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Can't Wait To Be Dead
Can't Wait To Be Half Alive
Ellie
Grief and mourning are like a double edged sword; practically besties. I screwed up, I get that. I screwed up so bad that I'm overly confident that there's no chance of getting my old life back. Do I even want it back? If I never seen Harker again it wouldn't be the end of the world, right? People move on and meet new people all the time. So, if this is my new beginning, why does it feel like I'm waiting for the apocalypse to strike?
Harker
I must be the only vampire in history that's too scared to do anything. This can't be it, can it? Isolation. Loneliness. Regret. I thought Ellie was the starting point of a new life for me, but it turns out she was just the end of something much bigger. I don't know where she is, or what she's thinking, or if she's scared. So, if this is the end, forever is a lot shorter than I thought.
Grief and mourning are like a double edged sword; practically besties. I screwed up, I get that. I screwed up so bad that I'm overly confident that there's no chance of getting my old life back. Do I even want it back? If I never seen Harker again it wouldn't be the end of the world, right? People move on and meet new people all the time. So, if this is my new beginning, why does it feel like I'm waiting for the apocalypse to strike?
Harker
I must be the only vampire in history that's too scared to do anything. This can't be it, can it? Isolation. Loneliness. Regret. I thought Ellie was the starting point of a new life for me, but it turns out she was just the end of something much bigger. I don't know where she is, or what she's thinking, or if she's scared. So, if this is the end, forever is a lot shorter than I thought.
400 pages, Paperback
Published September 29, 2023
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 29, 2023
We're hot on Ellie's trail, chasing her all the way to the Big Apple. She's hiding out, trying to keep her secret identity under wraps. Meanwhile, Harker bids farewell to farm life and embarks on a quest to find the one bright spot in his existence... Ellie.
Listen. This book is an absolute blast! The dialogue is 🤌🏻, the characters are off-the-charts amazing, and the twists are wild! We ditch the farm (mostly) in book 1 and now we’re traipsing through the Big Apple with two painfully awkward vampires—one of them a newbie. As a native New Yorker, this was a serious dose of nostalgia that hit me right in the feels.
Harker will always be bae and I'd go to the ends of the Earth for him. But wait, a new guy, Cooper, enters the scene. Is he bae too? Hmm, the jury's still out. And Ellie's new attitude - it's the most surprising and satisfying evolution in this story. She's a total bad-ass babe!
This is an incredibly enjoyable, fast-paced story that beginning to explore the spicr rack 👀. It's an absolutely amazing sequel that everyone should read! I won't give any spoilers, so I'll be intentionally vague. The author addresses gender identity and transgender topics, seamlessly weaving them into the narrative until the 'BIG Reveal' leaves you in awe. Well done! This definitely sets a high standard.
Listen. This book is an absolute blast! The dialogue is 🤌🏻, the characters are off-the-charts amazing, and the twists are wild! We ditch the farm (mostly) in book 1 and now we’re traipsing through the Big Apple with two painfully awkward vampires—one of them a newbie. As a native New Yorker, this was a serious dose of nostalgia that hit me right in the feels.
Harker will always be bae and I'd go to the ends of the Earth for him. But wait, a new guy, Cooper, enters the scene. Is he bae too? Hmm, the jury's still out. And Ellie's new attitude - it's the most surprising and satisfying evolution in this story. She's a total bad-ass babe!
This is an incredibly enjoyable, fast-paced story that beginning to explore the spicr rack 👀. It's an absolutely amazing sequel that everyone should read! I won't give any spoilers, so I'll be intentionally vague. The author addresses gender identity and transgender topics, seamlessly weaving them into the narrative until the 'BIG Reveal' leaves you in awe. Well done! This definitely sets a high standard.
January 2, 2024
A thrilling sequel to Can't Wait to Be Dead that had me enthralled from beginning to end. Seriously, pardon the pun but I devoured this book so fast it's almost embarrassing. Getting more of Harker's POV this time around was such a treat, and I loved getting to explore more of these wonderfully complex and dynamically flawed characters we know and love, along with a few new faces to fall in love with! That cliffhanger ending had me screaming and pulling at my hair, and I can't wait for the next one!
October 4, 2023
I have been so excited to finally read this one! It’s somehow even better than the first one. I was a tad bit worried about the usage of pop culture terms and mentions but the more I read the more I think the terms and mentions fit so well for these characters. With their age and the lives they lived I feel like it only makes sense for them to have a vast knowledge of things especially Ellie. This book really had it all for me. It had romance, mystery, tension, growth, and even more Only Lovers Left Alive vibes. I mean the ending had me like 🤯🤯🤯. I am patiently *impatiently* waiting for the next one to come out.
May 17, 2024
After reading Sam Verba's first volume, I knew that it has to be continued. The style, the plot's construction, the uniquely rich imagery, all left me stunned. Yet I was a bit afraid about how the author may surpass herself in the arrival of her 2nd volume.
I am still (very much happily) reading "Can't wait to be half alive", and my expectations were/are nailed by each page.
The incredible knowledge of emotions carefully penned for each character, left me speechless. Without intending to make other readers search for "that" particular chapter, I must nevertheless uncover that the dialogue between Ellie and Cooper, in the brilliantly staged scene of a never before experienced life-hunger of a not long ago (accidentally) sired vampire, and the willing-to-do-anything-to-keep-her, (multi) millionaire, has thrown the (anyway) pathetically overrated,"50 shades of Grey", to the lower-than-the-bottom of sewers from where it (sadly...) emerged. And NO, this amazing book has nothing to do with any libidinous drool-mills of the so called, "erotic" scribblings poured onto the conveyor belts of "penny-awful", sordid hot-tubs of cheap arousals.
The chapter (as the entire book so far), is a masterpiece about the depths of complexity hidden within the lives of all those humans for whom 'love' begins and is expected to flow through psychological conundrums of the soul, the mind, the heart, and the untameable ID of Freudian reverberations.
I genuinely hope that Life may pilot the eyes of a talented producer, to transform these diamondesque pieces, into the crown-jewels they deserve to hopefully become.
Just finished the book, and I am still rather speechless.
Again, as it seems to have become the case, my -thought of- proverbial foresight of where the conclusion is going to land, has departed from my creative shores.
If anyone might ask the author to write a description of a self-repeating, elemental restructuring of Heaven and Hell, something akin to a rag shaken up and down by an entity of cosmic power, it would most probably resemble in detail to the dynamics between Ellie and Harper, Ellie and Cooper, Sal and Naji, Ellie and Naji, Harker and Sal, ad infinitum.
The unbelievable vampiresque love-frenzy between Ellie and Harker, turning to scarlet everything between a bed, the walls of a room, and the freshly snowed rooftop of a far from ordinary New-York building, pulls the reader into its whirlwind. I am rarely drawn into the plot of a book, to the extent -in this case- of dying and rising again, raptured in between by a love unlike any.
Prepare to be taken with a genuine whip-crack last twist, into what being a vampire really means.
If you thought that reading/watching Dracula and Twilight has left you "knowing-it-all" about vampires, rest assured, you will need to start another chapter in your "vampires' anatomy and psychology" scrapbook.
My only consolation after finishing this amazing novel, is Sam's reassurance that the third volume is nearing.
If you are looking for me, I've pitched my tent at the virtual bookstore where it will be released, waiting, impatiently.
Please hurry-up, Sam!
I am still (very much happily) reading "Can't wait to be half alive", and my expectations were/are nailed by each page.
The incredible knowledge of emotions carefully penned for each character, left me speechless. Without intending to make other readers search for "that" particular chapter, I must nevertheless uncover that the dialogue between Ellie and Cooper, in the brilliantly staged scene of a never before experienced life-hunger of a not long ago (accidentally) sired vampire, and the willing-to-do-anything-to-keep-her, (multi) millionaire, has thrown the (anyway) pathetically overrated,"50 shades of Grey", to the lower-than-the-bottom of sewers from where it (sadly...) emerged. And NO, this amazing book has nothing to do with any libidinous drool-mills of the so called, "erotic" scribblings poured onto the conveyor belts of "penny-awful", sordid hot-tubs of cheap arousals.
The chapter (as the entire book so far), is a masterpiece about the depths of complexity hidden within the lives of all those humans for whom 'love' begins and is expected to flow through psychological conundrums of the soul, the mind, the heart, and the untameable ID of Freudian reverberations.
I genuinely hope that Life may pilot the eyes of a talented producer, to transform these diamondesque pieces, into the crown-jewels they deserve to hopefully become.
Just finished the book, and I am still rather speechless.
Again, as it seems to have become the case, my -thought of- proverbial foresight of where the conclusion is going to land, has departed from my creative shores.
If anyone might ask the author to write a description of a self-repeating, elemental restructuring of Heaven and Hell, something akin to a rag shaken up and down by an entity of cosmic power, it would most probably resemble in detail to the dynamics between Ellie and Harper, Ellie and Cooper, Sal and Naji, Ellie and Naji, Harker and Sal, ad infinitum.
The unbelievable vampiresque love-frenzy between Ellie and Harker, turning to scarlet everything between a bed, the walls of a room, and the freshly snowed rooftop of a far from ordinary New-York building, pulls the reader into its whirlwind. I am rarely drawn into the plot of a book, to the extent -in this case- of dying and rising again, raptured in between by a love unlike any.
Prepare to be taken with a genuine whip-crack last twist, into what being a vampire really means.
If you thought that reading/watching Dracula and Twilight has left you "knowing-it-all" about vampires, rest assured, you will need to start another chapter in your "vampires' anatomy and psychology" scrapbook.
My only consolation after finishing this amazing novel, is Sam's reassurance that the third volume is nearing.
If you are looking for me, I've pitched my tent at the virtual bookstore where it will be released, waiting, impatiently.
Please hurry-up, Sam!
November 13, 2023
Loved, loved, loved this book. I am even more crazy about the male lead Harker than I was in book 1! I really enjoyed the alternate POVs that this book offered. The action was well paced, and the suspense was intense. I had no clue what was going to happen from one page to the next. This book had me laughing out loud, and yelling at it. I think that alone is the mark of a great book! I'm very much looking forward to the next book in this series :)
December 7, 2023
This was SO GOOD!! We get to see alot more of Harker's POV, and it is a relief!! Book 1 was STRONG with 1 POV, but book 2 is AWESOME with 2 POVs!! Ellie's growth and self awareness is much needed and so beautiful....I just...I can't gush enough about this!!
While this definitely feels like a filler book, it introduces some awesome characters that I will die for! Also, I am mad as heck that I have to wait almost a year for book 3!!
While this definitely feels like a filler book, it introduces some awesome characters that I will die for! Also, I am mad as heck that I have to wait almost a year for book 3!!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews