I would give this book 2.5 stars. It started out great and ended good, but the entire middle part of the book just dragged on and on and on and on....I usually love this genre of paranormal stuff, but this one just didn't do it for me. I don't think I will be reading the rest of this series.

Interesting book for sure and reminiscent of some early Anne Rice novels, but overall a bit of a downer.

2 stars is, to be honest, more than enough for this crappy excuse of a dark, adult novel. It is the perfect example of a being situated right on the cusp of a good read and garbage. The good: the writing is not half bad, the description is nice, the pace is actually great. The bad: the characters are pathetic, boring, stupid, annoying, fake; I don't know what research the author has made regarding Maine territory, but to be honest, she should have just kept her story in the safe confines of America. DO NOT venture to European countries like, let's say Romania (my homeland) without doing one second of research of the most basic kind regarding its history, political situation and foreign relations, because you will come off looking like a lazy, indulgent amateur.

This is the story of a silly, naive, uneducated and quite frankly physically unattractive Puritanical girl, Lanore, who spends most of her young life obsessing over the beautiful Jonathan. That is all that Jonathan, the main love interest and male "protagonist" if you can call a perfectly useless creature that, is. Beautiful. A pretty face. That is literally all there is to this douche bag of a man-child. He is blessed and cursed with ethereal beauty. From whence said beauty comes fuck knows because all the rest of the men in the god-forsaken backwater village in which the actions commences are pockmarked, smelly, illiterate, unattractive in a plethora of ways, but Jonathan is just someone that all women want, regardless of their social condition.

The first part of this epic fail novel features an ample description of Lanore's entrapment in the friend zone, as she becomes Jonathan's best friend and is forced to witness how he bangs every chick in the village except her. Pettiness and obsession ensue. They become lovers but are soon forced to break up because of parental bullshit and an obvious pregnancy. It has all been done before.

She leaves her beloved primitive, judgemental village and therefore, her initiation into life begins. I won't bother explaining the plot, but she meets the main villain who is, in my opinion, the only character with substance in this novel, although it is a very dark, very grimy substance. But her, it's something. Adair is basically the most entertaining character and I am glad she made him especially dark and impossible to forgive but very easy to like in a sick, perverted, messed up way. I like such characters because they require a deep analysis of the human psyche to appreciate whereas weak-sauce women such as Lanore require not even the slightest tension in the most tired neuron. Lanore is simple, empty, frail and weak, whereas Adair, in all his vileness, is strong, capable, sadistic and enticing. Therefore, I fail to see his attraction to her. Of course, he is also a rapist, a murderer, a sadist and a fucked up monster, but who cares, right? She falls in love with him, if only temporarily and the bleeding heart syndrome continues until her precious Jonathan is dragged into the equation. I thank the gods of the underworld for the fact that the author did not turn this soap opera into a love triangle. It would have prompted me to throw the novel into the fire.

This novel features the worst pair of immortals I have come across in literature in a long, long time. Lanore and Jonathan are so weak as normal humans, but somehow, it is expected given their origin. But they do not grow one ounce as immortals. Lanore has a brutal, violent awakening that occurs extremely fast, but which has no real consequence because except for some sexual experiences that are ALL left to the imagination in a very unnerving and prudish way (I mean, why bother writing for adults if the book has almost no sexual description whatsoever), she has no further evolution. She keeps pining for Jonathan and missing her family and hating herself for "causing" the suicide of a woman back home. That is all she does. Even after she actually takes action against Adair, and earns her freedom (which is proactive, I guess), she does nothing with her unending life. She tries to hold Jonathan near although it is obvious that they are NOT meant to be together and when he finally dumps her, she simply seeks another loser to hang on to. When she is finally alone, what does she do? She gathers an enormous amount of beautiful crap from all over the world and starts hoarding it in her Paris home. Really? So all she does is gather beauty, empty of soul, devoid of purpose. She doesn't actually LIVE. She doesn't do anything to help the world. She simply exists. No fun, no self-discovery, no enticing relationships and glorious additions to the world. No. She is a plant living alone and empty among beautiful things. Because, in the end, that is all Jonathan was to her. A beautiful man she needed to have.

Jonathan is a bit more pro-active with his immortality, but in the end it all comes down to the same mopey-faced pussy who doesn't want to live anymore. Tres cliche.

This cute doge meme is enough to define Jonathan:

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I did, however, like how the concept of the "Taker" was implemented. I have to agree that Ms. Katsu is talented with words. But her characters are dry and unnerving, the sex scenes boring and unimpressive even when they should be horrific or awesome and the story isn't in any way original or riveting. You kind of expect most things to happen.

Now, I will end my review with a few historical facts about Romania, which is a real country, with history, culture, merit and fault, not some kind of fucking exotic far-away realm that has spawned nothing of relevance except spooky stories.

Romania in the 14th century (because this is the period mentioned in the book):

- did not have a king; there was no KING of Romania because there was no actual country; Romania was separated in 3 provinces: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania and each had a ruling lord called "voievod"

- did not fucking reign siege upon Hungary; it was the other way around more or less; we had whole provinces under Hungarian rule; there was conflict between Romania and Hungary, but Hungary was the larger, more powerful kingdom

- despite the conflicts with the Hungarians, they were our ally against the true threat of the Middle Ages: the expanding Ottoman Empire

- the use of terms such as "cel batran" (which means "The Old") and "cel rau" ("The Evil") as actual family names is stupid; these were nicknames usually given after the death of rulers; thus, Mircea cel Batran (who was mentioned in the book as a leader, I believe) was actually Mircea I of Wallachia and was named "Cel Batran" or "The Elder" after his death

- there is no such name as Lactu in our language (was this chosen to sound vampiric or sinister? FAIL)

- Radu is a Romanian name, not a Hungarian one, so Radu could never be the son of a Hungarian Gypsy called Ferenc; also, what kind of a name for a gypsy is Adair? It sounds French

Alma Katsu, Y U NO RESEARCH? Really, it's not that hard. I, as a Romanian, am actually flattered when people think of my country when it comes to so many legends and myths and stories and monsters. Really, I am, because it is proof of our great myths and culture. But I am offended and disgusted when American writers are too fucking lazy to read about anything outside of their own borders. Also, the action that you chose to take place in Romania could have taken place ANYWHERE in the world. There is no description, no mention of actual towns or geographic areas except "The Carpathians" which is a mountain range stretching over more than one country.

In the end, I gave this book 2 stars instead of one because I liked the villain and the choice of words. But everything else is simply trash. I have already started reading the second installment because I have a compulsion to finish all series I start. I expect it to be shit, but I am and always have been an optimist when it comes to books. So please don't break my heart again.

After my book club ladies review I expected this to be awful. I found it not bad but an odd glom of three story lines into one story. The writing was not bad just an odd odd story.

Honestly 3 stars is generous. It was interesting but also laboured in places.

An okay book, nothing special, but nothing bad either.

3.5 Stars

Grateful to have listened to this book while at work. While the story was interesting and compelling, I just felt the plot dragged on a bit. I'm looking forward to where the story's going to go, as I felt that it was nicely wrapped up at the end.

I feel like maybe I would have liked this book a lot more when I was younger. I loved the intro, but it seemed to feel a little more predictable and not as engaging after that. Many parts of the story felt very detached and I couldn't find hardly any character to actually "like" or even relate to very much. It felt a little like a book that didn't know where it belonged--it should have been erotica from some plot points, but always shied away from anything actually explicit or tantalizing. At the same time, it seemed to use sex torture as a shock value device, but only ever implied and never delved into anything, really.
Overall, it just felt mostly hollow. I'd still consider listening to the next book in the series, but I didn't jump at the chance and decided to listen to a non-fiction next.

Wow!!! Loved the story!!!!! Jonathon was heartless, cold-hearted, and very selfish. To call him a "taker" or a user is too gentle of a description. In my view, Adair was a more likeable character than Jonathon. I understood Adair's evilness. At least he was pretty much honest in his personality traits, even when he is lying. Death was too shift of an end for Jonathon. He should have been made to suffer. Even his humanitarian efforts does little to change his character's flaw. However, Lanny's actions throughout the novel are not acceptable. She is so naïve, and she has so little self esteem, that it is criminal. She never has any love for herself. Yet, the ending leads me to believe that she will become the monster that created her.