Voracious by V.K. Forrest

VKForrest-VoraciousSometimes when you throw an old idea or concept upside down, it’s not for the best.  It makes the reader question things. It makes the reader confused.  It can even make the reader laugh, when you aren’t meaning to be funny.  That’s what happened to me, when I tried to read Voracious by V.K. Frost.  I made it to page 99 before I threw in the towel.  I wanted to give the book a chance, I really did, it has lots of potential; but things started piling up that I didn’t like.

After months spent eliminating some of the world’s most ruthless criminals, Aedan Brigid is on sabbatical in Clare Point. Instead of relief, he feels on edge. Part of it is due to Dallas York, the gorgeous blonde bar owner whose touch just sparked an intense, inexplicable connection. But there’s another reason too. A local woman has been brutally attacked, her face and body carved beyond recognition. And one glance tells Aedan whose grisly handiwork it is.

Centuries ago, Aedan lost his beloved to a depraved monster nicknamed Jay. Now Jay is back, more vicious than ever. Aedan is already breaking clan rules by getting involved with Dallas—even if her mysterious gift sets her apart from other humans. And soon, he’ll have to decide whether he’ll turn away from the only life he’s known to protect a love he thought he’d never feel again…

The vampires in Voracious are immortal, nothing new there, except when they die – as long as they have their head – they are reborn as teenagers.  I admit that was a pretty nifty idea.  It makes them harder to kill, and live longer.  Not to mention somewhat funny that someone’s spouse is now a pubescent, pimply, teenager.  It is all part of their curse, that God gave them for the sins they committed against him. This, from what I can tell, is from fighting St. Patrick in Ireland and being pagan so God cursed this whole family.  That part made me scratch my head.  I’m pretty sure that a good hunk of the human population was pagan during this time, also a lot of people were against St. Patrick.  And this one family get’s cursed?  That’s hard for me to believe.  Then I learned:

  • Vampires’ age, and can die of old age.
  • They can eat regular food, and can fight off blood lust except when they descend their fangs, after which they will feed on blood.
  •  If they were married at the time of the curse, they have to remain married to that person forever, and if they weren’t married, by law they can never marry.  Plus human lovers are against the rules.
  • They can morph into other people including the opposite sex and manifest jewelry for themselves
  • And sunlight does not harm them at all

They do have a purpose though, they protect humans from the bad guys, whether that’s zombies (I’m guessing as they were mentioned as creatures that exist in this world), vampire or other humans.  I like when vampires have a job to do.  Sadly that’s as much as I like the vampires in Voracious.

As far as the plot goes, I didn’t get far enough in to really know how things truly play out or get much of a sense of what was going on.  I can tell you, I wasn’t too keen with the idea of the bad guy.  He kills a small group of random women every 50 years or so, same technique, similar patterns but Aedan (who is an executioner) can never catch him.  On one hand it’s rather suspenseful, it creates a fear of when and where he will they strike next.  On the other hand, I can’t see a serial killer who would go to that much trouble with his victims, go out of his way to never get caught, and yet wait 50 years between each attack.  To me, that doesn’t add up.  I would think he/she’d just keep going, not waiting for hunk chunks of time in between, until someone stops them.  Then again, I’ve never (and will never) research a serial killer.  It could be totally plausible for all I know.

There were a few things that were too convenient with the plot.  Aedan meets Dallas during an attack, which was near the bar.  She just so happened to have interviewed the bad guy’s first victim the night before and Dallas has clairvoyant powers.  I didn’t get far enough to know, but I have a sneaking suspicion where that was heading.

The characters themselves aren’t terrible, but I never really got to like anyone.  Twenty pages in and I wasn’t grabbed with any emotion or connection with anyone.  I can’t put my finger on why really.  Maybe there wasn’t enough personal emotions for the characters or enough personal attributes shown for me.  Maybe it was the strange take on vampires that threw me off too much to connect to the characters.  All I know is that by page 20 I didn’t care about anyone, I wasn’t even curious about what was going to happen.  The only reason why I was still reading was to give the book a chance.

The part that put the nail in the coffin for me, har har, was all of a sudden you have the inner monologue of the bad guy.  It’s the first time this happens, it starts on page 98, and it’s not explained how you see/hear this, it is just thrown at you out of nowhere.  If this had happened earlier, this wouldn’t have been so strange or hard to swallow.  Or, if it had been set up a little better like maybe you see him/her in the shadows and suddenly you are in their head.  Not thrown in at the end of a scene between two characters that has nothing to do with what the bad guy is thinking.  It was too much for me, and I put the book down.

Voracious by V.K. Forrest has lots of potential.  It’s very creative and fresh.  It makes me think of Sherrilyn Kenyon, how they have a purpose of protecting humans too.  I get and enjoy Sherrilyn Kenyon, I didn’t get or enjoy Voracious.  I give the team that is V.K. Forrest a high five for creativity, but this is just not the book for me.

About Nikki R 120 Articles
SAHM of 2, happily married bookworm, blogger and aspiring author. If I could read/write all day, every day, I would. Luckily I have a very understanding, and patient, husband who lets me get away with it as much as possible. Now if only the kids would understand my obsession, and the house would clean itself, then I'd be all set.