Prince of the Vampyres by Rohb Victory 📚 BOOK REVIEW

I read a digital edition of Prince of the Vampyres that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction

Publisher: Lulu

Publication date: June 4th, 2021

Pages: 105

Synopsis by the publisher:

This work leans more towards science fiction than fantasy unlike many vampire books. Prince of the Vampyres tell the ‘true’ story of how the first vampire was created at the fringes of the Milky Way galaxy. It is a tale of a young boy’s fascination with a coven of vampires whom he secretly observes as they feed at night.

The creatures of the night feed on bovine herd animals, not humans. That is, until one fateful night one of them creeps into the walled enclave the boy calls home. It covers the history of how his people crash landed on an M-Class moon, terraformed part of this hostile environment, and made a deal with the enigmatic original vampire they would live to regret.

Through a series of adventurous encounters, the young hero ends up on earth, in the 15th century as Vlad the Impaler. Rather than focus on the usual vampire lore, I show the reader how it all came to be in the first place.

My thoughts:

Over the years, I have read my share of vampire stories, and I don’t often come across ones that surprise me. But when I read the synopsis for Prince of the Vampyres, I was immediately intrigued! It sounded like a very different and new approach to the subject of the living dead. And it turned out that that was exactly what it was!

Rohb Victory writes an engaging, funny, and original story that looks at vampires in a totally new light! 

Following these characters was such an interesting ride into a world where space and vampires meet, and it’s a perfect match! The characters had some depth to them, and the book covered a lot of ground even though it was quite a short read. 

I really enjoyed Rohb Victory’s writing and world-building. Sci-fi novels can sometimes be slightly confusing when introducing new worlds, characters, and systems, but that didn’t happen here. It was easy to follow along with both the whereabouts of the story and the characters as well. He has a seamless way of telling a story where a lot is going on, and the characters had unique voices that made them feel real and relatable.

It is a bold move to write a story about a subject like this that has been done so many times before, but I think Victory did a fantastic job with this one! It’s original, different, and definitely worth the read!

I would have loved for it to have been a little longer and follow some of the characters for a longer period of time, but maybe there’s hope for more stories? If so, that is definitely something I would pick up.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that!

Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛

The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by Scott Semegran 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Scott Semegran

I read a Kindle edition of The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Thriller, Suspense

Publisher: Mutt Press

Publication date:  October 1st, 2020

Pages: 316 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

The summer of 1986. Central Texas. William and his friends should be having a blast. Instead, they are hounded by the Thousand Oaks Gang and their merciless leader, Bloody Billy. William found Billy’s backpack. And because of what it contains, Billy desperately wants it back, and he’ll do anything to get it. William hatches a plan for his friends to sneak away and hide in an abandoned lake house, except they become stranded on the lake’s desolate island without food or water. Will their time on the island devolve into chaos? Will the friends survive and be rescued?

The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is Lord of the Flies meets The Body by Stephen King, the inspiration for the classic movie Stand By Me.

A gripping suspense story with adventure and danger, tinged with humorous banter between the four friends, the middle schoolers face certain death without adults to protect them from the unrelenting natural elements, as well as the wild creatures that lurk in the wilderness around the lake. With a backpack filled with money and marijuana they stole from the merciless gang leader, it’s only a matter of time before the high schoolers come looking for them, too.

My thoughts:

I think I went into this story thinking it would lean more towards the horror side because of the mention of Lord of the Flies and Stephen King, but this story focuses more on friendships, adventure, suspense, and characters.
I think if I had gone into this story with slightly different expectations I think I would have had a very different reading experience. I would’ve probably enjoyed the story even more instead of waiting for something that didn’t happen.
But that is not the author’s fault, that’s entirely on me for making assumptions and reading more into the synopsis than what was probably meant to be there.

That being said, The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is a really well-written novel about an adventure gone wrong. I really enjoyed getting to know the four boys, their friendship, and to tag along on their adventure gone wrong.
The way these boys love and care for each other was what made this story interesting, and you could see how that strong bond and they as characters grew as they went through some tough times together.
It’s also sort of nostalgic to read about friendships during the time before smartphones and internet access everywhere was a thing. It definitely had its pros and cons which we got to witness throughout this story.

I liked Scott Semegran’s writing style. He writes about the boys’ adventures in a way that makes it very easy for the reader to picture it all playing out, without going overboard on the details. I would’ve loved to have gotten to know even more of what was going through the minds of the boys while they were on the island though. But never the less, the challenges and fears they go through there were very well executed and interesting to read about.

All in all, I really enjoyed The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island. It’s a story that I wish I had gone more blindly into, but it still ended up being a very entertaining and interesting read. I would love to pick up more of Semegran’s writing in the future.

💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛

Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts by Luke Christodoulou 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Luke Christodoulou

I read a digital edition of Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Self published

Originally published: June 13th, 2020

Pages: 247 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

After the death of her two-year-old son, Susan lost her will to continue. Unable to move on, she agrees to her Greek husband’s plan on a summer in Greece for the sake of her three living children. His family’s mansion waits for them. A house with a dark past and a bleak future.
Travel with them to Greece and explore the mystery surrounding the ancient lands. join Susan as she crosses the thin line between sanity and the supernatural. Nothing is as it seems.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!

My thoughts:

I don’t often read books that give me the creeps, but this one definitely did just that!

This book follows the perspectives of several of the family members while they are trying to navigate their ways through this family vacation, while also going through the struggle of having lost a family member. In the midst of all this, we quickly find out that what seemed like would be the nice summer break that the family needed, nothing is as it seems.
The characters each have a depth to them, and we get to unravel that together with them as they experience the horror of their own pasts, their own minds, and the supernatural and horrific events they experience while living in the house.

I want to add the trigger warning for child abuse and violence to this story. You will encounter both in this story, and I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea.
In my opinion, even though the events in the story are hard to read and absolutely horrible, I thought it added to the depth of the story and the characters.

There were a few minor writing mistakes in this, and it felt like it could’ve needed another round of proofreading, but it wasn’t so much that it bothered me or took away from the quality of the story.

I would’ve loved for this story to have been just a little bit longer, just because I felt like I was still left with some questions unanswered at the end. But then again, it might have been the author’s intent to leave the reader with a little bit of mystery after everything was wrapped up.

All in all, I thought Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts was a well-written horror novel that played out like a creepy and utterly terrifying horror movie in my head as I was reading it. It was easy to picture all of the scenarios and they definitely got under my skin and made me shiver.

Highly recommend if you are a fan of horror!

Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛