Marked

Proud to be a Vampire

by Kayla Bain-Vrba

Jake is a vampire and a drug dealer. To humans, he sells crystalized vamp blood; to vamps, he sells the blood of humans hopped up on the finest drugs. In the midst of a deal gone wrong, he runs into Benji, a human desperate to escape the city. Though they're natural enemies—hunter and prey—their paths keep crossing, and they quickly find themselves in a mess from which there is no escape.

Genres: Paranormal

136 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2013

About the author

Kayla Bain-Vrba has been living in daydreams ever since she was a little girl and writing about them for as long as she can remember. It was her discovery of m/m romance that inspired her first published work at age nineteen. When she’s not writing—or is procrastinating writing—Kayla enjoys spending time with her other half, crafting, and planning things to a tee.
Connect with Kayla on her website, www.kaylabain-vrba.com.

Reviews

[Ilhem · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Marked” belongs to the collection “Proud to Be a Vampire”, and I will first give this credit to the author: she chose an interesting if not revolutionary (but is there one left?) setting for this overused topic, as the romance is at the heart of a gang war that culminates in a gunfight-at-the-O.K-corral like episode.

I won’t dwell on all my niggles, I had a lot. But this is what was truly crippling :

The writing that barely took off of the informative/descriptive level, which quite suited Jake’s character in the beginning, but quickly wasn’t enough for an in-depth characterisation.

The plot line providing the story’s backbone required for me to suspend belief, and although I tried and almost convinced myself to, I never did. That pretty much condemned everything that followed to not make sense, since I had already killed everyone at the very beginning.

In the same vein, I marvelled at the author developing a thread that I found irrelevant and could hardly connect to the main story, just like I couldn’t connect some (often quite good) parts to the whole, just like I found it very difficult to feel the connection between the two main characters. You know, the one who are falling in love...

All in all, a good idea with an inadequate execution.