Saturday 12 April 2014

Review ~ To Touch The Sun by Laura Enright.

Title: To Touch The Sun.
Author: Laura Enright.
Publisher: Dagda Publishing.
Genre: Vampire Horror.
Release Date: February 25, 2014.
Source: Review copy.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Purchase: Amazon UK

1916: France, The Great War.

Narain Khan was 25 when he left his native India to fight in the trenches of the West­ern Front dur­ing WWI. It was his hope that he could stay on after the war to pur­sue his dream of study­ing the culi­nary arts and becom­ing a world class chef.

Instead, he fell to shrap­nel amidst the car­nage of that bit­ter war. Car­nage which, when dark­ness fell, attracted some­thing ter­ri­fy­ing: A roam­ing pack of feral vampires–mindless feeders–who fell upon the sol­diers left wounded and dying in No Man’s Land.

Attacked by the fer­als, Narain was trans­formed into the other type of vam­pire: A sen­tient capa­ble of mov­ing about in soci­ety with only a few restric­tions and able to feed with­out killing the host.

Present Day: Chicago, U.S.

After the death of his long-term partner and food source Sophie from cancer, Narain, now a successful chef and businessman, albeit with an unusual set of problems that make life in "normal" society difficult, has reached a crossroads in his life as a sentient vampire.

His growing attraction to Cassie Lambert, a scientist with an unexpected link to his past, the re-emergence of Reginald Jameson, his old captain in WWI and now a sadistic predator who shares the night with Narain, and a new, terrifying breed of vampire; Boris, a monster who destroys everything in his path. All these events will conspire to drag Narain into a climactic struggle.

A struggle against everything he holds dear, against himself, against Jameson, Boris and the forces that will stop at nothing to discover the secret Cassie has learned about the nature of Vampirism.

A struggle that will show Narain that to defeat the real mon­sters, he will have to embrace what he is and awaken the beast within. That to touch the sun, he will have to risk being burned up in its fury...




Review:

The plot for To Touch The Sun really intrigued me and I couldn’t wait to get started. The book did not disappoint. Laura Enright wrote To Touch The Sun brilliantly. With the perfect mix of fast-paced action, detail, history, brutality and sentiment, this was a rare vampire story which I actually loved.

The beginning really set the scene for the story to follow and I was gripped almost instantly. The pacing did switch quite a bit and some parts were drastically slower than the quick action which preceded it. Normally this would be a criticism for me but I loved this kind of pacing because it made a complex plot much easier to get into. I didn’t feel like it was too quick for me to follow but neither did I feel like it was slow and dull. Whilst I don’t believe this style of pacing will be for everyone, personally I found it great.

The characters in To Touch The Sun were wonderful, and well developed. Yes, well developed characters in vampire stories are often few and far between. This was a treat. I loved Narain – parts of his story were heartbreaking and I just felt for him. His dialogue and development was great – he wasn’t like the typical lust-filled greedy vampire overdone so often nor was he weak and pathetic like a vampire that can’t accept what he is. The characters were written very impressively.

The moment the prologue ended, I knew this book was going to be something special. To Touch The Sun drew me in and the story was fantastic. Great entertainment, written skilfully. I just wish it hadn’t come to an end.

Rating:
*Thanks to Dagda Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Sophie, just wanted to say thanks so much for the great review. I'm very happy you enjoyed it. It really was a labor of love for me and I hope people have as much enjoyment reading it as I had writing it.

    And while the novel came to an end, Narain's story hasn't. Waiting in the wings there are three more novels plus a spinoff featuring paranormal investigators that appear in the third novel. And ideas for more in the series. Keep an eye out for the next novel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Laura, you're very welcome. Looking forward to reading more!

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