Eternal Hunger by Laura Wright (Mark of the Vampire #1)
October 5, 2010
Paranormal Romance
Paperback, 384 Pages
Signet
Reviewed by Mandi
Dr. Sara Donahue’s one goal in life is to help her brother Gray mentally recover from a tragic house fire that occurred years ago. Sara blames herself for this fire and Gray has never been the same since. She has become a doctor to try to cure him.
Coming home from work early one morning, there is a man curled up outside her door. Thinking he is a homeless man, she tries to nudge him out of the way. But she soon hears him speaking to her in her mind asking for help! Confused, and noticing his skin is burning in the sunlight, she drags him inside. But the drama doesn’t end there. A former patient, Tom Trainer is waiting inside her apartment. Tom is not right in the head, and has cruel intentions towards Sara. After he starts to attack her, the man she dragged inside wakes up.
Alexander Roman is a vampire, and one that has undergone the change or morpho 100 years early. He is now a Breeding Male with two key-shaped marks on his cheeks. This means he is no longer able to be out in the sun, but also has many special abilities. He wants to protect this female that helped him, but knowing if he kills Tom Trainer, the Order will be alerted, he has worked most of his life to hide himself from them.
This also means he must start to hunt his life mate. Alexander and his two brothers Nicholas and Lucian are Purebloods, and they have helped the Impurebloods (those with both human and vampire blood) escape their credentis, or vampire communities ruled by the Order.
Tom escapes the brothers, and ends up in the hands of Ethan Dare. Ethan is an Impureblood, but with the aide of the secret Superior One, has helped Ethan become more powerful. His goal is to now spread the seed of the Impurebloods to eventually overrule the Truebloods he so much despises.
Eternal Hunger disappointed me. I felt so many of the aspects of this book were not fleshed out as much as they could have been. The first 30-50 pages really held my interest, but from there on out, I had problems.
First I never connected with the heroine Sara. She is introduced to this vampire world and goes from not knowing they existed to living with them quite easily. Granted, there is a mad man on the loose to get her and she convinces herself they are the safest bet, but I never felt she belonged there with them. She meets Alexander who is talking inside her head, who is a huge male and has prominent markings etched on his face. That is a lot of a girl to take in. Alexander’s other brothers never seemed to take to her. While I enjoyed the brotherly banter between them (Lucian especially) I wanted her included more.
Her brother Gray didn’t add anything to the story either. The resolution of his problem came way too easily in my opinion and the revelation that occurs while he is being aided did not sit well with me. It is an easy way out for the problem of Sara being a human and Alexander being a vampire.
Meanwhile, Tom Trainer starts out as such a creepy villain only to take a backseat to Ethan Dare. And from that point on, the villains never show their face very much. The brothers hunt them, and they continue to escape, but I wanted more evil doings from them.
There are a lot of foreign words in this book – paven, credenti, veana, balas and honestly I was confused throughout. I am not sure why – using unique words in books is nothing new, but for whatever reason I couldn’t latch onto these. If there had been a glossary, it definitely would have been used.
This book just felt like the characters walked in and out with never leaving their mark. The only character I really liked was Lucian and his nonstop sarcastic remarks. Otherwise, I wasn’t impressed.
Rating: 2.5/5
Recent Reviews:
Leontine’s Book Realm – 4.5/5
Goodreads
This series includes:
Eternal Kiss
Eternal Promise – April 2011
Lucian is the vamp that immediately captured my attention too but it's such a bummer you couldn't connect and various aspects didn't work :(
I was bummed…
This doesn't have anything to do with the book itself but is that the same cover model who was on Lover Avenged?
Stephanie G
Paranormal Haven
I don't know about Lover Avenged…
but definitely this book
I'm sad you didn't connect with it. :( Thanks for the honest review. No matter where he is…that model is HAWT!
Nice review!
This book is in my "to be read" pile at the moment. I'm trying to keep an open mind, but now I'm glad it is actually a "guaranteed great read". If you didn't get your copy as a freebie, maybe you should take advantage of the deal and send that book back to the publisher with a copy of the review. You could at least put the refund toward another book that you might like a lot better! :)
I'll just go meh
I am always disappointed when I encounter a book that just doesn't come up with "the stuff" — you know, good characters and a story that keeps me interested. When I find myself skimming for more than a few paragraphs, I know I'm in for trouble. Thanks for your honesty–sad to say, but there are just some books that don't do it for us. Good review!
I did like this book, but I had some of the same issues. Especially how she was swept into the world so fast and was OK with it.
Lucien was definitely the highlight of this book…him and his almond eyes that were mentioned about 20 times…
Thanks for the review Mandi!
Tori – I think he looks a little bit 80's with the feathered hair…*hides*
Christine – There is a return policy..lol.
Blodeuedd – You should check out goodreads..there have been positive reviews! It might peak your interest.
Dr. J – Yes..that pretty much sums up this book. Maybe book two will be better….
Lizzie – Yes – she accepted the world way too quickly!! I noticed the almond eyes too..LOL. I liked Lucian though…
I can't believe you just slammed my retro love muffin. o_0
LMAO @ Tori. Srsly? Do we need to analyze the 80's look?
Thank you Mandi! Sorry it didn't work for you.
And…umm…are the key tattoos on the hero's cheeks or arm, because on the cover it looks like they are on his right arm…
Hmm… Thank you for your honest review. Just from your synopsis, it seems like there is a lot going on and maybe the world-building (for a new series) wasn't done as effectively as it could have been done. I think I'll hold off on this one since I have so many other books to read right now. Thanks!
Sounded like such a good book! Oh well shame you didn't like it, great honest review though!
I really sure I won't like this one. Most things you describe are the things I never like either. Thanks for the review.