Title: Carnal Lust
Author: Ashley Ladd
Publisher: Total-e-bound.com
PublicationDate: May 2010
Ebook: 47 pages
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Review Copy
Reviewed by: Laura
RATING: 3/10
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
Kes is obsessed with killing Nikolai – to prevent him from destroying Earth nine hundred years into the future. Kes is obsessed with eliminating Nikolai before he’s reborn as the evil vampire who destroys Earth and propels her family into the past. Once she finds the Nikolai of her present is a good and kind man she’s not sure she can hold the very sexy human accountable for something he hasn’t yet done.
REVIEW:
*** Warning: This Review Contains Spoilers***
At 47 pages this is more a novella than a book. Kes is a vampire from the future where planet Earth has been destroyed by an evil vampire called Nikolai. Escaping to the past with her family, they are intent on preventing this horrific disaster.
Kes believes the only way to do so would be to kill Nikolai and cannot understand why her parents are reluctant to. But the more she begins to watch Nikolai in the past she realises the while he may be a cruel man in the future, in the past he is actually the opposite. Is it fair to kill a man for crimes he is yet to commit?
Nikolai is a sixteenth century Lord intent on doing the best for his people. But, he finds himself becoming enchanted by a beautiful woman who seems to be following him and haunting his dreams. Unable to get her out of his mind, he knows he must learn more about her.
The timeline on this story is a bit mind boggling and to be honest even after reading it I’m not sure I could fully explain it to you. Simply because I’m not quite sure what happened where and when. It jumps around so much and refers to so many different events, as well as at some points there are two of the same people existing in the same time and place. I struggled to get my head around it all. It may be that this novella is part of a larger series which may clarify a lot of this confusion, but this is the first book I have read by this author.
I also felt that the relationship between Kes and Nikolai lacked integrity. Firstly there are the times that Kes visits Nikolai. There are times she sees him in her dreams, times she accidentally astral projects to him and times she unwittingly visits him in the flesh. All of these visits became a bit of a jumble and slightly bizarre. I actually had to reread a section a couple of times as I was not sure if they had truly consummated their relationship or if it was ‘just a dream’.
However, one of the biggest problems I had with this story were the decisions the characters seem to make. Let’s take the point when Kes’s opinion of Nikolai turns from that of evil villain, to lover and then to love of her life. This all seemed to happen in the space of about three days with no real explanation behind this change of mind. In addition, Nikolai is portrayed as a caring and noble overlord. Feeding the poor from his personal stores, taking sick children into his castle to nurse them to health. Then he falls in love with Kes, a vampire and runs off leaving his land and people into the care of his elderly groom. This didn’t seem to me to be the decision of a caring Lord?
On a personal note, the story was very much on the erotic side of romance which is not really to my taste. The language was very evocative which I did not enjoy. But besides this it got immensely repetitive. The same phrases seemed to be used every time which unfortunately got tiresome.
It seems as though the author tried to achieve too much in such a short space of pages. I actually don’t mind reading novellas and often enjoy them. I just didn’t get on with this one.
VERDICT:
I found this book very confusing and struggled to engage with the main characters. Interesting concept of time travelling vampires, but it just did not make it for me. I’m afraid I would not recommend it.
You can find out more about the author here:
6 Comments
Hmm, it sounded pretty good. 46 pages can be frustrating to read. It always feel like its not enough to completely analyze.
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I don't know but 46 pages is quite short.
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@Lelani obviously this is just my personal opinion, you may love it. But yes it's a short book.
@Darlyn yep it's more of a novella really
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Just dropping in real quick to say this doesn't sound like my cup of tea at all – sorry you didn't like it Laura, but great review as always x
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@bookchickcity thanks for saying hi! We're missing you! X
No I don't think it's your cup of tea either and I'm glad you liked the review. L x
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