This story is centered around a woman (college student) who has had a very bad day, ending with her being turned into a vampire to save her life. Thereafter, the reader is taken on Alyssa's journey to learning what living with vampirism means for her. We watch her struggle with saying goodbye to her mortal life and adjusting to her new life with her maker Lysander.I enjoyed the beginning and the end. Somewhere in the middle, I was bogged down in lots of dialogue that didn't move the plot along. For example, Alyssa's casino game lesson was lengthy for no apparent reason, and the details of her learning how to control her mind around other vampires was unnecessarily verbose. Overall, the writing style throughout the book was easy to follow without many extra words, so I'm speaking mainly to lengthy scenes that made the story drag in certain places. Those could have been eliminated or reduced.Regarding editing, I realize I am hypersensitive to this sort of thing, so I won't be nitpicky about typos here and there. There is one major issue with editing, however, that stood out to me because I don't remember seeing this in any other book. There is an abundance of hyphenated words, and I'm not sure why. I'm not talking about commonly hyphenated words like "dim-lit". I mean "some-thing", "de-tailed", "al-ready", "under-stood", "some-how", "worship-ping", "upset-ting", "pro-tests"...and many more. Even the character's name "Ly-sander" was hyphenated a few times. I'm not sure if the program used did this or what. I just wanted to point out that it was in the electronic edition I read and stood out in a major way. If the formatting program did this automatically, I hope that it can be adjusted under the settings and the book republished.Alyssa worked my nerves with all her whining. At one point, she thinks, "I am so dumb." I agreed with her self-assessment. BUT I don't hold that against the story. Every character can't be a goddess, warrior, or all-powerful queen of the world. Immature--that is who Alyssa is, and I accept her for being who she is. It was just an observation. I mostly enjoyed the suspense generated by Kallisto (Lysander's former mate) and the Acta Sanctorum (governing vampire commune) threats. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if it had spent more time with these tensions and less with Alyssa showing her childishness. She *is* a new vampire, thrust into this world suddenly. I had to keep that in mind and empathize with her plight rather than be judgmental.I think this is a good first book in a series that establishes a foundation with a flawed character that has room to grow in later books. FYI, this book is perma-free on Amazon, if you'd like to give it a try. I had never heard of Katie Salidas until a mention on the PRUF group. Being intrigued, I purchased Immortalis Carpe Noctem and really enjoyed it. Once completed, purchased the series and am currently 75% thru the series. There are vampires and werewolves, Vegas and Boston, hunters of the "unnatural", and more. If you enjoy the above, then I would recommend highly The Immortalis series to you. Enjoy!
What do You think about Immortalis Carpe Noctem (2010)?
you know a book is going to be good when the first chapter makes your heart stop.
—Samira
I really enjoyed this book. Loved the characters and the plot. Well written.
—Mel
