Monday, October 22, 2012

Indie Author Review: The Undeparted by Deborah Palumbo





Title: The Undeparted
BOOK ONE in the Undeparted Series.
Author: Deborah Palumbo
Kindle Edition: 205 pages
Published: February 24th 2012
Publisher: Deborah Palumbo




Goodreads Blurb from Deborah:

Cassandra is trying to figure out if she was actually bitten by a vampire and whisked away to his castle or if it was it a very vivid dream, one which has left her to contemplate her own sanity.

Unknowingly, she is the only mortal to resist the vampire's bite and capture the heart of the most powerful vampire that ever existed; the one who began the entire race of the undead, Quentin Castle.

For ions Quentin has felt nothing but the lust for blood. But Cassandra has awakened something in him that he had forsaken a millennium ago; he is determined to win this beautiful woman by mortal means rather than by the vampire's bite. But will he be able to suppress his natural instinct? Will he be able to prove to the skeptical Cassandra that he is a vampire and not an imposter, a wannabe? What hideous thing will he do to prove that he is a vampire, prove that he isn't using some kind of parlor trick, some Houdini magic, and that he is the real thing?

As evidence mounts on Quentin's behalf and she can no longer deny her encounter was real and not a dream, will Cassandra be able to resist his evil charm and convince her boyfriend, police officer Mike Lapp and best friend Lucy that vampires really do exist and she's being stalked by one?

To expedite their liaison, Quentin devises a scheme to blackmail Cassandra by setting up her boyfriend for a murder he didn't commit. Cassandra must surrender herself to Quentin for her boyfriend's sake and wait for Mike to scale the walls of the vampire's castle and rescue her. But when her boyfriend arrives, she's in for the shock of her life. People are not always what they seem to be

My Review:
Cassandra is a good, kind and honest person who cares more about others than herself and is willing to be selfless to save her boyfriend from injustice.

Quentin is the ultimate bad boy trying to be good for the heroine. He is drawn to Cassandra and want to show her he can woo her without using his vampire venom. In an effort to do that he gives up his womanizing and drinking from other women.

Mike the boyfriend of Cassandra just has to get her back, he likes order and he has plans and none of which include Cassandra being kidnapped by vampires. What is a guy to do when no one will believe she didn't just leave him? What plans does he have that he needs her to fulfill?

Deborah writes an intriguing story full of plot twists and surprise turns, she tells the story mostly from Cassandra's POV with an occasional side trip into someone else's POV. The story builds suspense and tension through the whole story and keeps you guessing as to who really is good and who is bad. The story has a definite love story but no sex scenes, just the occasional hint as to what may be happening or what a character may want to do.

As a first novel for Deborah this is a good job. I had a hard time with some of the POV jumps, however over all it is a well written story. The characters are well developed and we learn more about them and the back story through the entire book. I enjoyed that Cassandra didn't just accept that vampires existed right off the bat and worried about her sanity because of what she was seeing. I liked the love triangle story line as well and you could see Cassandra was an honorable woman when she was so drawn to Quentin but wanted to be faithful to Mike.

Overall I would say I liked the story and enjoyed the suspense aspect of it. I give The Undeparted pink roses!


Happy Reading, Carin

Deborah also has the second book in the series out and the third is in the works!

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