3 out of 4 stars
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In Take My Breath Away by B.A. Bostick, Julia is a dying artist determined to stay alive to continue her work. Desperation leads her to seek vampires to turn her. After many tries with scammers, she finds a reluctant Sire in Ryder. She soon finds out that being a vampire isn’t as wondrous as she thought it would be. With Ryder’s help, she must survive in this dangerous new world and learn to thrive as an undead artist.
I haven’t read many vampire stories. In fact, most of my understanding of vampirism comes from T.V. shows featuring young women in unhealthy relationships with ancient vampire men. So, I had no idea what to expect when reading Take My Breath Away. I was pleasantly surprised that B.A. Bostick’s novel was nothing like the usual T.V. drama of vampires. Take My Breath Away raises many profound questions about the meaning of life, death, and the in-between. Since Julia and Ryder are both creative people, there is also the existential question about what it means to be an artist. As a creative person myself, I related to the struggle Julia faced about how to create when your life (or afterlife) takes a dramatic turn. Julia’s desire to finish her work before she dies, regardless of how short-sighted, will appeal to anyone who has unfinished projects.
I also enjoyed the artistic way Bostick described places and people throughout the book. There are beautiful and haunting descriptions of a moon, sunlight, and other atmospheric elements. People are figuratively painted with the same artistic brush as Bostick describes them vividly from the grossest to the sexiest of characters. I was sucked into the story by Bostick’s precise writing style.
Take My Breath Away is a fast read being under 100 pages. I liked that the shortness of the book meant that the action happened quickly. Yet, I felt the character development was rushed particularly with Julia. There is not much information given about Julia’s life before becoming a vampire. This lack of backstory outside of her artistic goals made Julia seem one-dimensional. Since I didn’t feel invested in Julia, I didn’t care what happened to the character. Ryder had enough backstory that I understood his personality and motivations. I hope that the next installment in this series will develop Julia further.
While I enjoyed the beautiful prose and the profound questions raised in Take My Breath Away, well-developed characters are a must for a great novel. Since I felt that the main character, Julia was underdeveloped I took away one star. Therefore, I am rating this book 3 out of 4 stars. I found no errors in this novel. Therefore, it was thoroughly and professionally edited.
I recommend this book to people who like paranormal novels that ask deep questions, artistic types looking for inspiration, and those looking for a quick horror read. There are no explicit sex scenes yet because of its violent nature I wouldn’t recommend this book to pre-teens and younger readers.
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Take My Breath Away
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