Review: Healer's magic by Teagan Kearney

I was offered a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and I began to read it in a bus trip to the capital of the province where I live: Jaen. In case you don't know, Jaen is the number one world producer of olive oil and a beautiful region full of history and nature.

Place: Castle of Jaen, Spain

Date: May, 2017

Title: Healer's magic

Author: Teagan Kearney

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Blurb: A powerful healer. A treacherous enemy. A deadly conflict.
Tatya's world slides into chaos when a demon consumed with the desire to control her power attacks those she loves. She refuses the local master vampire’s offer of aid, as he's just turned her best friend into one of the undead. She needs allies, but who can she trust in the battle to destroy this dangerous enemy? 

Format: Ebook 

The story

The book tells us the story of a young woman with a special gift who's not very fond of vampires due to an incident in the past. She doesn't go after them to hunt them, either. The two species just live together in some kind of society where vampires are accepted as another race.

To this point, this may not sound original, but I don't think it has to be. Whoever reads a book about vampires knows there will be clichés in it.

The characters

In my opinion, this is the strong part of the novel. Tatya is a young woman with powers whose friend has been turned into a vampire. Suddenly she's lost a loved one to a night creature so she is resentful. Tatya is represented as a very witty and sarcastic girl, especially in her interactions with Vanse, the master vampire, and that makes her a very captivating character. I loved her comebacks!

Vanse is the other part of this story, an experienced vampire, and a very particular one since he doesn't kill to feed himself. He seems to have some kind of fondness towards humans. The relationship between these two characters is the most engaging aspect of the book: on one hand, Tatya hates him, but his behaviour is so approppriate and thoughtful that she faces a big dilemma. In the middle of all this, we have the antagonist: a vampire called Angelus who has been following Tatya through distance and time, and won't stop until she's his.
They still need some developing, but that may happen in the following books of the series...

The style

I must say I did enjoy very much the author's writing style, full of beautiful imagery and methaphors and with strokes of details that inspired my imagination throughout the story. Also, there were very few mistakes regarding spelling and grammar, something that can be fixed with another read over.

My opinion

I normally don't read stories that revolve mostly around the romance between a man and a woman, even if they are vampires, but this novel adds some more to it than just a love story. The fact that the main character is not so prone to fall for the vampire is a breeze of fresh air after the whole Twilight craziness. The weak point of the story, I think, is that there is a part towards the middle of the book where the action becomes slow and makes you lose interest. Another aspect I'd like to mention is the chapters about Vanse's past lives where the author shows off her knowledge about certain rituals and cultures.

Review: The impossible creation by Betsy Flak

I will not show you a place today since this reading has been chosen in a different way. I'm getting ready for a big trip (it's a surprise, you'll see) and I feel like discovering more indie authors in the fantasy/horror genre. So I was given the chance to do a review before the launch of the book I'll be talking about here today. 

Title: The impossible creation

Author: Betsy Flak

Genre: YA fantasy

Format: Ebook

Blurb: A vampire with otherworldly ambitions. A vampire hunter, adrift in a sea of grief. And an oblivious girl, over whose fate they fight. Devastated by grief, Lucy fled from her supernatural birthright as a vampire hunter. Now she pretends to be a normal college student. She goes to class. She works a part-time job. She hides her superpowers from everyone except her best friend--who happens to be a witch. But when a vampire enters her town and targets a high school girl, Lucy must hunt again. Can Lucy win a tug of war where the prize is a girl's life? The Impossible Creation is a prequel to the upcoming The Clan-Vampire Clash.

The story

I must admit that, being an avid reader of this genre, the story didn't feel very original, but that is not something that would put off a fan of vampires. We know what we are getting ourselves into. This is the usual story of vampires versus hunters. However, it is the hunter who denies her nature this time. Lucy is a college student who tries to live a normal life while a plan is being designed on the low by a group of vampires who need to find someone with a very specific gift to fullfill their ambitions.

I did enjoy the parts where the narrator focused on the vampires' world which, in my opinion, was very well designed. The book intertwines the narration of the vampires and Lucy's opposite worlds with the life of a teenager called Grace.

The characters

As mentioned above, there are several important characters in the story. Lucy is a mysterious young woman who seems a bit dull at the beginning, but who starts progressing as the story unfolds. Grace, on the other hand, is the typical teenager with the problems we all had at that age —there's a love story, if you were wondering about that— and I have to say the author did an amazing job developing this character. I could totally see myself back in high school as I read the dialogues. Finally, we have the vampires where two of them stand out: Duncan and Adara. Here goes the vampire-freak side of me: I simply loved Adara. That's it. I don't know what's going to happen in the following books, but I'm just going to beg the author to please not kill Adara! She's a badass vampire with really good lines and comebacks, who pairs wonderfully with Duncan.

The style

I saw two different writing styles here, and I don't know if that was intended. Betsy Flak uses a very simple and direct style when writing about Lucy and Grace, and then changes into a different one with elaborated paragraphs and beautiful and original imagery when it's the vampires turn. She achieves the perfect atmosphere for the night creatures without being too bloody nor too violent. Another aspect I want to highlight is I found no typos, no grammar mistakes and the formatting was of a good quality, and I do like to mention this because people tend to dismiss indie literature on the grounds that it's not well written and full of errors —and that's true for some—, so when there is an author that took the time and the effort to have a good quality book, I'll shout it from the rooftops.

My opinion

This is definitely a YA book. You alreay have guessed that my favourite part is when they story focuses on the vampires and, although I enjoyed the book, I think this is a novel I would have totally loved to have come across when I was a teen. Perhaps now, being a bit older —almost coming to my thirties—, teenage problems are a little behind for me to relate to the characters, but if you are still in this period of your life or you have kids who are, go ahead and give this book a chance. You'll certainly have a good time.