Fangs and Lullabies Author: Kallysten Title: Fangs and Lullabies Series: The Demons Age 1 Genre: Paranormal Pairing: M/F, M/M, Bi Rating: Two Petals On the Author's Website: http://original.kallysten.net/2011/fangs-and-lullabies/ Summary: A child’s birth. His first teeth and first steps. School friends and bullies, recess, school plays and science projects. A girl, a crush and a broken heart. These childhood experiences are shared by countless little boys from different horizons. And yet… Jacob is anything but average. For as long as he has been able to understand, a secret has shaped his life, kept even from his closest friends: his father, Andrew, is a vampire. And so is his other father, Nicholas. In a strange era when demons are beginning to appear all over the world and threaten humans and vampires alike, the three of them form quite an extraordinary family. And yet, at the same time, they could hardly be more normal. Two fathers raising a son neither of them ever thought he would have. A Sire and Childe resuming their relationship after years of estrangement. Through snapshots covering Jacob’s life from birth to adulthood, discover this unusual family, and how, in the end, all it takes is love. Maggie's Review:
I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The beginning of this story had the perfect hook. Andrew is left alone in a room, his longtime girlfriend/partner is on the bed, dead from childbirth, and their son is lying nearby in a crib. He's lost and scared, unsure of how he's going to move forward, but Andrew knows he has to. The emotion in that one scene was riveting. If only the entire book was just as strong. Set up as a series of vignettes, or snapshots as the summary explains, this story jumps from scene to scene. It's definitely an interesting way to tell a story, giving glimpses into the drama of family life and how each character grows throughout the years without bogging down the story with too much detail. Yet, it also detracted from the story. Every time I started feeling like I was settling into the plot and the flow, it would suddenly jump away to a new scene days, months, or even years later. I kept losing interest in where the story was going because I couldn't stay invested in it. I also had some issues with the plot itself. For example, directly after the beautiful opening scene the story jumps two months into the future and Nicholas appears. It turns out, Nicholas is Andrew's Childe, someone that Andrew turned into a vampire a long time ago. They talk about why they were separated briefly, and then suddenly they're having sex. I, as a reader, have not yet had the chance to recover from the previous scene's emotions and couldn't wrap my head around the strange relationship Andrew and Nicholas fall into. It honestly just didn't work. Maggie's Recommendation: This book definitely had it's wonderful moments. There were excellent scenes full of emotion and drama that had me hooked. However, the jumpy formatting of the story, the lacking details, and the suddenness of everything that happened really detracted from my overall enjoyment to the point that I don't feel that I can recommend this story.
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Magnolia's Reviews
Maggie reviews paranormal and fantasy novels and novellas. She also interviews authors and hosts giveaways. Archives
April 2018
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