Dead of Night

The Blood Curse Chronicles, Volume 1

By: James Agee Jr.

Narrated by: Jamie Dione

Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

All families have secrets. Some are worth dying for. The Vasile family owns a funeral home in Frederickton, Virginia. For the most part, life in this small town is ideal. However, there is one secret they try to hide - a secret that could destroy their lives as they know it. They are vampires. When a strange girl comes to town for her grandmother’s funeral, new information is uncovered. There is a chance the Vasiles and all other vampires will know a day when they can become human and break the blood curse that has plagued vampires for centuries.

©2017 James Agee Jr. (P)2018 James Agee Jr.

A Better Love Story Than Twilight?

NOTE: I received the full 4 book series on audio from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I kid with the headline, but it does give you an idea of what to expect from this book. Dead of Night is the first in a 4 part YA vampire romance series by James Agee Jr. The story alternates chapter to chapter between Thalia (a disaffected teenager) and Christoph (a teenage vampire). Thalia is drawn to the town of Frederickton to attend her grandfather's funeral. Christoph's family, the Vasiles, act as the town's morticians. Naturally the two meet, and Christoph instantly falls obsessively in love with her. Soon, Thalia figures out the truth and is drawn into the secret world of vampires, ghosts, and shamans.

As a mid twenty something now, YA vampire romance isn't entirely my thing. For the first fourth, I was far more interested in Christoph's chapters than Thalia's chapters; the mechanics of vampire morticians is far more interesting IMHO than standard teenage drama. The funeral scene, where the family makes it appear as if the grandfather got out of the casket and disappeared through the use of shadows, reminded me heavily of the vampire anime Shiki (a great series). Eventually, the two stories merged and remained generally interesting. I didn't find the romance all that believable, but hey its YA romance. The action scenes and lore regarding the Blood Curse (a possible cure for vampirism and hopefully the central thread for the rest of the series) held me over. Refreshingly, the story gets right to the point and does what Twilight waited 3 books to get around to; I won't say exactly what it is, but you should be able to figure it out. The story isn't particularly new or groundbreaking, but it is enjoyable enough genre fare. Vampires, as Dead of Night puts it, are ice sculptures in a world that doesn't appreciate the cold.

The narration was excellent. While Jamie Dione doesn't really distinguish Thalia and Chistoph's narration from each other, he read the story well.

Overall, I'd say Dead of Night is a fine story with good narration. Its a good start to the series. One down, three to go.

A quick bite that will leave you wanting more.

*I received this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review.*

Each chapter jumps perspectives between the two main characters, Christoph and Talia. Christoph is a vampire with a more traditional power set. He can turn into a bat, make short "teleports", has super strength, and he can even go unseen. What is the downside to all of this? Christoph's family wants nothing more than to be human. They own a funeral home but still often struggle getting enough blood. Talia is a human dragged around by her transient parents. Her grandfather's death has brought them to Frederickton, Virginia. Here she keeps crossing paths with Christoph and soon their fates become intertwined. After a chance purchase of an enchanted poetry book and the discovery of its secrets, there may actually be a way to reverse the vampiric curse.

I did find at points in the story that some background facts or sub plots were popped in with no expectation or foreshadowing. I also would have liked the pacing of the story to be a little slower with more time given to character development. The narration was done well, though it was done with no changes in voice for the different characters.

Overall, I am excited to see where this series takes me and what adventures the characters get up to on their hunt for this blood curse cure.

A prologue trying to be a novel

Disclosure: Review copy received for free

This story had some potential. It tried a little too hard to be a Twilight story but it made it self it’s own by creating a new world the characters live in. Common vampire troops were used a little too frequently and not fully explained to the reader. The author could have expanded upon the story and made the book feel a little bit more substantial had he built the backstory up.

I have never been a fan of romance stories, and though I’ve read Twilight, they were not my favorite books. This story tried a little too hard to be like the Twilight stories and fell flat in many places. The romance between our two main characters was a bit nonsensical and required be to believe that they can fall madly in love and be willing to die for one another with in two days of meeting. Maybe this is a plus for people into these kinds of stories, but it just didn’t do it for me.

The author did a good job of making me curious about where the series will be going. I’m going to read the rest of the series and see if it improves, but as of right now it looks like all of these books could’ve been pushed into one compilation of short stories.

The narrator’s British accent was an interesting choice. The story takes place in southeastern United States, but the way the characters were written and the accent made the characters seem a lot less believable than they could’ve been. The rest of the series is narrated by different people so I’m hoping that this aspect improves in future volumes.

Overall, if you are interested in supernatural vampire stories with a touch of romance in them, you may enjoy this series. My one comment to the author would be to combine all of these books into one volume. This one book just seems a little incomplete.