Vampire Manifesto

Vampire Manifesto #1

by Rashaad Bell

In my youth, I was a mere child, with the worries of high school and teenage romance consuming my thoughts. But little did I know, my life was destined to be so much more.

Now, I find myself on the run from a pack of ravenous werewolves, driven by an ancient prophecy that claims I am the key to unlocking the forbidden Pandora's Box. It's a world of danger and intrigue, where the lines between fantasy and reality blur and every move could be my last.

In this world of darkness, I find solace in the arms of a mysterious and alluring vampire. His seductive charm and insatiable thirst for blood ignite a passion in me that I never knew existed. But can I trust him? Or is he just using me to fulfill his own agenda?

As the danger around us grows more intense and the stakes become higher, I must navigate the treacherous waters of werewolves, vampires, and mutants to stay alive. And with every step, I find myself falling deeper into the spell of my vampire savior.

Will our love be enough to survive the perils of this dangerous world? Or will it be our downfall?

My name is Madison Amber Rose, and this is the story of my journey into a world of mystery and romance, where danger lurks around every corner and love is the only thing that can keep me alive.

Genres: Vampires, Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Ebooks

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 2, 2011

About the author

I ride the singular point of the present until the future is past tense...

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?i...

Reviews

[Danielle (Danniegurl) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has me reading it. Why? Well I'm not really sure, maybe to get some answers? We don't really understand what is happening with Madison, nor at the end of the book do we have a clear understanding why she is being targeted. What drives me nuts about some E-books, and this one in particular, is that it is almost as though no one edited the book. Quite a few times some of the words were misspelled (whole instead of hole) or the wrong character name suddenly creeps up. Get an editor, or re-read your own book before publishing it.

Other than that, we don't, at least I didn't, understand all these dimensions they were talking about. I am not too familiar with string theory so the authors explanation went way over my head, and his characters as well. I don't think he did a very good job of explaining how we came to this conclusion.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madison Amber Rose is just a normal seventeen year old high school girl. She is left with her brother Aiden an his girlfriend Abigail, her best friend when there parents leave the state for an emergency! But everything changes when she meets Ethan a hot guy seeks her on the beach, she is mesmerised by him. But when she is at a beach party and a guy puts a fun to her head, her 'dark haired saviour' saves her life and mysteriously disappears, leaving her in awe and shock! Connor, the dark haired saviour reaches her and an overnight trip to California changes her life forever...

Madison has died before, and this affects her life completely. She has the Mark of Pandora, which she and two other people have and she has been foretold that she is the one to open the Box of Pandora which hold more that history tells us. She also has a gift at creating art based on her thoughts and feelings and she uses this to tell her of her future and what she sees. Madison has this dream that repeats night after night that can only be shown as her future self becoming a Vampire warrior. As the novel develops, the more her dreams become the truth and future, her future.

Connor is more than just a guy that saves Madison's life, he is a vampire and one that changes Madison's life forever and eternally. Connor is on a mission to sought to kill Madison and why... The Translucent Man becomes the terror for Connor and he doesn't get scared often, there is a real threat and he will protect, guide and care for Madison that he has never done before. His arrogance and darkness makes him the perfect guy for Madison, I mean that's what I think. It has always got to be the persona of a bad boy to make the novel so much more interesting and intense! :D

This was a free book that I got off the Kindle Store, and it was a very good read. Its a simple, YA novel, with the typical aspects of a vampire (my favourite kind) with need for romance. The author, Rashaad Bell, I have never heard of, but he proved himself pretty good in the beginning of his series. I would recommend this to those who enjoy a simple, straight-forward, dark romance read. I throughly enjoyed it!Vampire ManifestoVampire ManifestoRashaad Bell

[Tera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. There is a lot of things going on in a short time. Start off from the beginning with Madison dieting but not because she comes back and her friend dies instead. Then she starts having these weird dreams of her hunting vampires - another reality? Her and her brother skip school for the beach and she meets this mysterious guy, Ethan. I got the vibes he was a vampire - never confirmed though b/c he isn't in the story much even though he is a love interest for Madison. Then they go to a party where she is attacked and someone tries to kidnap her. Connor comes in and saves her. From here it starts getting weird. This author guy, John Rogers is into alternative realities and multiples version of one self. You meet about a couple of diff John Rogers too. There is some action with Connor and Madison trying to evade the translucent man. I know this review is kinda mixed up but that is kinda how the storyline felt. Going one way for a min then left turn to start and back again several times. This is syfy meets teen meets paranormal and they tried to have a kid.

[Leanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think this book was nearly as awful as many people found it to be, I think they were just not who the author expected to pick up the book ...
I liked the story line, I didn't see anything so bad I would describe it as brutal.
I think the author changed writing styles or tone or something ...throughout the book, at least three times. To me, things just changed the flow they came at.
Aspects of real life weren't toned down which I found to be refreshing. Some small details were repeated or dwelled on too much or too many times, though. Not that many but there were still some ...
I liked the book enough to continue reading on to the next book, it was interesting and enjoyable.

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book (the author specifically) has loads of potential. His writing is inconsistent, brilliant at times and mindless drivel at other times, in desperate need of an editor.

I will keep an eye out for further books because his work is improving.

If you can make it past the first couple of chapters and overlook the errors, you might actually enjoy the very interesting story.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story line is YP with lots of kids jargon and slang

Over all the story is unique and intriguing. It is a fairly quick read with a dramatic ending

I have to say I have never read a book that went into detail on using the bathroom. Must say that was a first for me

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

although it was sometimes difficult to read due to the constant repetitive teen slang, the story was pretty good. I'll probably have to read the next book as well even though the other reviews say the slang and misspelling doesn't get any better.

[Miranda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sad to say but this is my first DNF book.

[Faby · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING , i juts love the story, and the characters there all so funny and real i just love the idea of the tangle story

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

...that was a cliffhanger.

[Bert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first reading of Rashaad Bell, Dang good book. Left me hanging and wanting more. Checking to see if second book is out yet, can't wait to read it.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Kipi · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. The author has no sense of difference between words "then" and "than". Also, "to" and "too" are two (see what I did there?) different words. I'm not a native English speaker and it has almost made me lose my mind! The grammar mistakes make it hard to sometimes understand the sentences...

2. It's vampires, not Vampires. WHY, GOD, WHY would you capitalize the word?! Geesh!

3. Paper mâché. Really? I'm sorry but wouldn't paper mache be more appropriate? Or just go all balls to the wall and write papier-mâché...

4. Insta-love...

It was all so strange, this closeness that I felt with Ethan. Even though we had just met, it was like our souls had become intertwined, as if in another place, another lifetime ago we had been the dearest of confidants, only just now having the luxury of reconnecting all over again.

Not just once, but basically twice. The heroine seems to be instantly drawn to all the mysterious handsome dudes in this book.

5. Moronic word choices and ridiculous lines. I mean, really. The writing at times reminds me of LKH's "best" (enter strong sarcasm here) work...

"I am the Final Test, the White Water from the Well of Fate, the Spring of Wisdom, the Feather placed by Maat Goddess of Truth. I am the Shaka Ree, the Broth of Oblivion, the Period of Chaos, Guardian to the Castle of the Joyous Gard. I am the Boatman waiting on the turbulent shores of Eternity where the Sons of the Dark Wisdom pay tribute. I am Thanatos the White Wolf and I am Inevitable"

Yet instead of listening to her (((meaning the little voice inside her))) distress signal, I beckoned closer to dangers call, ready to crash my battered vessel against the shore of destruction.

6. Misspelling everywhere! Palates (pilates), causal (casual), tittle, nergasim (nerd-orgasm I suppose, shouldn't it be "nergasm"?), coup (coupe), fineto, decent (descent), seizer (seizure), mediate (meditate)... Just to name a few. OH! And BRAHMS STOKER . REALLY?!?! Oh my dog!

7. Just plain idiocy, like a woman running to a subway after being stabbed through the chest, talking about Noah and the Red Sea (wasn't it supposedly Moses??), all the insta-love and insta-attraction AND the ridiculous amounts of info-dumping going through the whole book. Everyone believes and understand everything too quickly, no one bats an eye about all the moronic info-dumps and everyone accepts everything in a heartbeat. No inner turmoil, no doubts, just plain ARGH. The book would've gained so much from a strict editor.

8. Stupid names like Jenova Darkstar, Amastacia and Graul. I mean, really?
------

And now that I finished the book, I can explain the plot in a nushell. Here we go...

Our heroine, Madison Amber Rose (...), ditches school one day when her parents are out of town. While spending time at the beach with her brother and his girlfriend, she meets this dark and mysterious dude (MD1). BOOOM insta-love. Then they go to a party where MAR is nearly killed, but saved by another dark mysterious dude (MD2). Later, a third mysterious dude (an author) comes to their town and MAR and MD1 meet him there, then follows this ridiculously long info-dump about parallel universes, Pandora's boxes and what not. Ridiculous. MAR also meats MD2 there and they somehow agree to meet up later.

When the "later" comes, MD2 drives him and MAR to an airport, they jump in a plane, MD2 kills a woman on board and BOOM it's revealed that he is a vamp.. I mean a Vampire. When the plane lands, MAR and MD2 burst into a house full of Werewolves, MAR gets seriously injured and runs to a subway. When she wakes up, she notices MD2 has turned her into a Vampire. She kills a cop and escapes to a safe house. She then wakes up there and as the sunlight hits her, she bursts into flames, burning down the whole house and killing/eating a firefighter while doing so. Then she wonders around town, naked. Until she bumps into Mysterious Author's older version from the future or something as silly as that. Insert infodump vol. 2.

Finally MAR and MD2 meet up, only to be kidnapped by idiotically named Amastacia and Graul. MAR is nearly killed again but no worries, she meets this odd thing in some kind of another realm (the long ass quote where the entity introduces herself/himself/whatever is above). A demon saves the day and goes missing while doing so. MAR and MD2 escape, and go back to the airport to escape the town. They drink blood from a wine bottle, have a moronic conversation and BOOM MAR hears from her brother that their parents have died... DUN DUN DUU!

End of book.

Seriously. That's all that happens and that's ridiculous as f. Our heroine forgets all about MD1 as long as it's convenient to the plot, she doesn't give a f about her brother and his girlfriend (I mean she disappears for days I think never bothering to check up on them). I just... I just cant.

[Anika · Rating 1 out of 5]

It started out interesting with the car accident where a friend had died. I thought the boy was Madison’s other brother. Madison is one of the main focuses; she’s left for a couple of days with just her brother Aiden who’s her twin not identical and get this his girlfriend is named Abigail. You would think that Madison would have an “A” name. Anyways, this book is going to be a series. I guess we are going to get more information on “Ethan Blackwood” who Madison becomes involved with when she skips school to go to the beach with her brother and his girlfriend also her best friend. Apparently their parents left them for a family emergency and left Aiden in charge with access to his father’s mustang. But Aiden has been forbidden to drive ever since the accident with the deer by his mom even though by the police he has been cleared of the accident as being just that. But back to the story, Madison’s swept up with Ethan who is sort of keeping his personal details to himself. Until Madison’s almost mugged and kidnapped but saved by this other guy whose she is also having a hard time forgetting named Connor, at least that’s the name he has given her. You have so much going on at first I thought the book was a romance but then it turns to action.

Connor’s a vampire who turns Madison when they fly off to California because he wants to know why people are after her. So she was being hunted by werewolves and that was what the mugger was who attacked her in Florida. When they go to find out more about him they go to the pack’s house where Madison gets stabbed. Conner changes her but you don’t really know it because after he does it he causes a distraction so that Madison can get run away to the safe house. She gets on a subway train losing blood and blacks out. Next thing you know she’s got a dead body next to her and figures out what happens that she’s been changed.

I don’t want to give you blow by blow what happens as it will take pages to write but this story is sort of whack. I was 60% into the eBook before I saw another chapter to separate events and the events seem to run on and on. There were strange tidbits thrown in from other fictional stories and gods. There were biblical mentions in the story too, it was all over the place the plot I wasn’t sure of but the main characters I think were Madison, Ethan and Connor. Ethan I thought could have been a vampire because of the description of him when Madison first met him at the beach in Florida in the sun when she touched his hand the author says it felt like silk and was cold and the ice cream they ate most of it melted in his hand. But later in the story when they go out to eat he does have a hamburger and fries. So I don’t know cause the author's description of vamps is different from other fantasy books I’ve read.

But I’m going back into the story, which I don’t want to do. There were words missing, misspelling and I could not get a handle on the characters race not saying it matters. In the beginning I would have thought that they were white surfer dude type by their talk/speech then near the end it was like black slang from the hood. Connor was only 15 years as a vamp yet the author had him in charge of all of Florida as his territory, he had expensive cars and owned his own private jet but the mentality was that of a kid. But mind you Madison, Aiden, Abigail and Ethan were all teens around 17 which was the age Connor was turn but he’s 36 actually. It was no YA. I think the book was self-published as an editor may have helped the author write the story better and even if things were made up it would have been believable and flow in sequence with supporting details backing it up. As to putting in ideas and explaining it right at that moment in areas of the book. Basically very confusing and don’t have any intention of reading the next book in the series.

[Dy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This can't be a true review because I didn't finish the book.

No, not didn't, refuse to. I've been intermittently trying to slog through this since February and at 41% I finally threw in the towel.

Pluses:

Honestly, none that I found, other than the prologue indicated potential that nothing I read up to 41% fulfilled.

Minuses:

EDIT. If you can't, please, for the sake of indie publishing in general, pay someone else to.

Typos galore, many with an MS Word spell check (read lots of homophones) feel. Sadly, though, those were not the worst.

Multiple egregious continuity errors involving character names and plot points.

An overabundance of pop culture references that are already dated and the book has only been out about a year and a half.

Run-on sentences. It got so bad I started marking them and stopped when I hit the low double digits because it just made me sad.

=======================

I like vampire stories; I've been a fan of vamp fiction since before Anne Rice's first vampire book.

I like YA and have been reading it since I was the target market.

Both things that make me pretty much the target audience for a book like this, but the bad writing and horrendous typos just killed it for me. If the author ever updates the e-book and corrects the awful formatting errors I'm willing to give it another shot.

[Morethanhuman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storyline is awesome. The editing and basic spelling/punctuation is atrocious. The difference between too and to is VERY important. I almost quit this book 10 times out of frustration. The author obviously used a thesaurus frequently and with free abandon (aka ignorance... which actually means lack of applicable knowledge). In the end, the storyline and characters tipped my rating to a three. I give almost every book I read a five because I'm in awe of anyone who can create something new and different. The horrific editing deterred. Hoping for better in the next book that I actually paid for.

[Bella Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally adored Connor. He was the most lovable and most interesting and cpmplete character of the book. Not that Ethan isnt an awsome character. I totally loved him...before Connor comes along and swifts everything on the way. It has a lot of action but that ok because it worths the time spend to read it.

The best part is that it starts like another cute story only about a love triangle between one human(Madison) one vampire (Connor) and one undentified yet (Ethan)and ends up totally different with the whole Pandora boxes...I didnt like much the alternative realities though.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow... interesting book on a few levels.

Your average AP English highschooler would have edited this for a bag of chips or a ride to the mall. Even letting Microsoft Word have a spell/grammar check on it would have been better than leaving the book in its particular state.

That being said- I really enjoyed the story and the characters and if this book really is as first-draft as its editing, it's done well. If you can get past glaring grammar, spelling and punctuation errors, you may find a decent read here!

[Tasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

After an extremely disappointing beginning, the story line started getting interesting from about halfway through. This was shadowed however by the terrible grammar and sentences that didn't make a lot of sense. I don't think I'll be reading anything else by this author until he learns the difference between to and too.

[Krissys Bookshelf Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

a fully packed book that opens a lot of questions and leaves most of them unanswered. vampire manifesto is one of those books that just left me saying 'huh.'
it was thought out maybe not too well but still has potential once the author makes sure it gets some editing and formatting done and finishes concluding the book closing gaps and answering questions.

[Cassandra Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't really impressed by the main character until about the middle of the book. there are a lot of unanswered questions yet at the end of the book and yes I know there's more to the series but I'm not even sure if I'll read it but I hope if I do that they answer my one dying question , which I won't mention because it's a spoiler. but yeah I might still read it I'm not sure.

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Super awefull. Not only did it have the worst plot, dialogue, AND characters, but there were so many typos and outright mistakes that I wanted to pull my hair out. Even though I have a weird thing about having to finish books, even bad ones, I'm still pretty shocked I made it through this one.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book for a couple of reasons, firstly the spelling and grammar were very poor. Secondly the story line was all over the place. A good proof reader/editor needed here.
Kim

[June · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not finish did try but writing not good story appeared disjointed if the second half of the book is worth a second try please let me know

[Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me awhile to finish too much happening for me to truly understand