's not happy about the fact that he can't seem to refrain from commenting on her private thoughts, which he can hear unless she blocks him out. I enjoyed AJ's narrative voice and her honest appraisal of her own emotions and situations; I felt for her on a variety of levels.
Which brings me to the issue that I had with this book, and really the issue that I have with all books that go down this narrative garden path. Other than the standard "he was my first love" line of thinking, I did not get the appeal of Ryan as a love interest at all. One, he's emotionally unavailable, two, he's suspicious of not only AJ's motives for doing ANYTHING, but went as far as to accuse her of contemplating defecting to the side of Evil, and three, he was incredibly hurtful towards her at a time when, even if he's determined to only be in her life as her stepbrother, he should have been way more supportive. And that's an understatement. What's wrong with the attractive, intelligent, emotionally available guy?
If you're cool with that, though, and are looking for a cupcake book to lighten your mood, then this one is a good bet. Overall Grade: B+
Emily’s Rating:
Awww sweet cupcake of a book sounds nice :D
ReplyDeleteSometimes these reads are just what the dr ordered. A starter Bones? Sign me up!
ReplyDelete