A Book Obsession..: Vampire's Kiss (Early Review)

Vampire's Kiss (Early Review)

, by Kt Clapsadl

Vampire's Kiss by Veronica Wolff

The Watchers #2

IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE PARTNERED WITH A VAMPIRE, YOU HAVE TO WORK THE NIGHT SHIFT.

By her wits, blood, and sacrifice, so far Drew has survived the intensive training on the Isle of Night. As a second-year Acari, her ultimate goal is to become a Watcher, and now she has a shot at her first mission. Except nothing is as it seems. The vampire Alcántara is as sinister as he is sexy, Ronan is more distant than ever, and it turns out there are other vampires out there. Bad ones.

Ancient, bloodthirsty, and powerful, these undead are really old school. They’ve captured one of the Watcher vamps and are torturing him for information. The only chance to save him is to infiltrate a major summit the baddies are holding on their own island. There will be mortals there, serving as butlers, maids, and various hired help. Drew had better brush up on her skills as a serving girl, because she’s about to go undercover…

But, when their vampire prisoner turns out to be a gorgeous bad boy, Drew’s first mission quickly turns into more than she bargained for…

After giving everything she had to win the challenge at the end of last school year, Drew has been preparing for her upcoming reward mission, but she may not even survive that long. Still an Acari at the bottom rung, she'll need to keep her wits about her as the attacks keep coming from all sides. Still, she stays strong and fights her battles as they come. The worst is yet to come as her mission involves infiltrating a group of vampires even more deadly than the ones on the island. She must get information from the bloodthirsty vamps to find one of the Watcher's own before his torturers succeed in getting the information they want out of him. Yet once again nothing is as it seems, and this time Drew may just have bitten off more than she can chew.

Vampire's Kiss seemed like a book for starting relationships. My head is spinning from all the potential love interests, so you can only imagine what Drew is going through. You have Ronan, who has been there from the very start. He is quite mysterious, and seems to care for Drew, or as he calls her, Annelise. However, that is a very dangerous possibility as a relationship would be forbidden. And on the island, breaking the rules means death. Then there is Josh who seems to be a pretty good guy, but there is definitely more going on than meets the eye. He still is forbidden, but I think there is a possibility that could change when/if he becomes a vampire. Then we go to Alcantara, the mysterious and very powerful vamp that seems to have his sights set on Drew. I'm not really sure how I feel about him as his interest in Drew has kept her mostly safe so far, but I don't think encouraging him would be a smart move. I don't think she could survive very long with his full attention. I doubt anyone could. Finally there is one more love interest that is yet again, forbidden, but this one seems to have more of an impact on Drew. He'll be introduced in Vampire's Kiss, so I'll leave it at that.

I'm really having a hard time figuring out what the vampire's angle is in this series. I get that they want the best of the best to be their Watchers, but why do they even need them? Aren't they powerful enough on their own? I'm especially unsure of Alcantara's motivations. One minute he seems to enjoy Drew's wit and sarcasm, and the next he is all super scary when he feels she has overstepped. Yet he says he wants her to be comfortable around him. Really? Then there also is the question of why in the world he would want Drew for his super secret mission. She has so little training that it really doesn't make sense unless he had another angle going on that isn't clear. There is a whole lot more going on here just beyond the surface, and I wish I could figure it out.

I'm having some mixed feelings about this series as a whole. We are two books in, and each one knocked my socks off, and yet I don't really feel like we are getting anywhere. There are so many questions that just keep multiplying to the point of frustration. Granted, I was thoroughly entertained and sucked into the stories, however I can see the lack of answers could quickly start to lesson my enjoyment of the books. Which would really be a shame, as I could easily see this series moving to the top of my YA favorites list. So hopefully the next installment will feel a little more gratifying in the answers department. As far as Vampire's Kiss, well to sum it up, it rocked.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

Rating: