When Darkness Falls: The First Vampire Redemption Story

Name: When Darkness Falls

Author: Ellen Chauvet

Published: March 16, 2016 by Relentlessly Creative Books

Purchased: Received free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

☆/5

Blurb: Lexie Miles, a southern belle living her dream life in Paris, is devastated when her best friend Emma is brutally raped and murdered by vampires. From that moment Lexie’s “perfect world” begins to crumble. She discovers her entire life has been a sham and everyone she cares about has been lying to her. Angry doesn’t begin to describe her reaction to the news. Plunged into a two-thousand year old war between good and evil, she is propelled into a world of blood, lust and dark secrets. She must embrace her birthright to fight an ancient threat to humanity. Bequeathed with the dubious gift of being the “Chosen One,” Lexie meets the enigmatic Etienne Benoit. She falls hard for him and when he betrays her, she vows to get revenge. After all, she is a vampire executioner and killing vampire is what she does.

Review: This was an interesting idea but everything else, the execution, the writing, the pace, all left something to be desired. The writing, when describing food or clothes, was a little detailed but I wish that detail was also used for the characters. It was way too simple.

I felt hardly any connection to the characters and the parts where it was supposed to get a big reaction from the readers, I felt nothing.

Lexie though, I felt like every time she came up, I was rolling my eyes. I’m not going to say anything about the Southernisms because I don’t know anyone from Georgia so I don’t know if they actually use them all the time but I really thought that she wasn’t quite that bright.

*Warning: This part of the review will contain spoilers*

Even after she finds out about vampires and what she is, she still doesn’t get what the scalp itching means? I figured it out right away and I’m sure the other readers did too. And she was trained in self defense, isn’t one of the first things you learn is that with the palm of your hand and only a certain amount of pressure, you can break someone’s nose, even sending the bone into the brain and killing them? And yet when she learns about a kick to the nose that will send the bone into the brain, the first thing she asks is, “and that does what?” Really? Really? And then there’s Tom. He knows that Etienne has told her his feelings and the very next day, he tries to get into her pants? Big eye roll there.

*End spoilers*

There aren’t any reactions here, not really. I felt like I was reading this in a monotone voice. Even when the betrayal happened, it didn’t get a reaction from me or from the characters it seemed. Also, I personally don’t think it was a good idea for the betrayal to be put into the blurb, instead of it being a surprise and focusing on the love story, I was just waiting for the betrayal to happen, wondering when it would.

As for recommendations…I would actually recommend the Twilight Saga over this but that’s just my opinion.

Thank you for reading my review.