Puncture Wounds

by A. Morell

James is at the end of a long crusade for vengeance against the vampire clan that destroyed everything he held dear. He has Ren, the final and most dangerous of them all, cornered at last in London. But victory remains just out of reach when Ren sets a feral vampire on James and makes his escape. With no other leads, James is forced to take in the feral until he can use its connection to its sire to track down Ren. But in caring for the vampire, James sees they might not all be the monsters he thought them to be. Faced with an ugly truth, his quest for revenge becomes a war for retribution, and the discovery of what it truly means to be human.

Genres: Paranormal, M M Romance, Vampires, Short Stories

78 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2014

About the author

A. Morell has been writing for fun for the past decade. She once dreamed of being a professional chef—now she knows better and is taking a stab at becoming an author. Without so much as a Creative Writing 101 class under her belt it's a bit of a stab in the dark, but she is comfortable flying by the seat of her pants.

She enjoys food, baseball, classics, word games, tattoos, shoes, handbags, escapism, and creating characters. She is averse to over-used words, spiders, zombies, tardiness, camping, and people who misquote movie lines and lyrics. She has one cat.

Reviews

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew, going in, that this would be pretty short -- but this would also one of those times I wished the story was longer. James and Shay could use more time to explore their dynamic as hunter and vampire. Plus, there seemed to be a new 'myth' of vampires awakening hunters which I would like to know more...

[Adrianamae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vampire and a vampire hunter walk into a bar...This needed to be longer. I WANTED it to be longer. And I will definitely buy the next one that comes out because this short story was more an episode than a detailed plot, lacking world building or what could become a good paranormal series.

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A nice vampire novella. I haven't read anything by this author before but the blurb sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.

And I quite enjoyed it. James, a vampire hunter, teams up with Shay a recently turned vampire to hunt down their mutual enemy the vampire Ren.

And along the way they find love, partnership and strength from each other.

A nice read. Would be great to have a longer book with James and Shay.

[Nik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed at The Blogger Girls.

James has been tracking the vampire, Ren, who killed his family for a while now and he’s finally cornered him in London. Unfortunately, when a feral vampire tries attacking him, James loses Ren. Forced to make a decision, James decides to take the feral vampire, Shay, and use him to track Ren. But along the way, being around Shay makes James realize that not all vampires are the same.

All I really knew about this book was that it was about vampires so when I started it, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was about a hunter AND vampire working together. With this one, I really liked that James was driven by vengeance but that he also had some compassion. It was interesting to see how he treated Shay and how everything kind of fell into place. At the same time, I loved that Shay was able to get under James skin so easily.

This was a really intriguing story but I wish it had been much longer. I wanted to explore more of James and Shay together, the dynamics between them as vampire and hunter. Will they continue to hunt vampires when it’s over? Or will they settle down as a couple? I also wanted to explore more of how vampires ‘awaken’ hunters.

In the end, I really enjoyed this book. It was different than the usual vampire story, which was refreshing. It started off with a bang and then just got more intriguing. I hope there’s more to come of Shay and James because I’d love to get back to this world and their story!!

[Lindsay Beeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Puncture Wounds. It was definitely on the short side, but the author still managed to pack in quite a bit of action and romance. If you enjoy a vampire hunter turned vampire friend then lover story, I think you will like this one. James is a gruff, hard nosed alpha male, motivated by both revenge over the murders of his family, but also by his identity as a hunter. Shay's innate sweetness and willingness to control his vampire instincts helps James to realize Shay isn't a monster, but a survivor who was victimized by the predatory Ren. I'm hoping this turns into a series, although hopefully any additional stories will be closer to novella or novel length.

[JC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really short read. Took me less than an hour to finish, but surprisingly, I enjoyed it. I liked both James and Shay, their chemistry, and vampire-and-hunter-falling-for-each-other has been one of favorite tropes since Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike. This is one of those stories where I actually wish it had been a full length novel simply because I wanted to spend more time with the characters.

The writing was clean and fast-paced. I liked that it wasn't flowery, even though there were definitely sweet moments between the MCs.

[Debi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique and simple but I really like both MC's. I like how they work together even though they're enemies of such and in doing so learn to trust each other and form a bond from there. Short but could have been developed into a full length novel with a worthy storyline.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting foundation. Far, far too short to gain any real momentum.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book but the story should have been longer - it ended too soon!

[Lyss Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this. EVERYTHING.