Synopsis (taken from Goodreads.com):
One moment can change your life forever...
For Violet Lee, a chance encounter on a darkened street draws her into a world beyond her wildest imaginings, a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth – of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone. A place from which there is no escape...no matter how hard Violet tries.
Yet all the riches in the world can’t mask the darkness that lies beneath the gilded surface, embodied in the charismatic but dangerous Kaspar Varn.
Violet and Kaspar surrender to a passion that transcends their separate worlds – but it’s a passion that comes at a price...
Thoughts:
Right off the bat I just want to say that this is NOT the sexiest romance of the year. It was neither sexy nor romantic so don't expect much from this book in terms of that criteria. Although I must say that this book is quite alluring. I can't put a finger on what but there is something about it that kept me reading till the end.
The beginning of the plot is average, Gibbs takes us straight into the action and the plot picks up quite quickly. I felt quite "MEH" at the start and was tempted to put the book down but by the sheer will that I mustered just so I could know why this is dubbed as the sexiest romance, I was quite surprised. I was surprised that I could not predict where the story is taking me. Everything was quite vague and I admit I enjoyed it. Obviously I was hoping that everything will tie in by the end of the book but instead was left dry (yes, it's one of those books). While I enjoyed the experience of a somewhat vague plot, Gibbs fails to deliver a cohesive storyline. She creates so much build up that the climax is anti-climatic, because the important details tend to trickle down at what I would deem "filler scenes". So that totally ruins the whole anticipation for the big reveal/conclusion. I feel that the book is not sectioned well because it seems that Gibbs spends so much time elaborating a particular scene that the reader would naturally assume it would be important only to find out it is quite irrelevant when he/she reaches the end. Which brings me to find that the ending is rushed and flat. There were still many questions left unanswered but seeing that this could be a series/trilogy, maybe I'll have my answers. To say whether Gibbs will be able to sustain a series/trilogy is doubtful because for a series début, it is not very strong.
Now onto the sexy romance that this book claims to have...WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! As individual characters, Kaspar is your archetypal bad boy turned good. Always a crowd pleaser so no problems there. Violet would get you thinking that she's weak at first but there are lines or thoughts that pop up from her that will make you go, "Oh yeah, YOU GO GIRL!" So in a sense, they are alright characters but their relationship with each other is so....weird. Again this goes back to the imbalanced plot structure which greatly affects the progression of their relationship. I don't want to sound cynical but maybe the reason why this is promoted as the "Sexiest Romance of the Year" because coitus happened. Big WHOOP! I understand this book is targeted for Young Adult so to have a sex scene thrown in the mix can be considered risqué for this genre but honestly, I've read far sexier YA books and they don't even have sex in them. The romance is super bland and a complete waste of time.
While it may sound that I've been criticising this book non-stop, there is something unexplainable that made me stick to the end. It could be that I was only fascinated by the unpredictability of this book or the darkness to Gibb's vampire world that is fascinating and weirdly alluring. Will I buy the second book? A BIG YES! I'm still willing to give it a shot and I really want to know more about the other worlds that are briefly mentioned in TDH. I get a sense that the next book won't be told in Violet's POV anymore so that will be...bad but we will see.
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5
Obsession Rating: 4 out of 5
