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The Touch Series: Initiation
Welcome to Richmond: Home to angsty teenagers, uptight parents, vampires, witches, mermaids, and more.
As a Freshmen college student, Quinn Turner dreams of leaving her small-town life and see what the rest of the world has to offer. Her life takes a turn when she joins an elite club of girls hired by a very wealthy – and very handsome – vampire. She never imagined finding herself infatuated with a powerful playboy or discovering that her life isn't exactly what she thought it was. Entangled in a supernatural conspiracy, her life takes a sinister and deadly turn.
Richmond hopes you enjoy your stay...
As a Freshmen college student, Quinn Turner dreams of leaving her small-town life and see what the rest of the world has to offer. Her life takes a turn when she joins an elite club of girls hired by a very wealthy – and very handsome – vampire. She never imagined finding herself infatuated with a powerful playboy or discovering that her life isn't exactly what she thought it was. Entangled in a supernatural conspiracy, her life takes a sinister and deadly turn.
Richmond hopes you enjoy your stay...
246 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 21, 2015
1 person is currently reading
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 1, 2015
I received an invitation from the author through Goodreads to download a copy of the novel for free in exchange for an honest review. What follows is my opinion of the novel, which has great potential, but can use a lot of improvement as well. It is a good start and I hope that this review will help the author in her future endeavors and is not too harsh.
Initiation is the story of a college girl, Quinn, who becomes a member of “The Club,” an team of girls that provide arm candy to a vampire businessman in exchange for whatever funds they need for personal or family betterment. It begins in 50 Shades of Grey style (awkward, not-like-the-others girl meets rich man and has insta-love) and becomes a supernatural murder mystery.
Initiation has strength in that there are two well-drawn characters that are mostly likeable. The lead, Quinn, is interesting (at least at first) and kind of fun. Once the love story begins to develop, she becomes a little possessive and strange, and also very reactionary – I was often questioning her actions in the latter half of the novel. She also starts off pretty strong in that she doesn’t seem like a complete idiot, but after the murder-mystery plot initiates, her introspection, consisting of “woe is me, now I’m not normal anymore”, is very shallow and repetitive.
The other likeable character is Quinn’s vampire friend Artie. I thought it refreshing that there was a positive male-female relationship in the novel that was not the stuff of a love triangle – they are just casual friends. Artie is interesting, as well – nerdy, almost, and like Quinn, fun. Artie is by far the best characterized in the novel, as he stays consistent and never acts in a way that makes me think, “WTF” (which happens with Quinn, occasionally.) There is a bit at the beginning where Quinn justifies Artie’s straightness and seems to prove to the reader that he isn’t gay – this seemed to me to be compensating for the fact that he seems gay. I think I’d like him better if he was gay, actually. He could be even more fun. However, it almost seems like the author is setting Artie up to be a romantic lead himself, or at least have a side-plot romance.
The male romantic lead in the novel is vampire Josef – who is poorly characterized. Quinn experiences insta-love for him, and seemingly him for her (in a weird, out of place excerpt at the end of the novel, we get a change from Quinn’s first-person narration and receive Josef first-person of his first encounter with Quinn). I can’t really say that there is much else to him aside from that he’s hot, rich, and enigmatic in a typical romance-novel hero kind of way. In another odd turn of plot, Artie serves as Quinn’s rescuer, which I think takes away from the author’s opportunity to characterize Josef more fully – Quinn calls on Artie to help her at the end of the novel, rather than Josef.
The major flaw in the novel is the plot. At the beginning, I thought I was just reading a girl-meets-wealthy-boy novel, and it would just be the story of their personal hurdles. Then, BAM – halfway through the novel, there is a murder and a plot is afoot. It came out of nowhere, really, and I was jarred. I was also kind of uninterested in the murder, since it seemed to weaken the author’s character development. All of a sudden, Quinn became shallow, possessive, and illogical (even worse than Bella Swan or Anastasia Steele). I do, however, look forward to where the author will take the plot, as she introduces a dynamic that is not often found in paranormal romances – Quinn is - if executed better in the follow-up novels, this will provide interesting world building and plot.
On the world-building note, it is basically non-existent until that weird shift in the middle of the novel. There was really no reason that Josef and Artie were vampires until there was a murder plot. They could have just been wealthy businessmen. Once the plot picks up, the author tacks in explanations – all accomplished through Quinn’s narration or dialogue – that, in Keira Cass style, are weak and quick. The world-building would have been much better accomplished through slow and steady detail-reveals throughout the beginning of the novel, and not just through dialogue. This, of course, is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do when writing fantasy/sci-fi and I do look forward to seeing how the author can improve the construction of her world in future novels.
Lastly, there are a number of grammatical errors, some of which may only bother grammar-Nazis (I am an English teacher, so I can’t help it, really.) There are a number of “me and Artie”s, their/there/they’re, it’s/its errors. Most glaringly and distractingly, the author uses “breathe” for “breath” and that one drove me a little batty. Most of the grammar problems, however (especially the “me and Artie”) can be attributed to the first-person narration, because it is plausible that a narrator might not speak the Queen’s English. These can also be fixed with a thorough proofreading – they became more glaring in the second half of the novel, which seemed rushed anyway.
All-in-all, Initiation is a quick read and fun. As I’ve said before, the world has potential, and I hope to see that uniqueness come out in future novels in the series.
Initiation is the story of a college girl, Quinn, who becomes a member of “The Club,” an team of girls that provide arm candy to a vampire businessman in exchange for whatever funds they need for personal or family betterment. It begins in 50 Shades of Grey style (awkward, not-like-the-others girl meets rich man and has insta-love) and becomes a supernatural murder mystery.
Initiation has strength in that there are two well-drawn characters that are mostly likeable. The lead, Quinn, is interesting (at least at first) and kind of fun. Once the love story begins to develop, she becomes a little possessive and strange, and also very reactionary – I was often questioning her actions in the latter half of the novel. She also starts off pretty strong in that she doesn’t seem like a complete idiot, but after the murder-mystery plot initiates, her introspection, consisting of “woe is me, now I’m not normal anymore”, is very shallow and repetitive.
The other likeable character is Quinn’s vampire friend Artie. I thought it refreshing that there was a positive male-female relationship in the novel that was not the stuff of a love triangle – they are just casual friends. Artie is interesting, as well – nerdy, almost, and like Quinn, fun. Artie is by far the best characterized in the novel, as he stays consistent and never acts in a way that makes me think, “WTF” (which happens with Quinn, occasionally.) There is a bit at the beginning where Quinn justifies Artie’s straightness and seems to prove to the reader that he isn’t gay – this seemed to me to be compensating for the fact that he seems gay. I think I’d like him better if he was gay, actually. He could be even more fun. However, it almost seems like the author is setting Artie up to be a romantic lead himself, or at least have a side-plot romance.
The male romantic lead in the novel is vampire Josef – who is poorly characterized. Quinn experiences insta-love for him, and seemingly him for her (in a weird, out of place excerpt at the end of the novel, we get a change from Quinn’s first-person narration and receive Josef first-person of his first encounter with Quinn). I can’t really say that there is much else to him aside from that he’s hot, rich, and enigmatic in a typical romance-novel hero kind of way. In another odd turn of plot, Artie serves as Quinn’s rescuer, which I think takes away from the author’s opportunity to characterize Josef more fully – Quinn calls on Artie to help her at the end of the novel, rather than Josef.
The major flaw in the novel is the plot. At the beginning, I thought I was just reading a girl-meets-wealthy-boy novel, and it would just be the story of their personal hurdles. Then, BAM – halfway through the novel, there is a murder and a plot is afoot. It came out of nowhere, really, and I was jarred. I was also kind of uninterested in the murder, since it seemed to weaken the author’s character development. All of a sudden, Quinn became shallow, possessive, and illogical (even worse than Bella Swan or Anastasia Steele). I do, however, look forward to where the author will take the plot, as she introduces a dynamic that is not often found in paranormal romances – Quinn is - if executed better in the follow-up novels, this will provide interesting world building and plot.
On the world-building note, it is basically non-existent until that weird shift in the middle of the novel. There was really no reason that Josef and Artie were vampires until there was a murder plot. They could have just been wealthy businessmen. Once the plot picks up, the author tacks in explanations – all accomplished through Quinn’s narration or dialogue – that, in Keira Cass style, are weak and quick. The world-building would have been much better accomplished through slow and steady detail-reveals throughout the beginning of the novel, and not just through dialogue. This, of course, is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do when writing fantasy/sci-fi and I do look forward to seeing how the author can improve the construction of her world in future novels.
Lastly, there are a number of grammatical errors, some of which may only bother grammar-Nazis (I am an English teacher, so I can’t help it, really.) There are a number of “me and Artie”s, their/there/they’re, it’s/its errors. Most glaringly and distractingly, the author uses “breathe” for “breath” and that one drove me a little batty. Most of the grammar problems, however (especially the “me and Artie”) can be attributed to the first-person narration, because it is plausible that a narrator might not speak the Queen’s English. These can also be fixed with a thorough proofreading – they became more glaring in the second half of the novel, which seemed rushed anyway.
All-in-all, Initiation is a quick read and fun. As I’ve said before, the world has potential, and I hope to see that uniqueness come out in future novels in the series.
Displaying 1 of 1 review