Two Halves

Two Halves #1

by Marta Szemik

Sarah killed her human mother shortly after she was born so
she could quench her thirst. She hates her vampire father who she never met and
blames him for her mother's death.

Now twenty-one, Sarah suppresses her dark side with serums. When a
nightmare stirs her dark traits, underworld creatures hunt for the half-breed
vampire. On the run, Sarah learns the secrets hidden from her, for a good
reason. Had she known her destiny, she may have continued with the serums that
kept her safe in the human world.

Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy, Vampires, Young Adult, Witches, Demons, Fiction

379 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 27, 2011

About the author

Marta Szemik is an author and a writer. As a mom of two and a wife she enjoys using her family member's attributes in her writing - just because they are unique:) A great skier (in her kids eyes), she loves the outdoors. Very often she can be found daydreaming new worlds in front of her computer. Her favourite pass-time is sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee. Powerful writing with colorful characters who make you cry, laugh and wish they were real intrigue her. She has a sarcastic sense of humor and those very, very close to her know that she can make a joke out of almost anything, but she would suck as a comedian ;)

Reviews

[Jilleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story had an interesting premise. Two half vampire, half human children destined to be together who are separated and have to find each other and save the world. I figured it was ambitious and interesting. The story starts with a dad describing some of what he has to do to protect his daughter from the evil demons that are chasing them and then picks up with the daughter's narrative in first person.

I had a hard time getting into this story. I know it's not flowing well when I keep looking down at the page number I'm at and being disappointed I'm not near the end. Sarah is a first person narrator, but she doesn't have a strong voice. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I could not connect with her. I think it may be that she never can seem to make up her mind or be consistent. She never seems to feel that strongly about anything, sure she says she loves William, but nothing really backs it up. For example, William comes to get her to take her away from her life. She only gives lip service to "oh, I should stay..." and then wham, bam she leaves, no regrets. She really has no passion or excitement, or indecision for a reader to relate too. William is even worse. He has no personality outside of Sarah. It's like he's just an extra unnecessary character only put there to get her to the cabin, be a love interest, or to make serums. Also, I never could figure out what the 'balance' was. It wasn't well explained and since it has bearing on the whole story, some time should have been spent dealing with it.

Sarah has a lot of flashbacks to dreams about William. These become very distracting. As they have zero bearing on the narrative, except to enforce the romance between the two characters (which did nothing to increase it), I ended up skimming them after awhile since they became tiresome and interrupted the narrative too much. There were interludes where other characters picked up the narrative, I noticed some readers found those distracting, but I thought they were fine and could remain if other problems in the story were fixed.

Finally,I found the ending to be a little to contrived. ***spoilers***the Alex/Xela thing was way too obvious, and you really wondered how dumb the characters were not to pick it up.

This review may sound like I didn't like the book, but that's not true. I found the world interesting and the story full of possibilities. I loved the idea of using orchids to make potions that controlled the vampires in various ways. Not only are orchids lovely, they have been used for medicines for thousands of years, and it felt right they could be used for this. I just feel the book could use serious revision to be its very best. If the author sped up the beginning, clarified the characters and gave Sarah and William more separate personalities,explained the idea of the 'balance,' cleared up the ending and cut three-quarters of the flashbacks this could be a fantastic story.

[Franny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Twenty-one-year-old Sarah is a child of a human mother and a vampire father and has suppressed her dark side with serums. The only memory of her mother is when Sarah killed her, soon after birth. Of her father, nothing—just a hatred for his vampire traits that made her kill her own mother.

When a disturbing nightmare foretelling her bleak future stirs the superhuman traits, underworld creatures are beaconed. On the run with William, a man she knows from her dreams, Sarah tries to learn what’s been hidden from her, for a good reason. Had she known her destiny, she may have continued with the serums that kept her hidden.

The following is merely my opinion and is an honest review. I really struggled on this one. Reading is usually effortless, but this book required concentration and rereading of passages. Fifty-four percent into the book and I still felt frustrated and lost. It felt stilted and I found that a lot of the words felt wrong. As if they were used in the wrong context. There were instances that the logic did not make sense. For instance he told her he took a serum to make him fearless so he could help her, then later he says if a demon kills him, it could take his fearless abilities??? I don't get it. What I did get out of what was read was that the writing and relationships felt juvenile and more geared to the Young Adult crowd. In the authors defense, in general, I do not like Young Adult books. I may have been too harsh due to this fact. I had to force myself to continue and I kept checking my progress because I couldn't wait for the end. I hated that I felt that way. I really wanted to like this book. The premise seemed interesting and I enjoy supporting new Authors with their Indie works.

I truly believe the story has potential to be good. There needs to be heavy editing and possibly billed as a Young Adult book. I struggled as to whether or not I would post the review. I will not be posting it on my blog or anywhere alse besides goodreads and that is only due to the fact I read this as a participant in R2R.

[Tawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book!

The Story
Sarah knows that she is half human and half vampire, but she has been suppressing her vampy side for her whole life and thinks that it is bad. William is connected to Sarah as he is the only other half human half vamp in existence, he's lived his whole life using both his vamp instincts and his human. Sarah has dreamed of William all her life and when she finally meets him in real life she is thrust into a world that she didn't know about. Demons are after them because of their special abilities and the whole future of the world is at stake if they cannot keep themselves protected.

Likes
-The story itself, I loved the concept of serums and prophesies and witches and shapeshifters.
-I also liked how the romance worked. Yes they weren't physically there knowing each other very long, but they knew each other their whole lives via dreams and stories.
-The writing was well done and the author knew how to make the story flow for the most part.

Dislikes
--I didn't wholly understand the concept of the serums. Like, I didn't quite get how they worked exactly or why they had to use orchids and not anything else.
--Every once in a while I had to stop and reread something to make sure I understood what was happening, only about 3 times though so not too big of a deal.

Conclusion
I enjoyed this story immensely. So much so that in the last 25% of it I was reading as fast as I possibly could just so that I could get to the outcome.....I was thinking aaaaahhhhh just tell me what happens already!!! I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys this genre. :)

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I was given this book for free on a read-to-review basis.)
Sarah is half-human, half-vampire. She hates her vampire side, and takes serums to hide her vampire qualities. She’s also been searching for a serum that will turn her 100% human.

William is also half-human, half vampire, and is Sarah’s other half – they can’t live without each other.

Sarah and William meet and are on the run from ‘seekers’ – demons who want to kill them, as there is some kind of prophecy about Sarah and William ending the war between the vampires and demons in the underworld.

I really struggled with this book. It was slow, I didn’t find it interesting, and it really didn’t hold my attention, which was disappointing as I thought blurb sounded so good.
I forced myself to keep reading just because I hate not knowing how a book ends, but I kept having to put it down for lack of motivation, and ended up skim-reading the majority of the book.

I think one of the main problems was the amount of information constantly being presented which was just information overload for me. I was a bit confused in places – the characters are driving a hummer, then they take a plane to Brazil, and then the hummer is waiting for them when they land. How did that happen? There was also a bit of an ‘as if!’ moment when the main characters took the hummer on a raft, which was just ridiculous.

Overall; I’m glad that other people have enjoyed this book, but it just didn’t do it for me.
2 out of 10.
(Book length: 6279 kindle locations)

[Pamela Rosensteel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah is young woman who was raised by her aunt Helen when her mother died after childbirth. She's always known that she was different. She's had to inject a serum her entire life to suppress the vampire nature, to seem more normal though she was never normal. Sarah has always looked younger than she really is, so she was always teased or made fun of, but with two unwavering best friends, Mira and Xander, she's lived a relatively normal life. But what Sarah doesn't know is that Mira and Xander are demons who were charged with protecting her since she was a baby. They could shape-shift their appearance so that they too could appear as if they grew up with Sarah.

William is the only other half-breed, and Sarah has had dreams of him her entire life. She's felt this strong connection and love for him that she couldn't explain. William knew all about her and knew that the two of them together were apart of a prophecy that would save both the humans and the vampires from the likes of a power hungry demon lord.

Although I think the book started out a little slow, it definitely picked up. It was kind of like an action movie in terms of everything that was going on. Sarah and William are on the run from seekers who do the demon lords bidding. They can't always trust those around them as they might be shape-shifters. In this book, shape-shifters doesn't necessarily refer to a man or woman that can change in to an animal such as a wolf. It just means that they can change their appearance. I found the story to be a rather exciting ride, and I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

Since I'm such a fan of romance, I was a little bummed out about the fact that Sarah and William could hardly touch each other without causing themselves pain. There was a spell put on them to keep them apart. But I still enjoyed their journey to try to find a way to be together. And Sarah would flash back to dreams where her and William could be together without the pain, so it wasn't as if there was no romance between them.

Now, although I don't mind a book that is written from different perspectives, I found Two Halves to be a bit confusing at times because of it. That's only because when the perspective would change to someone other than Sarah, it was almost always clearly marked who's perspective I was now reading. However, when it would switch back to Sarah's perspective, it wasn't stated. So I found that kind of annoying because I'd be thinking about whether I was still reading the previous person's perspective or did it change back to Sarah's, and I shouldn't have had to wonder about it. It should have been stated at the beginning of the chapter or even at the break if in the middle of a chapter.

Over-all I did enjoy Two Halves and wished that it hadn't ended where it did. I would have loved more of Sarah and William's story. But as I mentioned before, it is rather action packed with demons, vampires, witches and warlocks.



** I received a copy of Two Halves for review as part of the Knights of the Round Table group on Goodreads.**

[Alysa H. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book in Elle Casey's 2013 January Anniversary Indie Book Giveaway.

There are some intriguing ideas here - notably the special plant-based serums and how they interact with the strange biology of the human/vampire hybrids, and the underdeveloped notion that humans, vampires and warlocks are more or less "good", fighting on the same side against "bad" demons - but overall this book really didn't work for me.

For a start, the two romantic leads, Sarah and William, are meant to be about the same age (early 20s), but through most of the book Sarah comes across more like a lovestruck 12-year-old to William's adult svengali figure. It makes sense that since Sarah starts out largely unaware of her true powers as a hybrid, whereas William knows all about his, that he would have to teach her, but this does not necessitate the drippy tone of their interactions. Sarah is also not allowed to be her own fully-realized person, because she spends the entire book either ignorant, or as "William's other half". She is defined only in relation to him, and their shared destiny.

There is also a lot of logistical stuff that doesn't make any sense - like the speed at which they travel (non-supernaturally) to the Amazon, and how they live in a cabin whilst there. Plus this book is kind of long, and padded with way too much telling and not enough showing: too much exposition and somewhat repetitive internal monologuing. There are also quite a few dei ex machina that annoyed me. But at least there weren't too many grammatical errors!

Now, before I read this book, the author encouraged me to start with Marked: A Two Halves Novella first. As far as I can tell, Marked was released after Two Halves, as a "prequel", but the author retroactively decided to make it "Book 1" because,though significantly shorter, it takes place first, chronologically speaking.

I wish that I had ignored the advice and started with Two Halves. I won't get into Spoilers here; I'll just say that what few interesting twists and reveals this book contains were ruined for me because I had read the prequel and easily saw everything coming. That was a real shame, because some of those twists and reveals may have helped to redeem this book a bit.

I will put this in my review of Marked, as well, but to be clear - a "prequel" by definition works best when performing it's proper function: to deepen one's understanding of (and hopefully appreciation for) events and characters that you already know from the initial "main work". So for me, it was not allowed to perform that proper function. That being said, I did actually like Marked just slightly better than Two Halves, as it is a different beast altogether and revolves around secondary characters from Two Halves that are far more interesting than Sarah and William. And I probably would not have read it had I started with Two Halves.

[Mcgoo4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first several chapters, I couldn't wait to finish one page to get to the next. The writing was that good. However, after Sara meets up with William, things get a little far-fetched, at least for a while.

Sara is a half-vampire/half-human, orphaned and now in her twenties, living by herself after her Aunt's death. She's been dreaming of William, someone she feels is real and that she'll someday meet, but her dreams are also haunted by premonitions of terrible happenings.

In order to remain invisible to the "seekers", creatures she knows little about, she's been taking a serum. However, due to her nightmares, in an effort to stop dreaming, she's been playing with the formula and all bets are off.

This is where things start getting a little "emotionally weird" to this reader. William, the man of her dreams (literally) who is also half human/half vampire, shows up and tells her they must leave, that the seekers have found her due to her misuse of the serum, and are on their way to capture her, something she won't like. The entire first meeting with William is so off the charts I can't even put words to it. The emotional swings are not handled/written well and I'm sorry, the increase of serum injections smacks too close to drug use (I know, it's just a book and there is a reason behind the entire serum-use, but still, enough is enough).

Now Sara and William are on the run, trying to evade the seekers, while making it back to a safe haven, deep in the Amazon jungle. Here once again we find over-the-top emotions running wild and multiple, frequent serum injections (used to keep her invisible to the seekers). Things do pick up for the good from here on out though. I'm not going to say any more as I don't want to give away any of the story.

Now, in the books defense, since to this point you probably think I absolutely hated it. I didn't: The storyline/plot was an excellent one and I found myself, even with the emotional instability of the story & the over-the-top use of a serum, eagerly turning pages, wanting to know what happens next. There was an excellent cliff-hanger and a "will he/won't he" ending that left you hanging on every page.

Yes, the book could have been better. There were parts that lingered on certain topics too long, the emotional swings were too much to handle and poorly explained, and the book slowed to a crawl at some points. But, a good plot, fully developed characters (even supporting characters were well developed), and an excellent ending fully redeemed this book.

All in all, a decent read and something most people will enjoy.

[Charlayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marta Szemik’s Two Halves centers around Sarah, the adult child a vampire father she has never met and a human mother who died soon after giving birth to her when the hungry baby vampire bit her mother and she bled to death. Raised by her aunt, she has fought the vampire side of her physiology with serums made from orchids. She blames her father for the fact that she had the vampire’s traits that made her kill her mother.
She is friends with Xander and Mira, a brother and sister that have been in her life in their little town since she was small. They have grown up together and she and Mira share secrets and stories like most friends do. Xander sometimes looks at Sarah with eyes of a young male regarding a good looking young female.

William is Sarah’s balance. His mother is human, his father a vampire. William was raised as a vampire by his parents and taught the skills he would need as he grew. He also grew to know he would eventually meet up with Sarah and they would have a very specific destiny, one that would place both of them in great danger and on a collision course with some of the most powerful beings of the underworld.

Sarah dreamed of William, nightmares and erotic dreams both. One of the nightmares awakens her senses and starts to show her a future of fear, demons with glowing orange eyes, burning buildings, and other things. And then she meets the man of her dreams, William, who tells her they have to run, that the demons are after her. And as much as she is drawn to him, they cannot come together because each time they try; they are electrocuted by a strange force within their bodies. So they have to try to work together while wanting to be more than friends.

Two Halves was a very good tale of vampires, shape shifters, witches, warlocks, demons and conspiracies planned and conducted. William and Sarah are very loveable and the plight of their love and not being able to be together is very well done. Her descriptions of places was so clear, I could see it in my mind without a problem. The story flows well from Sarah to the shape shifters and back again, between the underworld and the forces lined against them. The characters are well imagined and well defined; I was actually caring what happened to them.

Two Halves is marketed as a Young Adult book and I can see that teens and young adults would like the book. But it’s not restricted to just the youth, anyone who likes a good fantasy story with a lot of imagination.

[Shana (ReadingVixen) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Two Halves" read (to me) like a coming-of-age story, with a twist. Sarah is a 21-year-old girl who "kind of" knows who and what she is, but because of circumstances revealed in the book, she wasn't raised by her parents. She was raised by her Aunt Helen, who left her a cryptic note after she passed away. Sarah also has these strange dreams, where she and William (male protagonist) are together at different times in her life.

Sarah has the gift of foresight, or visions, and can see into the future to a certain degree. She is also "two-natured;" part-vampire, part-human (hence, the two halves). William is, too, but Sarah doesn't realize this until she finally meets him in person. Unfortunately, the 2 of them cannot touch except in a platonic way, since every time they touch each other romantically, they experience severe, debilitating pain. I found that to be pretty intriguing, and was interested in seeing how that worked out, since they had to work together to defeat Aseret and Xela, an evil demon and a witch, who are working to destroy the humans on earth.

The secondary characters (brother/sister team Xander and Mira), their mother, and others also play a huge role in Sarah learning more about herself and her abilities. She also experiences a pleasant surprise in meeting someone, but I won't spoil it for those who haven't read the book.

I will say the "Two Halves" analogy is definitely explained in many ways throughout the book; Sarah and William are two-natured, they need each other to conquer the evil beings, and from the romantic element, one cannot exist without the other; two halves making a whole.

The ending was left just a little bit open, which makes me think there will be another book along these lines. I'm unsure if this is a series, but if it is, I would be interested in finding out how the "Two Halves" connect, join forces, and destroy the evil so they can save the world. :-)

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah has spent her young life attempting to suppress the traits inherited from her father. She is a living miracle – a child half vampire, half human. Then she meets a young man who seems to step right out of her dreams. Immediately drawn together, the pair is soon on the run, one step ahead of a trio of evil seekers. William and Sarah are preordained to restore balance in both the Underworld and the world of the living. However, forces are at work to prevent them from fulfilling the prophecy.

The premise of this book was exciting and technically, the story flowed smoothly. I thought the characters were richly portrayed; their motives sound and believable. William seemed too perfect. I think a couple of flaws would have made him more remarkable. I just thought he was a bit bland. My personal preference would have been to stick with a single point of view throughout. For me, the frequent narrative changes were disruptive to my overall enjoyment of the story. I also disliked the continual chest thumping that went on. For me, it just seemed overdone.

I enjoyed the adventure and thought the ending was well-done. I was afraid, for a while, that I would be left dangling with a cliff-hanger ending, but happily that was not the case. I think the mid-section could have been tightened up a bit, because, at times, the action seemed to bog down unnecessarily. This story should hit the sweet spot for a wide demographic of fantasy romance lovers.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic!

Sarah and William are both half vampire, half human and haven't seen each other since they were babies. There is a prophecy which states that together, they will save the humans, vampires and witches/warlocks from the demons. Sarah dreams about William regularly but she doesn't know who he is. Their parents were best friends but Sarah killed her mother when she was born and has never seen her father. He has spent her life trying to protect her by leading the seekers away from her. She is raised by her aunt and lives mainly as a human, keeping her vampire side a secret. She is protected as she grows up by two sibling shape shifters employed by her dad. It is only when she is 21 and her aunt has died that William comes and makes himself known to her. The seekers have tracked her and he has to take her away.

I really enjoyed this book. It is SO imaginative. It is very descriptive and well written so you can totally picture it all in your head. Sarah is a great character who grows throughout the book as she explores her vampire side with the help of William who has never had to hide what he is. It is written mainly from the point of view of Sarah but does change at times to include some of the other characters.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy with a touch of romance. I loved it!

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story starts off with our main character Sarah, living the high school life as somewhat of a loner. She does however have two best friends, twins Mira and Xander, who if you read my review were featured in the novella Marked. Soon we discover that Sarah is no ordinary human. She is a hybrid, a half human, half vampire who has a prophecy to fufill. Hiding in the human world and using black orchid serum with Aunt Helen is how Sarch has been concealing her carnivorous tendencies for the last eighteen years. That is, until the boy she has been dreaming of, William, shows up and whisks her away stating that she is in great danger.
This is an example of where a novella and book blend nicely together. Things emphasized in the novella show up in the book and all that background information gives you an advantage to know what is going on in the book.
Some of my favourite characters reappear in this book, which is super exciting. Also we get to meet a handful of new characters. I really enjoyed Aunt Helen and Sarah. William was okay but there was room for improvement. Also I'm glad that we get to see Eric again, and that he proves what side he is on.
Overall a great read. I definitely liked it better then the fist book. Thanks to Marta for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel. I'm looking forward to book number three.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Remember, everyone has a purpose in life. You're about to be tested, if you can find yours."



Two Halves was one unforgettable book, that made my heart hurt for the romance between William and Sarah!

I've always dreamt to meet one of my favorite authors at Indigo, but I'm very lucky to personally know Marta, and she is such an inspirational person for me, and I want to take are her. I'm not giving this a great rating because I know her, and it seems right to do that, I'm giving a honest review, and I feel that this was a fantastic book!

I loved William and Sarah's relationship. They were destined to be together, and that just made my heart ache from the sight of it. Personally, my favourite characters were Mira and Xander. They were put into the world for a specific reason, to look after Sarah, and you could feel that they were real. I definitely see that Marta added her passion and soul into each and every one of her characters, and I felt it throughout the book.

Marta is a brilliant author, who has a big imagination, that creates characters and a fictional world that readers are dreaming to live in, with witches, vampires, and shape shifters! Every teen or adult will obsess over Two Halves, because of its loving, thrilling, captivating plot.

[Rosemary Cantrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I received a free copy in exchange for writing a review. I am not a fan of science fiction and I particularly don't like vampire stories. Guess what - that is exactly what this is. As an adult reader, I did not like the book - the characters were shallow, there were so many ridiculous plot turns, etc.

However, reading the book from the point of view of the young reader who is the intended audience, this is not a bad book. The two main characters are half human and half vampire and it has fallen to them to save both the human and the vampire races. This is actually a very good plot set up for young readers, who love it when the young must save the world. The characters have enough interest that I think young readers would identify with some of the conflicts they face. There is also the element of the integrity and morality of the characters.

I also think they would like all the adventure, chases, narrow escapes, magic spells, and other plot elements that do keep the story moving at a pretty good pace. While some of those things were too much for me, I think young readers would love them.

While I give this book 2 stars personally, I think it probably deserves 4 stars for the young reader, who would enjoy it very much.

[Daisy Sloan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise for this story (half-human, half-vampire) is a good one and held a lot of promise. However, I had a very hard time getting into this book. I was about 1/2 way through the book before I really got into it.

I think my problem was there was too much that was unknown. There were a lot of things that felt like they were secrets but they really weren't. Things were revealed very slowly, in fact, a little too slowly for me. I had a very hard time feeling any empathy or compassion for Sarah and William.

This book also changed perspectives. We went from Ekim's perspective, to Sarah's, to Xander's, to Mira's, to Xela's. I don't like that. If a story is told in first-person, it should stay with one character, instead of jumping around. Third person is much better for changing perspectives. I got confused in the changing of perspectives and it made it hard for me to read.

The ending of the book was good and I thought the final climax/battle was very well thought out and enjoyable. I also really liked how the curse was removed and still left the reader in suspense.

The last half of the book was much better and more enjoyable to read than the first half.

[Gabby (What's Beyond Forks?) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full Review at: What's Beyond Forks?

The premise behind Two Halves was interesting, original, and set a strong foundation for a great story. There were a few issues that kept me from really getting into the story though. The biggest issue being predictability. As I read, it was always obvious what was going to happen next. There were no surprises to really engage me in the reading. Also, some of the logic behind things that happened, the serums, and/or spells were inconsistent and sometimes just didn't make sense at all. The characters were likeable and the romance was full of anticipation. I think there is potential for the next books in the series, and I'm sure there are many who will enjoy this book.

[Maghon Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would to thank R2R for a copy to read for a review! This is a very interesting take on vampires and demons and witches and shapeshifters. Sarah is a half breed, she was born half vampire but lives her whole life as a human, using flowers as a serum to suppress her vampire half. And then there's prophecies and secrets and all these things going on. I really liked the fresh perspective on vampires and their powers, but I think maybe there was just a little too much going on at the same time for me to keep up with. I did like the characters, and I will say I was SO EXCITED TO SEE THE NAME XANDER, and that's my dog's name- and he's so special to me so I was all pumped! I'm curious to see if this is going to become a series, as I also got Marked- a two halves novella to read. All done, 3.5 PAWS from me :)

[Delaney Reimers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book as a R2R, and let me tell you I am very glad I did. I loved it. Sara's and William's love for each other was amazing and you felt for them not being able to "be" together. Loved reading about Sara, her 2 friends and a man she had never met but knew and loved, and parents who would do anything for her. Following along her journey as she found herself and became comfortable with what she was and being in her struggles with her was greatly written. I found I really hated Xela more than Aseret but have a feeling that we are going to see more of maybe both of them. I will definitely be reading any more of the books that come out in this series. Can't wait to see were it goes. I also hope we get to learn more about the twins. I can see a lot of potential in this series in different ways. Over all for me a great book that gives it 4 stars.

[Jasmyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine being able to feel your soulmate - your hearts beat the same, you know what the other is thinking, you can't imagine life without them - and then finding out that you can never be together. Sarah and William were destined to be together from birth, but were forced apart to save their lives. A rare form of half-breed that will change the world, either for the better or for the worse. The twins from Marked are set to guard Sarah through her life and protect her fro the demons trying to find her. It was great to see their interactions again.


While most of the steamy scenes didn't go "all the way", they certainly left you wanting more and wishing that Sarah and William could find a way to be together. Throw in some nasty demons and a few recurring bad guys from Marked, and you have quite the trill ride. Full of exotic locations and great action, this was a great book.

[Diane Lynch Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah a vampire-human half breed, has been taking serums to suppress her vampire side to keep it hidden. She’s not the only one with secrets. She thinks her best friends are human. When, in reality, Mira and Xander, the shape-shifting twins from the first novel, are tasked with protecting Sarah.

Sarah has dreamed about William her whole life. So when he shows up in town and tells her that her life is in danger, and she needs to run away with him, she does not doubt him. It is prophesied that Sarah and William will save the vampires and humans from extinction.

This is a fast-paced entertaining novel. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Two Equals.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the premise of the book but some things just kept me from getting into it. Some of the descriptions just didn’t flow well for me. Some were very choppy and others too wordy, but could be easily fixed with some good editing. I also didn’t like the use of changing perspectives with the story being told in first person. It really disrupted the flow. And by the end I really didn’t like the main characters at all. Sarah just became annoying. However, the ending was really good especially the way that the author dealt with the removal of the curse. So overall, I would say that it’s a good story that needs more editing to be great.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right off I have to say that I found this book a bit hard to get into. I love a complex story with twists, secrets revealed, realities shattered and conspiracies to be discovered and overcome. This book had all of that along with a variety of creatures. Unfortunately I couldn’t really connect with the characters. Things seemed to happen to slowly and the changing point of views would have worked better if they did not seem to just jump around. I did find the second half easier to read and enjoyed the way things were resolved.

Overall a 2.5 rating.

[Mad about · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual concept for a paranormal book that the vampire race needs saving by two half breeds destined to fall in love. Sarah finally meets William, literally the man from her dreams when her life is threatened. Little does she know that it always has been but those who love her have done their utmost to protect her.
You journey through with Sarah as slowly the secrets are revealed.

It had a good flow and was well written but it didn't immediately grab my attention but I think that may be more down to personal choice.

Well worth the read!

[Heather (Raevynemyst) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this as a read to review and I actually quite enjoyed it. It was an interesting twist on damphyrs. I liked the 2 main characters but would also like to get to know Mira and Xander better as well. The world building was good but I want to know more. I am hoping this series continues but it might be a stand alone? The fight at the end with Xela just seemed a tad bit too easy. It was a quick and enjoyable read.

[Annalisa Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this isn't a genre I usually read, I found the plot and characters compelling, and I couldn't put it down - at the end of each chapter there was a hook which meant I had to carry on reading. The book was beautifully written, with lush description to pull me into the story and the world Marta created.

[Anino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I loved the intro, getting into the 1st half of this book proved to be a challenge for me. I could understand her need to establish the background for the reader, but in a sense, it seemed a little more on the Sci-Fi side than Paranormal...

Overall, I thought that it was a decent effort by the Ms. Szemik.

I'm giving it a generous 3 star rating.

[heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was good but not that good it neede something more but i liked it was a prettty good reAD LOL :)!~

[Jenne Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful! I could not finish it!!!

[Kristy McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable YA fantasy, with an interesting twist on the vampire legend.