Carpe Noctem
By: Katie Salidas
Publisher: Rising Sign Books
Publish Date: March 2010
Format: Paperback, 323pgs, 5"x8"
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance
Series: 1st Book in Immortalis series
Recommendation: If you enjoy vampire HEA reads. This could be a light beach read for you this summer.
Book Synopsis:
Bleeding to death after brutal mugging on the campus of UNLV, Twenty-five year old Alyssa, is rescued by the cold and aloof, vampire, Lysander. Taking pity on her, he shares the gift - and curse - of immortality. She awakenes as a vampire and is soon devastated by harsh realities of her new way of life: the loss of her friends, and independence, and her humanity.
As if having her humanity stripped away was not enough to make life interesting, Alyssa finds out her "turning", did not go unnoticed by the rest of undead society. Old enemies; an ancient sect of vampire hunters, known as the Acta Sanctorum, as well as a powerful Vampire mistress, each set plans in motion to destroy both Alyssa and Lysander.
Only by accepting her new found immortality, seizing the night, will Alyssa hope to survive. She and Lysander must fight together against two sets of enemies bent on destroying them both.
First Sentence:
I hated waiting!
My Thoughts and Synopsis:
After a bad day at work where Alyssa lost her job, she waits at her regular coffee shop for her best friend Fallon who ends up canceling on her. Doing the one thing she knows she shouldn't, she walks home; alone, across campus, at night. Being a petite pretty young woman, trouble finds her. Two men attack Alyssa, beating her within inches of death. Her savior shows up, a handsome stranger ~ Lysander. Lysander can tell she is to far beyond saving with her injuries, so he does the one thing he can to save her... makes her a vampire. Alyssa, unknowingly, has a new life to live; leaving her old one behind. Alyssa now has to find a way to cope with losing everything she had, no matter how small it was, it was hers and her dearest friends.
I have to say the author did a great job of creating Alyssa as a character set in her ways and morals along with struggling in herself with the changes to a vampire. Alyssa has her morels and mind set of the world and now it's all changed. Her biggest challenge, accepting she needs to drink human blood for her own survival. Then she will be hunted by the Acta Sanctorum for now being a vampire. Alyssa started off as a weak character for me and I wasn't as pulled into the book until about eighty-five pages in. Alyssa had started to get to me a little as she didn't want to be treated like a child, but she had her childish reactions. Lysander was the one who pulled me in some, by his caring nature and the mystery of him. By the end of the book Alyssa lost her whiny-ness to me and started to become a stronger character. But I still enjoyed Lysander the most. I found myself being pulled into the potential love interest between Alyssa and Lysander and the draw between them.
At about eighty-seven pages into the book we have an appearance of another Vampire, Edmond, who comes across as a long time enemy of Lysander's. Edmond comes baring a message from the ancient Kallisto regarding Lysander a lone vampire turning someone with out permission from her and the clan. This is where the characters all started to change and a few additional ones added as well. And the story began to pick up for me. The secondary characters helped balance out the book for me, and bring the main characters around.
At the beginning of the book I was a little nervous, but the pages kept turning easily and quickly for me. And this ended up being a nice light HEA read for me. In the end I did enjoy the book and the characters. I will be reading the next book in the series as well, which I look forward to ~ Immortalis: Hunters & Prey.
I received a copy of the book from the Author for an honest thoughts.
This book qualifies for the Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge hosted by Book Chick City.
