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Mountain State Vampire #1
The Source
Vampires are not only among us, they are proud, tax-paying citizens with equal rights.
Emma Burcham is a human scientist working on a project for the Federal Office for Human and Vampire Administration, an U.S. government office created to deal with paranormal crime that the regular correctional system just can't handle. She's paired with scientist Rick Allstedt who just happens to be of the fanged sort. Together they work to uncover the source of vampire mortality for crime prevention - and if they succeed they will be $50,000 richer.
Emma struggles to focus on the project while she develops feelings for Rick. Does he feel the same way or will government archivist Tucker Dutrieux win her heart? Will Emma allow her desire for love get in the way of the work she was hired to do?
Emma quickly realizes that she has a lot to learn - not only about vampires, but also about herself.
Emma Burcham is a human scientist working on a project for the Federal Office for Human and Vampire Administration, an U.S. government office created to deal with paranormal crime that the regular correctional system just can't handle. She's paired with scientist Rick Allstedt who just happens to be of the fanged sort. Together they work to uncover the source of vampire mortality for crime prevention - and if they succeed they will be $50,000 richer.
Emma struggles to focus on the project while she develops feelings for Rick. Does he feel the same way or will government archivist Tucker Dutrieux win her heart? Will Emma allow her desire for love get in the way of the work she was hired to do?
Emma quickly realizes that she has a lot to learn - not only about vampires, but also about herself.
327 pages, ebook
First published August 13, 2012
13 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
Jimel Beckett
5 books21 followersI'm a paranormal romance/thriller novelist. I was born and raised in the foothills of Appalachia and currently reside in the Chicago metropolitan area with my daughter. I'm is eclectic, having diverse interests that show in my writing. I have a degree in Sociology in which my studies focused on crime/deviant behavior for undergrad and race/gender relations in post-grad. Additionally, I'm an Instructional Designer for a food distribution company.
Aside from writing, I love to read, listen to music, watch good TV/movies, crochet and above all else, spend time with family and friends.
In my personal life, I put the B in LGBTQ+, am ethically non-monogamous, and consider myself a Bipolar Warrior who blogs on mental health issues.
Aside from writing, I love to read, listen to music, watch good TV/movies, crochet and above all else, spend time with family and friends.
In my personal life, I put the B in LGBTQ+, am ethically non-monogamous, and consider myself a Bipolar Warrior who blogs on mental health issues.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 18, 2013
I have really struggled with how I feel about this book. There is not doubt that it is an intelligent and well thought out read- it's a new slant on the tired vampire genre. Vampires have come out to humans as existing - similarly to True Blood- but this book is less about that and more about Emma and Rick (who is a vampire) attempting to develop a quick method for the government to kill vampires who hurt people, apparently there is some sort of 'extremist' vampire group who believe themselves superior to humans. The government needs a way to control and neutralise them quickly 'cause apparently the whole stake to the heart or holy water thing is just a myth. Though they will die in sunlight. This part of the story I was very interested in- watching these two scientists logically work out vampire's weakness and exploit it was really good. This is where the book shines and is pretty clever. If you have any sort of interest in scientific experiments, biology etc. I imagine you would enjoy this read.
However, I'm afraid that being clever and having an interesting premise does not guarantee a good book.
I didn't like any of the characters at all, except maybe Rick, but I didn't particularly like him, I just didn't hate him either.
Emma I hated. Emma sees herself as fat or overweight, and it's something that other characters remark on too so I guess it might be true, but the whole book is told from her viewpoint and I swear that's all she freaking thinks about, or whether she fancies Rick/Tucker/any one else ever...But I'll get to that in a second. I'm a UK size 16, I see myself as being over weight, and yes sometimes it gives me confidence issues but no, I don't spend every single waking thought obsessing over it or taking offence at every little remark anyone says. I actually quite like it when a book has an overweight protagonist in it, Rae Carson's Girl of Fire And Thorns springs to mind here, but what I don't like is them constantly whining about it and about being unattractive at every opportunity. I get that people have body confidence issues, I completely get that, but that doesn't make reading a book about someone's every insecurity in any way enjoyable. Emma could have been pretty cool - she's smart, has a cool job, is ambitious and witty- why does she focus her entire thought around how attractive she is or isn't?! There are more important things Emma. It kind of makes me sad that Stilwell focused so much of the book on Emma's internal hatred when there were so many cool sciencey things happening around her.
Tucker - or the other potential love interest- was quite obviously a psycho from the very beginning. He finds her number from the work records, calls her in the middle of the day, and then when Emma rejects him, insults her in the most disgusting way. But yet Emma decides to still try and 'be friends' with him despite the fact that he is obviously a little unhinged. Come on Emma, you're a smart girl and you were all super sassy, what the hell happened?
The other big issue I had was a moral one. I read morally dubious books all the time, one of the great things about literature is that you can see through the eyes of a murderer/psycho etc. and get inside their minds, not enjoyable reading but captivating all the same. This I had trouble with. So vampires are living out amongst humans and have been for years, there are some vampire extremists who need to be eradicated. Emma's team is trying to work out a way to quickly kill vampires so that people are safe. All fine so far. But, vampires are meant to have equal rights now and the only way they can test their ideas is to use live specimens - so vampires who they have been told are 'evil' and deserve to die- often subjecting them to quite a lot of pain and then death. Though this issue is touched upon there is a lot of talk about 'the greater good' and putting aside morals for the good of science etc. I'm not sure if I've been reading too my dystopia recently but this really did not sit well with me. This is basically human experimentation (I know they are vampires, but they're still human) for the good of 'science' - once the higher ups have this vampire-killer what's to stop them using it on all vampires? Who is to say which vampires deserve to die? Surely this would give humans an unfair advantage and control over vampires? Surely killing and experimenting on vampires makes the humans just as bad, if not worse than the vampires? The vampires are murderers but they don't put on lab coats and say it's all for the greater good. It just made me really uneasy. But maybe it's an issue that will be touched on more in later books, I don't know.
I think my dislike for Emma was my main problem with this book, it's difficult to connect to anything when you intensely dislike the person whose eyes you are seeing it through. It's a shame because the book had lots of potential - it was a pretty good and clever idea.
I won't be reading any more of these books but mainly because the thought of reading anything through Emma's eyes again makes me a little bit angry. Which is a shame, because I would like to know what happens with the science lab and how the vampire-killing-device is used in the future..
However, I'm afraid that being clever and having an interesting premise does not guarantee a good book.
I didn't like any of the characters at all, except maybe Rick, but I didn't particularly like him, I just didn't hate him either.
Emma I hated. Emma sees herself as fat or overweight, and it's something that other characters remark on too so I guess it might be true, but the whole book is told from her viewpoint and I swear that's all she freaking thinks about, or whether she fancies Rick/Tucker/any one else ever...But I'll get to that in a second. I'm a UK size 16, I see myself as being over weight, and yes sometimes it gives me confidence issues but no, I don't spend every single waking thought obsessing over it or taking offence at every little remark anyone says. I actually quite like it when a book has an overweight protagonist in it, Rae Carson's Girl of Fire And Thorns springs to mind here, but what I don't like is them constantly whining about it and about being unattractive at every opportunity. I get that people have body confidence issues, I completely get that, but that doesn't make reading a book about someone's every insecurity in any way enjoyable. Emma could have been pretty cool - she's smart, has a cool job, is ambitious and witty- why does she focus her entire thought around how attractive she is or isn't?! There are more important things Emma. It kind of makes me sad that Stilwell focused so much of the book on Emma's internal hatred when there were so many cool sciencey things happening around her.
Tucker - or the other potential love interest- was quite obviously a psycho from the very beginning. He finds her number from the work records, calls her in the middle of the day, and then when Emma rejects him, insults her in the most disgusting way. But yet Emma decides to still try and 'be friends' with him despite the fact that he is obviously a little unhinged. Come on Emma, you're a smart girl and you were all super sassy, what the hell happened?
The other big issue I had was a moral one. I read morally dubious books all the time, one of the great things about literature is that you can see through the eyes of a murderer/psycho etc. and get inside their minds, not enjoyable reading but captivating all the same. This I had trouble with. So vampires are living out amongst humans and have been for years, there are some vampire extremists who need to be eradicated. Emma's team is trying to work out a way to quickly kill vampires so that people are safe. All fine so far. But, vampires are meant to have equal rights now and the only way they can test their ideas is to use live specimens - so vampires who they have been told are 'evil' and deserve to die- often subjecting them to quite a lot of pain and then death. Though this issue is touched upon there is a lot of talk about 'the greater good' and putting aside morals for the good of science etc. I'm not sure if I've been reading too my dystopia recently but this really did not sit well with me. This is basically human experimentation (I know they are vampires, but they're still human) for the good of 'science' - once the higher ups have this vampire-killer what's to stop them using it on all vampires? Who is to say which vampires deserve to die? Surely this would give humans an unfair advantage and control over vampires? Surely killing and experimenting on vampires makes the humans just as bad, if not worse than the vampires? The vampires are murderers but they don't put on lab coats and say it's all for the greater good. It just made me really uneasy. But maybe it's an issue that will be touched on more in later books, I don't know.
I think my dislike for Emma was my main problem with this book, it's difficult to connect to anything when you intensely dislike the person whose eyes you are seeing it through. It's a shame because the book had lots of potential - it was a pretty good and clever idea.
I won't be reading any more of these books but mainly because the thought of reading anything through Emma's eyes again makes me a little bit angry. Which is a shame, because I would like to know what happens with the science lab and how the vampire-killing-device is used in the future..
July 1, 2013
The first few chapters were a little difficult to read, but then the author really seemed to find her voice, and the prose flowed! The story was unique and fascinating, and I really liked the world in which the story took place. I found Emma's personality fall flat and predictable as a main character. I just really couldn't root for her at all and found myself not caring what happened to her and being bored by her internal struggles. I suppose that means she has room for growth, but if I didn't have so much faith in the author I probably wouldn't be invested enough in Emma to continue reading the series. As it is, my observation that the author grows with every chapter gives me great hope for the next in the series, and I will be reading it with the hopes that Emma gets bumped off and some fascinating female takes centre stage like that loose cannon vampire chick.
January 10, 2019
Terribly interesting in some places as well as terribly boring in others.
If you read this genre than you will probably like this book, it started out quite different than others I have read but quickly descended into a predictable plot line.
You are going to want to murder the "heroine" at times. She is snarky, annoying and thinks highly of herself. Having been overweight myself I can relate to parts of her story but I also found a lot of it completely unrealistic in expectations and attiy. Honestly I would have rated this story higher if there had not been a plethora of spelling errors whilst Rick was relating his tale from the 1980's
I am hoping this series gets better as it goes as I find the main vampire, Rick, completely intriguing.
Read if you want a time killer but don't look for something new!
If you read this genre than you will probably like this book, it started out quite different than others I have read but quickly descended into a predictable plot line.
You are going to want to murder the "heroine" at times. She is snarky, annoying and thinks highly of herself. Having been overweight myself I can relate to parts of her story but I also found a lot of it completely unrealistic in expectations and attiy. Honestly I would have rated this story higher if there had not been a plethora of spelling errors whilst Rick was relating his tale from the 1980's
I am hoping this series gets better as it goes as I find the main vampire, Rick, completely intriguing.
Read if you want a time killer but don't look for something new!
January 29, 2014
Not exactly what I was looking for in reading material. I skipped pages, but got the basics down to understanding the story
February 6, 2014
glad i got this as an amazon free book of the day it was one of the worse books i have ever read had to force myself to even finish it so completely boring
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews