Title: Crimson Bite (Hillcrest Supernaturals #1)
Author(s): Danielle Rose & Ben Alderson
Pub. Date: December 25, 2018
Rating: ♥♥♥♥
In the sleepy town of Hillcrest, supernaturals need not hide in the shadows…
Savannah Danvers is concerned with one thing: keeping her life as a blood-sucking, human-killing vampire a secret. But as the memories of her latest kill cloud her mind, she finds herself on werewolf land during a full moon. After she stumbles upon a bloodbath, Savi must decide if she’s willing to risk her life to defend the treaty enacted centuries ago by the town’s Elders.
George Alcott’s insidious past has remained buried for far too long, but when tragedy strikes, he must tap into his birthright. As his dark magic consumes him, he risks everything to save a lost soul. Now, haunted by demons he thought no longer existed, George must enlist help from an unruly ally and former love.
With the town’s Elders close to discovering their monstrous secrets, Savi and George must cover up their crimes before they too are burned at the stake.
I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
This will be a spoiler free review.
I’ve been a reading slump since finishing Kingdom of Ash and nothing had been holding my attention for more than a few chapters. This book was just what I needed to get back into reading. I really enjoyed it overall. The writing was great, the characters where interesting and I liked how we were basically plopped into the middle of this world, these lives and continued on.
This was the book I didn’t know I needed to read. I guess I’d been wanting something supernatural, vampire filled, and this book didn’t disappoint. For me this was a pretty quick read – finished it in about four or five hours over the course of three days.
About the characters – we meet a lot of key players, George, Savi, Chad, George’s mom. I liked George and Savi’s friendship and felt that they balanced each other out pretty well. I’m not a huge fan of George’s mom, but I think her character was written well, because I really don’t like her and I’m having actually angry feelings about her. As for Chad, he played a bigger role in the latter half, and so far, I like him, and I like that he’ll do anything to protect his sister. I hope he gets a bigger role in book 2.
I’m not sure I’d ever want to go to Hillcrest, but the writing made it very easily to visualize the town and layout. Besides the vampires, witches and werewolves running about, it kind of reminded me of a Stars Hollow or Bluebell.
It wasn’t just the town that was easy to visualize, but everything in this book was a clear image in my mind. Sometimes when you get a book that’s been co-authored, the writing doesn’t flow right, and you can tell that two people have written it. I didn’t feel that with this book. I think Danielle Rose and Ben Alderson melded their writing styles together pretty seamlessly and because of that I was able to fully focus on the story.
My only reservation about the book is that it felt a little like the show True Blood. Now, I’m currently watching the show, so maybe it’s just me. It probably is. I don’t think this is a bad thing, and there weren’t blaring similarities, and to be honest, what I know about vampires comes from the books I read and shows I watch – I’ve done no history on lore or anything. But even with a few similarities, I don’t really think it’s a bad thing, it’s familiar and if anything made it so much easier to create a picture in my head.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I am definitely interested in what happens in the next one, especially after that ending. Thank goodness for rapid release!
If you’re looking for a quick, enjoyable supernatural read, then you should definitely check out Crimson Bite when it comes out December 25!
Writing The Universe 