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The Family #1
Liam
Late starter Liam Corchoran struggles with college from the beginning. He’s used to a life fueled by books and early morning chores, not alcohol and sex. His roommate is a cocky city kid he couldn’t be less interested in, his best friend and family are a hundred miles away, and he’s ever so emo about life in general.
His roommate Gianni Fiorenza never struggles with anything but boredom: the chief difficulty in the life of a vicious, century old vampire. He’d expected this College Experiment to keep him amused for at least a semester, but after a barely month he’s ready to fling himself into lake Erie.
It begins as pure entertainment, a provisional friendship. Then it turns into a challenge. Then something like love, at times indistinguishable from hate. It’s a love story for monsters, and the beginning of something that will affect their lives, families, friends, and world forever.
Which, for a vampire, is a hell of a long time.
Warning: This title contains more than our average amount of adult content.
His roommate Gianni Fiorenza never struggles with anything but boredom: the chief difficulty in the life of a vicious, century old vampire. He’d expected this College Experiment to keep him amused for at least a semester, but after a barely month he’s ready to fling himself into lake Erie.
It begins as pure entertainment, a provisional friendship. Then it turns into a challenge. Then something like love, at times indistinguishable from hate. It’s a love story for monsters, and the beginning of something that will affect their lives, families, friends, and world forever.
Which, for a vampire, is a hell of a long time.
Warning: This title contains more than our average amount of adult content.
260 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2013
1 person is currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
K.V. Taylor
21 books37 followersHi there! I write under the name KV Taylor (or, if you're looking for romance, Katey Hawthorne) but I'm called Katey for obvious reasons. I write urban and dark fantasy, but I read pretty much everything. You can find my short stories at my website, if you like that sort of thing.
My first novel, Scripped , is available from Belfire Press.
I like Black Bush, comics, guitars, history, and loud music. I'm always looking for reading recs, so please don't be shy. How about you?
My first novel, Scripped , is available from Belfire Press.
I like Black Bush, comics, guitars, history, and loud music. I'm always looking for reading recs, so please don't be shy. How about you?
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 4, 2013
This is the story of how 5 stars devolved into 2.
As an undergraduate, it was required that I complete English 120 and English 220 before choosing a concentration in English in which to major. There was English Creative Writing, English Literature, and English Education.
I feel as if this book works at the 100 level and 200 hundred course level and then makes the wrong bloody choice at the 300 level, opting to go for literature instead of creative writing.
After about 30% in this becomes so meta it's obnoxious. It's a book in love with literary tropes, that engages works of literature and analyses them while recursively commenting on itself. It is a term paper with works cited. It is not a story.
Amongst the books with which this one is having a conversation is Twilight. (I don't think I need to add anything to this paragraph in saying so).
Most frustratingly though, (as if the research paper approximation isn't enough) is the lack of plot and the very confusing dialogue, exposition and sequence of events which reminds me of one of my Fiction professor's favourite instruction: KISS - keep it simple, stupid.
Taylor would have done well to have learnt and to have employed this technique. And that bit of advice is not about dumbing writing down or even about pure linearity. It is, however, about transcribing text that is comprehensible to those outside one's head. Don't get so involved in your own cleverness you don't simply put the events down on paper.
Additionally, there is a transparent elongation of the text with the inclusion of manufactured angst and extra emo-drama, ridiculously obvious portents and set-ups for a sequel, and eye-roll inducing, purple-prosey sex.
There is love out of thin air and gay for you-ness that is very poorly plotted, and holes in the logic that would have you believe, for instance, vampires have no sex drive but suddenly in the last 25% these two can't keep their hands off each other. Coincidentally, it was at 70% I seemed to recollect the author's promise of copious amounts of sex so I guess having recalled such herself she conveniently scribed it in.
And while, this isn't chief among my annoyances, the continuous mention of the vampires being dead, having been killed etc, especially in close proximity to the sex scenes just irked me. I have a lot of kinks to answer for but necrophilia isn't among them. I was disgusted. But then, luckily, there is no need to hold true to one's own mythology, for mere paragraphs later we are suffused with descriptions of beating hearts and warm skin etc.
The long and short of this is, I was bored, skimmed the last 20%, found this ridiculous and a pretentious bid to be the Ulysses of vampire books, and am giving this two stars for the excellent opening before the derailment.
As an undergraduate, it was required that I complete English 120 and English 220 before choosing a concentration in English in which to major. There was English Creative Writing, English Literature, and English Education.
I feel as if this book works at the 100 level and 200 hundred course level and then makes the wrong bloody choice at the 300 level, opting to go for literature instead of creative writing.
After about 30% in this becomes so meta it's obnoxious. It's a book in love with literary tropes, that engages works of literature and analyses them while recursively commenting on itself. It is a term paper with works cited. It is not a story.
Amongst the books with which this one is having a conversation is Twilight. (I don't think I need to add anything to this paragraph in saying so).
Most frustratingly though, (as if the research paper approximation isn't enough) is the lack of plot and the very confusing dialogue, exposition and sequence of events which reminds me of one of my Fiction professor's favourite instruction: KISS - keep it simple, stupid.
Taylor would have done well to have learnt and to have employed this technique. And that bit of advice is not about dumbing writing down or even about pure linearity. It is, however, about transcribing text that is comprehensible to those outside one's head. Don't get so involved in your own cleverness you don't simply put the events down on paper.
Additionally, there is a transparent elongation of the text with the inclusion of manufactured angst and extra emo-drama, ridiculously obvious portents and set-ups for a sequel, and eye-roll inducing, purple-prosey sex.
There is love out of thin air and gay for you-ness that is very poorly plotted, and holes in the logic that would have you believe, for instance, vampires have no sex drive but suddenly in the last 25% these two can't keep their hands off each other. Coincidentally, it was at 70% I seemed to recollect the author's promise of copious amounts of sex so I guess having recalled such herself she conveniently scribed it in.
And while, this isn't chief among my annoyances, the continuous mention of the vampires being dead, having been killed etc, especially in close proximity to the sex scenes just irked me. I have a lot of kinks to answer for but necrophilia isn't among them. I was disgusted. But then, luckily, there is no need to hold true to one's own mythology, for mere paragraphs later we are suffused with descriptions of beating hearts and warm skin etc.
The long and short of this is, I was bored, skimmed the last 20%, found this ridiculous and a pretentious bid to be the Ulysses of vampire books, and am giving this two stars for the excellent opening before the derailment.
Want to read
March 4, 2013This is available for free on Smashwords for 24 hours with the code YA32R.
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February 13, 2013KV Taylor is my horror and dark fantasy pen name, and this is the first in my vampire series. Dirty, bloody, and dysfunctional at the best of times, Liam and Gianni start gathering their family with this love story for monsters.
Monsters don't get to have nice boys--but that doesn't mean they can't have a happy ending.
Monsters don't get to have nice boys--but that doesn't mean they can't have a happy ending.
May 19, 2013
The Family: Liam is the second novel I’ve read from KV Taylor, though I’ve also read a few of her short stories and a lot of her paranormal and supernatural romances under the pen name Katey Hawthorne. In this new series, the central monsters are vampires, something like a cross between Anne Rice and John Lindqvist.
The main character Liam is a bi-curious college student who thinks he’s straight until he catches the attention of his dorm roommate Gianni. Gianni is everything Liam isn’t, sophisticated, spoiled, and self-assured, while Liam is an emotionally wounded farmer’s kid who sill isn’t sure what he wants to be. But once Gianni has taken an interest in him, his course is set to become a monster as ruthless as Gianni.
I like all the characters, even the bit characters like James, Madison and Aldo. I very much liked the kind of vampires covered in this story, and the romantic scenes were certainly attention grabbing. Liam’s swift change raises him to delirious happiness, but his positive outlook doesn’t last long before he begins to question what he’s becoming. He rejects Gianni rather harshly and returns to his family, and there he learns that he can’t really go home before Gianni arrives to take him back.
There’s some other stuff that happens after this point, but the story seems to walk away from a major plot point and never comes back to it. I can’t say what without spoiling it, but once this seeming threat is introduced, the story wanders off in a different direction, and there’s only a few fleeting references made to it again.
I know this is a first book in a series, but the ending left me feeling like there should have been another hundred pages or so. There’s a couple of introductions of conflicts, but only one of these gets resolved. The other much bigger conflict is left hanging, and I felt like sputtering, “But...but what about Aldo?” And for that matter, I wonder if book two will get back around to Madison. I rather liked her. But even if it doesn’t, I wanted to know more about this other mysterious faction of vampires that are running a cult in the middle of nowhere.
Overall I liked the characters, but I felt like story was all ramp and no jump. I liked the ride, and I’ll be looking for the next book in the series. It is a small kind of complaint, “I wish there was more to it.” But setting that aside, this is a bloody vampire tale with sometimes sympathetic monsters and lots of rough sex between consenting guys. I give Liam 4 stars, and would recommend it to fans of Anne Rice’s work who wish Lestat could have had a hot romantic relationship with a hotter, prettier clone of himself. So, like 200% more hot sex and maybe two-thirds less existential blues and self-pity. And that’s not a bad combination for me.
The main character Liam is a bi-curious college student who thinks he’s straight until he catches the attention of his dorm roommate Gianni. Gianni is everything Liam isn’t, sophisticated, spoiled, and self-assured, while Liam is an emotionally wounded farmer’s kid who sill isn’t sure what he wants to be. But once Gianni has taken an interest in him, his course is set to become a monster as ruthless as Gianni.
I like all the characters, even the bit characters like James, Madison and Aldo. I very much liked the kind of vampires covered in this story, and the romantic scenes were certainly attention grabbing. Liam’s swift change raises him to delirious happiness, but his positive outlook doesn’t last long before he begins to question what he’s becoming. He rejects Gianni rather harshly and returns to his family, and there he learns that he can’t really go home before Gianni arrives to take him back.
There’s some other stuff that happens after this point, but the story seems to walk away from a major plot point and never comes back to it. I can’t say what without spoiling it, but once this seeming threat is introduced, the story wanders off in a different direction, and there’s only a few fleeting references made to it again.
I know this is a first book in a series, but the ending left me feeling like there should have been another hundred pages or so. There’s a couple of introductions of conflicts, but only one of these gets resolved. The other much bigger conflict is left hanging, and I felt like sputtering, “But...but what about Aldo?” And for that matter, I wonder if book two will get back around to Madison. I rather liked her. But even if it doesn’t, I wanted to know more about this other mysterious faction of vampires that are running a cult in the middle of nowhere.
Overall I liked the characters, but I felt like story was all ramp and no jump. I liked the ride, and I’ll be looking for the next book in the series. It is a small kind of complaint, “I wish there was more to it.” But setting that aside, this is a bloody vampire tale with sometimes sympathetic monsters and lots of rough sex between consenting guys. I give Liam 4 stars, and would recommend it to fans of Anne Rice’s work who wish Lestat could have had a hot romantic relationship with a hotter, prettier clone of himself. So, like 200% more hot sex and maybe two-thirds less existential blues and self-pity. And that’s not a bad combination for me.
March 4, 2013
This was 5 star writing all the way. HOWEVER, holy fuck me sideways did shit get convoluted in places. This book came in just a little over 5000 locs, so its a big book but, zoinks scooby, there was alot in here and at times I found myself scratching my head about where exactly things were going. It wasn't that there wasn't a plot and things did keep moving forward but, my best guess would be because this is going to be a series (it only makes sense) there was alot of seed planting happening in this book. I mean we are talking field of corn ya'll.
One of the interesting things about this book was that most writers
Since this is called the family and with the way things were left in this books I'll be curious to see where this is all going.
Were the characters well written and interesting? Yes.
Was there a good plot? Yes-ish.
Was it fun to read and kept my interest? Yes.
Am I going to read the next one?- Yes.
I've not read any thing else by this author but based on the writing alone I'm going to be picking up a few others.
One of the interesting things about this book was that most writers
Since this is called the family and with the way things were left in this books I'll be curious to see where this is all going.
Were the characters well written and interesting? Yes.
Was there a good plot? Yes-ish.
Was it fun to read and kept my interest? Yes.
Am I going to read the next one?- Yes.
I've not read any thing else by this author but based on the writing alone I'm going to be picking up a few others.
Read
February 13, 2013The first book in my new series, The Family, which refers to a small but building family of Vampires. It starts with Liam, and snowballs into something much, much bigger.
This book contains far larger than usual amounts of sex, blood, mind games, and ridiculous literary references. It's a love story for monsters.
Out Valentine's Day, 2013.
This book contains far larger than usual amounts of sex, blood, mind games, and ridiculous literary references. It's a love story for monsters.
Out Valentine's Day, 2013.
February 20, 2013
Rating: 5 stars
Remarkable start to a series where once more the vampires are monsters, humans are food, and that thing called love is on their terms alone.
Full review here. http://wp.me/p220KL-11S
For more information on the series, buy links and reviews of books by this author visit
http://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords...
May 11, 2016
Although I'm not generally a fan of vampires, KV Taylor can make me adore anything, and this book is no exception. Her characters are so real that I can't help turning that next page to see what will happen, cheering them on (even when morally I shouldn't), and coming back to read the book a second (or fourth) time. I can't wait for the sequel!
Read
May 28, 2013negaliu prisiverst baigt,mes su drauge(20m kartu) sugebam pasneketi padrikai ir nelogiskai,bet supram viena kita..Taylor nemoka bendrauti nei su savo kuriniais,nei su skaitytoju
July 26, 2013
See review by Camille
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews