Brothers To The Death Review

Yeah, I know, three book reviews in a row. This book is The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Brothers To The Death. You can read a summary here. I liked the book. I thought that the Saga of Larten Crepsley was well ended.

Laney Book Review

Last Thursday, I finished reading Laney by Joann I. Martin Sowles. Overall, I thought it was a good book. It’s not the best vampire related book that I have read, but it’s not the worst either. However, I have my problems and questions regarding the book. A little FYI, if you haven’t read the book, don’t continue with the review. I’m going to be talking about some spoilers.

I have three problems with the book. The biggest problem that I have with the story is that in the beginning, when Laney meets and gets to know Oliver, she reminds me of Bella from the Twilight series. It’s all about how Oliver is good-looking, and nice, and how she can’t concentrate when she’s around him, etc. I find it to be very annoying. My second biggest problem is the grammar. An example would be the author’s inconsistency when it comes to quotations. For example, on the bottom of page 169, she wrote: “‘You wanna know what’s totally ironic?’ He asked quietly against my shoulder.” However, three pages later, on page 172, she wrote: “‘So, can I go now?’ he asked.” The inconsistency is the capitalization of the “he” right after the question. It’s supposed be like it is on page 172, where the ‘h’ in the ‘he’ is lower cased. Anyway, my last problem is using the wrong word in the wrong context. An example would on page 261: “He was wearing a dark robe, loosely tied around his bloated waste, over a white undershirt and pale blue pajama bottoms and dark corduroy slippers.” The author used the wrong word. Instead of the word ‘waste,’ which is something you throw away, the author should have used the word ‘waist,’ which is the middle of the torso, which I’m guessing the author meant to use in the quote I mentioned.

Anyway, I have a ton of questions dealing with the book. Now keep in mind that I haven’t read the second book, so I have no idea if any of my questions have been answered, and please don’t answer them if it’s answered in the second book.

• How do vampires like Oliver get the blood? Is it like in Rachel Caine’s Morganville world where the vampires get the blood from the blood bank? Or is it like how Mick from Moonlight got his blood, from a contact in the morgue of a hospital?
  
• Why does the food that vampires eat have to be organic? Is that their bodies can’t process non-organic food like how humans can?
  
• How is it that vampires don’t age in this book? Do they age like the vampires do in Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freaks books, where they age at a fraction of how humans age? Or is it like the typical vampire where they are stuck at the age that they were when they were turned into a vampire?
  
• What about Oliver’s abilities? Do all vampires have some sort of individual ability besides those associated with being a vampire? Does it come with becoming a vampire? Or is it like Edward and Alice from Twilight, where the vampire had the ability when he or she was human?
  
• How do the vampires know who has vampire lineage, like in Carter’s case? Do they have some who is in charge of recording family histories/lineages, like how Maharet from The Vampire Chronicles kept track of her family?
  
• Do vampires try to keep their existence a secret?
  
• How does the sun affect vampires? Is it like in Moonlight where sunlight hurts them, but doesn’t actually kill them? Or is it like the typical vampire myth where sunlight can kill the vampire?
  
• Are the vampire covens set up like how the Mai from The Nine Lives of Chloe King where there is a coven leader for every major city?
  
• Does a vampire choose who he or she turns into a vampire? Or is it totally random? If he or she can choose, does the vampire have to choose carefully?
  
• Is the bonding smell tied to a specific person? Or can it be turned on by anyone? Will the bonding smell kick in when the vampire meets the person or vampire that he or she will bond with?
  
• How does a vampire/human bond work? Will the vampire have to turn the human into a vampire eventually? Or is it like Arwen and Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where the immortal being will have to live without the human once the human dies?
  
• Why does the bonding end when the couple has sex? Why does it have been sex in general? Why couldn’t it have been something else?
  
• Can two vampires have babies together? If so, would that make the baby a full vampire? And how does the pregnancy work? Is it like a normal human pregnancy, where it takes nine months, or will the pregnancy be sped up like Bella’s pregnancy in Breaking Dawn? Can the mother even handle the pregnancy if she can’t change?
  
• In half-vampires, does it matter which parent is a vampire?
  
• How do vampire slayers learn the vampire language? Is there a translator, or a Rosetta Stone of vampire language? Is it written down somewhere? Did they have a sympathetic vampire teach the language?
  
• Where do vampire slayers get their weapons? Is there a person who specializes in things obtaining things like dragon horn, like how Bela from Supernatural did for her wealthy clients?
  
• Why was Laney’s aunt not happy about Oliver? Did she know who and what Oliver was being Laney introduced them? If she knew about Oliver ahead of time, then how does she know him and in what context?
  
• Was Oscar or Oliver involved the death of Laney’s mom?
  
• Does Isaac know about Julz, Hayden, and the world of vampires and other mythology at all?

Anyway, I recommend it if you want an alternate to the Twilight Saga from Stephanie Meyers.