Title: Rival
Author: Lacy Yager
Series: Unholy Alliance (book #2.1)
Rating: 3/5 stars
Author: Lacy Yager
Series: Unholy Alliance (book #2.1)
Rating: 3/5 stars
Author Bio:
Lacy Yager married her college sweetheart and became Lacy Williams. She also writes Inspirational romance under her married name. During high school, Lacy completed the course WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS from the Institute of Children’s Literature. After she graduated college, Lacy got serious about her writing career and joined the American Christian Fiction Writers. When presented with the opportunity to write mainstream YA with her younger sister, Lacy couldn’t say no.
Synopsis:
Her destiny. His determination.
Born a fifth generation vampire Chaser, seventeen-year-old Emily Santos wants nothing more than to join the family business. But Emily's mother refuses, so Emily must channel her aggression into her martial arts training.
Black belt senior Brett Carson has decided it's time to rid himself of his unrequited feelings for Emily. But when he finds himself in the middle of an altercation with Emily and a gang of vampires, he is drawn into a world he never expected. And Brett is hiding a secret of his own...
Born a fifth generation vampire Chaser, seventeen-year-old Emily Santos wants nothing more than to join the family business. But Emily's mother refuses, so Emily must channel her aggression into her martial arts training.
Black belt senior Brett Carson has decided it's time to rid himself of his unrequited feelings for Emily. But when he finds himself in the middle of an altercation with Emily and a gang of vampires, he is drawn into a world he never expected. And Brett is hiding a secret of his own...
Review:
My review for December was supposed to be this one, Rival by Lacy Yager. It didn’t happen for December, because well it was December, the busiest time of the year, and it was a difficult review for me to write. The reason I had such trouble writing it was because I didn’t dislike it, but at the same time I didn’t love it. I had no strong feelings one way or the other about it, and that made it difficult to review.
The book had a nice little plot and story line, nothing extraordinarily awesome, but still good. I liked the fact that Brett and Emily already knew each other and had a backstory, so no insta-love. (As those of you who have read my other reviews know, I really hate insta-love.) Just so you know, Rival is a novella. Now, I normally shy away from short stories – unless, of course, it was written by Poe – but this one wasn’t bad, and even though I didn’t absolutely, positively, love, love, love it; I don’t feel like it was a waste of my time. Unlike a lot of authors, Yager didn’t shirk on the explanations. I really appreciated the fact that I could just dive right in, without being confused about who the chasers are and how things are run in their world, or have the opposite thing happen and have to delve through pages upon pages of unnecessary backstory filled with things that are completely irrelevant.
Things I did not like about Rival… I had some serious problems with the fact that the ending was really rushed, and entirely too predictable. It was like ‘Okay, I’ve decided that this is over, now let’s box everything up and slap a nice pretty bow on it’. I mean it’s got this great little fight scene, which is awesome, but as soon as it’s over Yager ties up all the loose ends in a few short paragraphs: mother/daughter issues are resolved, the lovebirds confess their feelings for each other, the main character’s lifelong dream is fulfilled…etc. See? Nice pretty bow, and it ends exactly like I knew it would from sentence one.
Despite my dislike of the ending, Rival was a good book. It just didn’t suck me in like I wanted it to. I don’t know why, it might’ve been me, and it might’ve been the book. Either way, I finished it feeling kinda whatever about it. Anyways, here’s an excerpt, enjoy:
Halfway to Emily’s ritzy neighborhood, and I’m still waiting for the police helicopter to shine a light down on us, or a group of squad cars to appear, blocking out way.
But nothing happens.
I’m trying to reconcile everything in my mind. We were leaving the mall, minding out own business, when some guy attacks Emily, and his friends come after Erick and me. Knives are drawn. I saw Erick with one, but was it his? Or did he get it from his opponent? And somehow, our three attackers ended up dead.
Oh, and they seemed to be… superhuman. With fangs.
But shouldn’t we have stayed and talked to the cops? Told our side of the story? How come Erick stayed to take the blame? Why did Emily let him?
All of it whirls through my brain, rushing like the wind against me on the bike. I can’t make sense of any of it.
And still, no cops. Nothing happens at all.
Nothing except Emily clings to me, leaning into every turn like she was born to be on the back of a bike. With me.
The book had a nice little plot and story line, nothing extraordinarily awesome, but still good. I liked the fact that Brett and Emily already knew each other and had a backstory, so no insta-love. (As those of you who have read my other reviews know, I really hate insta-love.) Just so you know, Rival is a novella. Now, I normally shy away from short stories – unless, of course, it was written by Poe – but this one wasn’t bad, and even though I didn’t absolutely, positively, love, love, love it; I don’t feel like it was a waste of my time. Unlike a lot of authors, Yager didn’t shirk on the explanations. I really appreciated the fact that I could just dive right in, without being confused about who the chasers are and how things are run in their world, or have the opposite thing happen and have to delve through pages upon pages of unnecessary backstory filled with things that are completely irrelevant.
Things I did not like about Rival… I had some serious problems with the fact that the ending was really rushed, and entirely too predictable. It was like ‘Okay, I’ve decided that this is over, now let’s box everything up and slap a nice pretty bow on it’. I mean it’s got this great little fight scene, which is awesome, but as soon as it’s over Yager ties up all the loose ends in a few short paragraphs: mother/daughter issues are resolved, the lovebirds confess their feelings for each other, the main character’s lifelong dream is fulfilled…etc. See? Nice pretty bow, and it ends exactly like I knew it would from sentence one.
Despite my dislike of the ending, Rival was a good book. It just didn’t suck me in like I wanted it to. I don’t know why, it might’ve been me, and it might’ve been the book. Either way, I finished it feeling kinda whatever about it. Anyways, here’s an excerpt, enjoy:
Halfway to Emily’s ritzy neighborhood, and I’m still waiting for the police helicopter to shine a light down on us, or a group of squad cars to appear, blocking out way.
But nothing happens.
I’m trying to reconcile everything in my mind. We were leaving the mall, minding out own business, when some guy attacks Emily, and his friends come after Erick and me. Knives are drawn. I saw Erick with one, but was it his? Or did he get it from his opponent? And somehow, our three attackers ended up dead.
Oh, and they seemed to be… superhuman. With fangs.
But shouldn’t we have stayed and talked to the cops? Told our side of the story? How come Erick stayed to take the blame? Why did Emily let him?
All of it whirls through my brain, rushing like the wind against me on the bike. I can’t make sense of any of it.
And still, no cops. Nothing happens at all.
Nothing except Emily clings to me, leaning into every turn like she was born to be on the back of a bike. With me.