Book Review: Vampire Voyage

Vampire Voyage

By:  Kelly Lougheed

Publisher:  Mundania Press

Publish Date:  October 16, 2012

Format:  Trade paperback 180pgs, 5"x8"

Genre:  Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Series:  3rd book in Hawthorn Dormitory series; 1st Book ~ The Graveyard Gymnasium, 2nd Book ~ Dormitory of the Dead

Recommendation:  You've read the first two?  Oh, Charity is to cute and fun, you must read what troubles she gets into next, and how things go for her and Nicholae (the love of her life).

Synopsis:
When Charity signs up for the Hawthorn School spring break trip to the St. Judas School for Boys in Romania, she has an inkling the trip won't just be all fun and romantic flings.  Being constantly surrounded by exotic European boys would be great...if so many of the boys weren't homicidal vampires.

While trying not to succumb to the peer pressure of drinking human blood at one of the vampire parties, Charity and her BFF Louise get tangled up with a boy named Ivan, who may or may not plan on using them in a nefarious scheme to turn all the Hawthorn girls into vampires.

Louise refuses to believe Ivan capable of murder -- he's far too handsome!  But Charity sees evil in the way Ivan slicks his hair back with such unnecessary amounts of hair gel.  Can Charity -- in between seducing a past fling, Nicholae, and hiding her late-night wanderings from the trip chaperone, Ms. Van Tessel -- save her classmates from becoming bloodsucking fiends?

First Sentence:
The reality of the trip only hit her when Charity stood in the doorway of her dorm room, dragging her wheelie suitcase in one hand and clutching her backpack trap with the other.

Purchase At:

Amazon   /   Barnes & Nobles

My Thoughts and Summary:

***NOTE:  There are spoilers for Previous Books***

Last semester was the exchanged St. Judas School of boy's coming to Hawthorn School.  Now, it's the girls turn for Spring Break.  The girls are heading to an eastern European school for boys.  Downfall...the boys are Vampires!  Charity is excited.  Resulting from the events of the boys visit last semester, her ghost teacher Ms. Van Tessel and now vampire best friend Louise, are nervous.  The first day there Louise gets invited to a party.  A party Charity is excited about until she learns she can not go.  A vampire party.  Louise is uncomfortable at the party with the boys working to break her vow regarding human blood.  Yet meeting a well read cute boy, agrees to a party the next night.  Charity talks Louise into going and taking her... to see and talk to Nicholae.  But, human blood drinking vampire party with a human walking in...could not end well?  But learns of a scheme to turn the girls of Hawthorn School that are visiting.

Now the girls get the feel of what the boys had while visiting their all girls school last semester.  All eyes, of the opposite sex, are on the girls as they are introduced and move about the school.  The same feel the boys felt in The Graveyard Gymnasium.  We are hoping the boys have...matured some since then.  Or at least the ones left in Romania are.

Charity and her eccentric thinking.  She's a tenth grader with boys hot on her mind, one boy in particular - Nicholae.  She cracks me up with her creations and stories of "what's going to happen."  She definitely has an overactive imagination.  A brilliant imagination and in the same smarter than she knows.  Charity might not have the grades, but she is a smart girl.  The things she thinks up, and the angles she thinks.  The girl knows things when she applies herself to something.  The small quick jokes she makes to herself, made me smile.

Ivan, who's trying to *help* the girls with information, but Charity doesn't fall for it.  She feels he's the evil mastermind behind an evil plan - based solely on his hair style.  Louis is taken with the boy and doesn't believe Charity.  When Charity goes undercover to weasel out the plan details and thwart the scheme, things get complicated with the strong vampires.  Maybe Charity can find the slayer center she felt before, to save her co-students.

Oh! There was a little surprise here, or two.  One was the feelings one has for Charity.  And the other, well, I can't tell you that as it's a little twist you will enjoy in the investigation to stop the vampires.

The beginning builds the places and brings you to know the characters, then you go right in with the troubles of vampires.  This is a cute book and one I would suggest to young teenage/preteen girls.  It's a touch of Urban Fantasy and young crushes but with a strong girl that will come though.



**I read this book for an honest review from the publisher.

Who? What? Where? (111)

Who are you with? Where are you at? What's happening?

Share with us just a little bit of what is happening in the book you are reading, right where you are now.

Just a tiny taste of what's happening, remember try to not give spoilers of the book.

his is a new meme I'm going to try and will tweak as I go. And please don't laugh at my lame attempt at drawing. ;D )

This Week:

I'm rushing from Ester's dorm room to ours with Louise and Charity after our ghostly teacher Ms. Van Tessel caught us, and seems to know why we were in there.  But Nicholae disappeared in a flash, darn that vampire speed.  But Charity agreed to go undercover. ;)

Vampire Voyage
By:  Kelly Lougheed

Others have shown interest in joining in this post, and linking up.  So I've created a linky for that.
My only requests; copy the picture to use, and link back to My World...in words and pages.
Please visit any joining in.
Thank you!

Teaser Tuesday (159)

Teaser Tuesday

is a weekly event

Sponsored by MizB of Should be Reading

Here's how it works:

Grab the book you are currently reading (anything at all)

Open the book to any random page.

Share 2 teaser sentences from anywhere on the page

Please Make Sure They Are Not Spoilers!

(Don't Give Too Much Away)

Just enough to pique our interests

This Week:

Someone tapped on her shoulder, and she screamed shrilly, tossing My Lycan Lover over her shoulder.  Crap, could she just pretend she'd never had that book and leave it lying in the bushes forever?

Vampire Voyage
By:  Kelly Lougheed
81pg





This is a teaser to me as well. I'm not this far yet.

I've enjoyed the previous two books in this YA series with vampires and zombies we've experienced in the past, and vampires this trip.

Cover & Description Reveal: Vampire Voyage

I've read the first two books in this YA series, and really enjoyed them with each one.  The third now has a cover and a description!

If you are curious of my thoughts on the first two books:
     The Graveyard Gymnasium
     Dormitory of the Dead

It's adorable!  I love the green.  This is a fun series for young adults from around twelve and up.

Vampire Voyage

By:  Kelly Lougheed

Description:

When Charity signs up for the Hawthorn School spring break trip to the St. Judas School for Boys in Romania, she has an inkling the trip won't just be all fun and romantic flings.  Being constantly surrounded by exotic European boys would be great...if so many of the boys weren't homicidal vampires.

While trying not to succumb to the peer pressure of drinking human blood at one of the vampire parties, Charity and her BFF Louise get tangled up with a boy named Ivan, who may or may not plan on using them in a nefarious scheme to turn all the hawthorn girls into vampires.

Louise refuses to believe Ivan capable of murder -- he's far too handsome!  But Charity sees evil in the way Ivan slicks his hair back with such unnecessary amounts of hair gel.  Can Charity -- in between seducing a past fling, Nicholae, and hiding her late-night wanderings from the trip chaperone, Ms. Van Tessel -- save her classmates from becoming bloodsucking fiends?

Book Review: Dormitory of the Dead

Dormitory of the Dead

By:  Kelly Lougheed

Publisher:  Mundania Press

Publish Date:  February 2012

Format:  Paperback 183pgs, Trade size 5" x 8"

Genre:  YA Urban Fantasy

Series:  2nd book in Hawthorn Dormitory series, 1st Book ~ The Graveyard Gymnasium

Recommendation:  Oh yes!  A fun, light, YA read that is enjoyable to get lost in.  And wonderful UF read for YA readers.

Synopsis:
Blood coming out of the bathroom faucets of Charity Hooper's Hawthorn School dormitory doesn't just mean Charity can't wash her face to maintain her porcelain (well, kind of) complexion--it means there's a dead body from 1923 buried in the plumbing, astonishingly well-preserved by the wet sewage conditions.

Well-preserved enough, in fact, for the dead girl's vampire boyfriend to reanimate her as a zombie so they can live happily ever after, massacring innocent Hawthorn students side-by-side.

Faced with such homicidal creatures, Charity would ordinarily consult her English teacher, Ms. Van Tessel, whose knowledge of zombie extermination rivals only her knowledge of British literature.  But Ms. Van Tessel has gone mysteriously missing.  Can Charity track down her teacher before the annual midnight Capture the Flag tournament, which will be nothing more than an all-you-can-eat buffet for the vampire-zombie tag team?

First Sentence:
Charity put the candles to her nose and inhaled the fresh vanilla scent.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Next semester after the messy ordeal with the Romanians and vampires.  Charity is starting off, convinced her and Louise's dorm room is haunted, by doing a seance (a process from which she got off the Internet).  Knowing what happened in the gymnasium in 1923, they think the ghost is from then.  After the seance, Esther, a girl in next room finds writing on her wall, in scarlet red... I AM BURIED BENEATH.  While everyone is flailing and worried about the ghost Charity "summoned," Charity was proud to be a true medium.  Now, books are flying at Louise, blood is flowing from the faucets, and more blood red writing on the walls, which only means the corpse from 1923 is extremely well preserved and buried in the plumbing of the girls dorm.  Not only is the ghost haunting, but her boyfriend is still alive and looking to bring her back from the dead.  The one teacher who could help Charity and Louise solve all this has disappeared, during what looks like a spirit exorcism, which could mean she exorcised herself.  And the champion Capture the Flag tournament is tonight, with a vampire and brains-starved zombie on the loose.

I adored this book!  I liked the first book, but I enjoyed this one more.  I loved reading Charity and Louise again.  These two are quite a matched set, completely opposite, but so great together.  Louise is the book smart one, and so down to earth.  Charity is just plan fun.  She references tv shows, explaining why she is a pro and knows what to do at investigating... CSI. lol!

Oh I do enjoy Charity's extreme thinking process and funny things she comes up with.  They are so off the wall, yet very much teenage focus.  BUT!  I will say, Charity gets results with her act.  And in this book you really see she is not as 'dumb' as people might think, or that she leads on about.  She comes to the right thinking process, and uses her ditsy moment to help get others back on track.  And still, the large words she uses, nope, she may not be the genius of others at school, but she is no where near dumb.  I do think Charity is coming into her own, growing, and finding her knack in the world, in the world of paranormal.

I loved that every other page had something new to throw at Charity.  There was always a new obstacle in her way to get what she wants.  Each chapter the plot of the ghost, then Ms. Van Tessel missing, the dead body, a vampire, leading to a zombie, and several zombies, all grew and was fun to read!

I would whole-heartedly suggest this series to a Young Adult reader.  It's light, fun, and full of things that we enjoy in our adult books, with out the sexual content.  Wonderful.  I enjoyed the vampire and zombie take.  And zombies in this style, I can totally handle.  But there are bigger well defined words used here, as Charity tries to show her superior intelligence, and the words are used properly, which is nice to see in writing.  A bonus in learning something. ;)

I found myself not wanting to stop this read.  I wanted to know what else would happen with Charity, and the campus.  What was going to appear, happen, and what was she going to do about it or say to make me smile.  I look forward to more Charity and Louise adventures.  Charity has proved herself to me to be a worth vampire and zombie slayer, with a smile.


I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review, which I was thrilled at the chance after the first book.
This review is of my personal thoughts and opinions.

Who? What? Where? (63)

Who are you with? Where are you at? What's happening?

Share with us just a little bit of what is happening in the book you are reading, right where you are now.

Just a tiny taste of what's happening, remember try to not give spoilers of the book.

(This is a new meme I'm going to try and will tweak as I go. And please don't laugh at my lame attempt at drawing. ;D )

I'm sitting with Charity in Mr. Smedley's English class room, waiting for Louise to come to class.  It's strange she's not here already, she is one to be early and excited about school.  But Charity is anxious for her arrival to tell her what she found out about the body that was found, and the totally hot boy she saw...on an all girls campus.

Dormitory of the Dead
By:  Kelly Lougheed

Book Review: The Graveyard Gymnasium

The Graveyard Gymnasium

By:  Kelly Lougheed

Publisher:  Mundania Press

Publish Date:  July 2011

Format:  Paperback 193pgs, 5" x 8"

Genre:  YA Urban Fantasy

Series:  1st book in series, Hawthorn School Dormitory

Recommendation:  For a quick light relaxing read, yes.  And nice for YA reading.

Book Synopsis:
It's difficult to be a rebel at an all-girls boarding school like Hawthorn, but Charity Hooper tries her hardest, smuggling food into the library and favoring CliffsNotes over boring volumes of literature.  In fact, if Hawthorn weren't an all-girls school, she feels certain she would be having a tempestuous affair with a dangerous rogue who copied all his math homework answers from the back of the book.

When Hawthorn hosts a band of exchange students from Romania, Charity knows this is her shot at a tempestuous affair.  But after she witnesses an exchange student slurping her roommate's blood one night, she realizes that the Romanians would be less interested in kissing her than in biting her head off.  And the Romanians aren't the only vampires lurking on campus, either -- according to an old inscription in the school gymnasium, a legion of vampires lie buried alive beneath it.

Does she dare confide in the English teacher she wishes were her BFF, Ms. Van Tessel, who mysteriously saved Charity's bitten roommate with a blood transfusion?  But why did Ms. Van Tessel have blood in her mini-fridge in the first place?  Can Charity even trust her?

First Sentence:
All School.  Please report to the auditorium for a mandatory assembly during period 2 to greet our Romanian exchange students.

My Thoughts and Summary:
After staying up most of the night prior to finish her romance novel, Charity realizes she has bags under her eyes for the meeting of the man of her dreams.  All the girls are in the auditorium to welcome the Romanian exchange students, all boys, to their school.  This is thought to be a way to teach the girls social skills.  Charity knows from first glance, Nicholae is her soul mate, would go to the ends of the world and battle anyone for her love.  But when Christoph passes his fellow Romanian Nicholae a note in their home language, Charity wonders if it's a letter about her.  What she finds out takes her on a mission to find out about the Latin saying on the gymnasium wall, and why these boys have such a strong interest in it.  Then, there is Ms. Van Tessel, Charity's English teacher and the woman in charge of the girls dorm Charity is in, and the nailed shut windows.  Once one of the boys creeps through her high window, Charity learns more than she thought she ever could about these boys and her English teacher.

Charity is a quite the young woman.  I can see some people thinking Charity annoying with her over eccentric thinking, but I will say her personality and over exaggerated thinking is what makes the book and takes her down the direction she goes to uncovering what she does about people, and school.  She is a young woman full of raging hormones and dreams of boys. She tries to come across smart yet as the resident bad girl too.  Charity uses Cliff Notes to get through her school reads as she has better books to read, those romance novels.  But as the book goes, I think Charity is smarter than what I had thought at the beginning.  She has a large vocabulary of words she comes up with and she has a detectives mind.  Then we have Louise, Charity's best friend and roommate, who's smart and always working on her homework or schoolwork.  Louise tries to help keep Charity on the straight and narrow when it comes to school work, tries.

This was a quick light read for me.  Enjoyable.  This could be one to relax with in the summer when you want a quick read.  Oh, there are a few cliches, but that's the gem in this read, what the book is based from and works with so well.

Young Adult... Yes, these kids are in high school.  Smart kids at that.  Charity is one of those girls in love with love and actually gives a positive view in her own way.  I will say, there is no sex mentioned, just a young girl dreaming of the love of her life and future.  Now that I think about it, there was no swearing either.  The girls use some big words, that even made me pause and wonder at them, good words many teens may not hear often and good to hear used.  I think this would be a very good read for a Young Adult to read while in school and having to focus on school work, but wanting a relaxing, fun read.

This is the first book of Charity at Hawthorn Academy, so a slower start on the Urban Fantasy front.  This is to get to meet and know the characters; Charity, Louise, Ms. Van Tessel, and a few others.  I liked the mystery behind the inscription on the gymnasium wall and where it lead to.

The one thing that sticks out to me... to the girls, Vampires were make believe, things of stories, in Charity's case romance novels.  But they took the news so well, even Louise (on more than one meaning).  At the end there is a change that comes about and all are okay with it.  Not really to much shock or surprise.  I will say, the girls taking all this in stride kept me at ease and the story light.  I even am curious about the characters in the future.  I look forward to future reads in the Hawthorn Academy setting.

Cute isn't the right word for this book, but keeps coming to mind.  I did enjoy this light read.


I received this book from the Publisher for an honest review.