Obsessed

The Vampire Journals #12

by Morgan Rice

"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!"
--Vampirebooksite. com (regarding Turned)

OBSESSED is Book #12—and the final book—of the bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, which begins with TURNED (Book #1)--a free download with over 900 five star reviews!

In OBSESSED, 16 year old Scarlet Paine races to save her true love, Sage, before he is killed at the hand of the Immortalists. Alienated from her friends and family—and with only one night left before Sage is wiped out—Scarlet is forced to choose whether to sacrifice it all for him.

Caitlin and Caleb race desperately to save their daughter, still determined to find a way to cure Scarlet and to end vampirism for all time. Their quest leads them to one shocking secret after the next as they seek to find the ancient, lost vampire city, hidden deep beneath the Sphinx in Egypt. What they find may just change the destiny of the vampire race for all time.

Yet it may still be too late. The Immortalist nation is intent on killing Scarlet and Sage, while Kyle, too, is on a murderous rampage, turning Vivian and the entire high school into his own vampire army, set on destroying the town.

In OBSESSED, the shocking finale of the 12 book series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, Scarlet and Caitlin will be left with a monumental choice—one that will change the world forever. Will Scarlet make the ultimate sacrifice to save Sage’s life? Will Caitlin give up everything to save her daughter? Will they both risk everything for love?

“Morgan Rice proves herself again to be an extremely talented storyteller….This would appeal to a wide range of audiences, including younger fans of the vampire/fantasy genre. It ended with an unexpected cliffhanger that leaves you shocked.”
–The Romance Reviews (regarding Loved)

Genres: Vampires, Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

179 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 7, 2016

About the author

Morgan Rice is the #1 bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING, comprising seventeen books; of the #1 bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, comprising twelve books; of the #1 bestselling series THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic thriller comprising three books; of the epic fantasy series KINGS AND SORCERERS, comprising six books; of the epic fantasy series OF CROWNS AND GLORY, comprising 8 books; of the new epic fantasy series A THRONE FOR SISTERS, comprising eight books (and counting); and of the new science fiction series THE INVASION CHRONICLES. Morgan’s books are available in audio and print editions, and translations are available in over 25 languages.

TURNED (Book #1 in the Vampire Journals), ARENA ONE (Book #1 of the Survival Trilogy), A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1 in the Sorcerer’s Ring) and RISE OF THE DRAGONS (Kings and Sorcerers—Book #1) are each available as free downloads!

Morgan loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.morganricebooks.com to join the email list, receive a free book, receive free giveaways, download the free app, get the latest exclusive news, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch!

Reviews

[✨faith✨trust✨pixiedust✨ Dead Account; Not Coming Back · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the final Vampire Journals book and idrk what to do with myself now that I've finished it. I guess I'll just have to read another janky Morgan Rice series with 10+ books for no good reason. I've started two separate fantasy series by her but don't feel drawn enough to either of them to continue yet. Don't get me wrong, they're both outrageous, but not outrageous enough to tempt me.

Here goes the spoiler list to end it all:

- Vivian wakes up as a vampire. It is unclear how long it has been since she "died". Also, she calls Kyle "Joe_" and I don't know why he is called Joe or why there's an underscore. Is it to imply that she doesn't even know his name? Weird way to do it lol

- Kyle decides to go back to the high school and do exactly what he already did last book. He ends up turning like the entire high school into vampires and they slaughter their classmates and their parents. Why they were all still at the school to begin with is baffling, considering that school hours were seemingly over and there was a shooting not too long before, which no one seems to think was that big of a deal

-Kyle also turns like half of the prison into vampires, but he lets the other half just run wild as regular humans

- Maria is alive! She's in a mental hospital because Lore made her go coo-coo crazy. She is interviewed by some cops, including a woman named Sadie who (correct me if I'm wrong) might be the NYC detective from Turned. Sadie believes in vampires and is eager to prevent the impending vampire-Immortalist-human war. Her police chief, as it turns out, agrees with her

- There is in fact a secret abandoned vampire city under the Sphynx. Caitlin uses a teleportation device that also travels through time to get to Egypt. This device is in a box in her grandma's attic. They have to fight off Immortalists to get there. They basically leave Caitlin's grandma to die by the way, which sucks because she was really sassy

“Do you have a gun?” he said to the frail old woman.

“A ‘hello’ would be nice,” she replied.

-Scarlet is ready and willing to let her friends and family die for the instalove she has with Sage, a boy she met like 4 days ago. She is briefly criticized for this but maintains the apparent moral high ground according to the narrative

- The Fates from Greek mythology are here I guess. Whatever happened to Jesus Christ being Caitlin's biological father? How do the Fates play into Christianity? They're literally called "the Trinity"

- The moral of how we don't have agency, only fate, is technically questioned, and it is ultimately decided that there is a set predetermined fate, but that there is also not. Schrodinger's Fate, if you will

- Blake's grandmother died off page. We've never met or heard of her before, but RIP Blake's grandma I guess. She can meet up with Caitlin's grandma in the afterlife

- Blake becomes a vampire because Vivian is obsessed with him. Perhaps the title of the book is inspired by this obsession. Or Kyle's obsession with Scarlet. Or Scarlet's obsession with Sage. Or Caitlin's obsession with the Voynich Manuscript

- Lore is the unexpected hero because he meets an Immortalist girl (who he somehow never met in the past 2,000 years even though they've both been alive and operating in the same circles all that time) and now that he understands love, he does the right thing, much to the approval of his doting mother and the evil, grotesque giant leader of the Immortalists, Octal. All 4 of them become statues at the end of the book because the only Immortalist to survive is Sage. So he really did condemn his entire people arbitrarily for a girl he only met that week. How he is the good guy, and not Lore who spends the whole book learning to lead and coming into his own, baffles me

- Caitlin saves the day by somehow absorbing Scarlet's vampirism. I don't know how she did this or why it saved the day. But it did

- Caitlin is now half-vampire again. She's also the only vampire

- There is an extremely abrupt ending as if there will be a sequel, but this is the final book in the entire series and there hasn't been a follow-up in almost a decade. Sage and Scarlet are like "I guess we'll go to the secret vampire city under the Sphynx as foretold in the Voynich manuscript to save the Immortalists or something" and then the book ends without showing them going there or what they did. The fact that all of the high schoolers in town are 1) dead, 2) murderers, and/or 3) orphans is never resolved, but they're not vampires anymore, so 🤷‍♀️

- I guess I'll never know why, in Betrothed, Caitlin and Caleb had that shared hallucination about Jade, Caleb and Sera's dead kid that Caitlin inadvertently killed. Guess it really did mean nothing!

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all.. this series was a waste if time. Had I read this series first, I would've never picked up any more of her books. I'm glad I read A Throne for Sisters first. The author should go back and edited this series. The amount of spelling errors, names wrongly mentioned, and timeline inconsistencies is ridiculous. Not to mention, this could've been summed up in about three books instead of twelve.

[美津子 Mitsuko Mitsi 佐々木 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Estrellas de 5

El final de una larga saga con más bajos que altos. Con demasiado que decir y mucho que spoilear o quejar.

Caitlin y Caleb encuentran que la Ciudad Vampiro es la clave para poder curar y salvar a Scarlet, pero está se encuentra en Egipto y el tiempo apremia, por una corazonada de Caitlin tienen que ir a donde la abuela de esta.

Por otro lado Kyle decidió que era una brillante idea hacer de un montón de adolescentes de preparatoria su ejército de vampiros, iniciando con la nemesis de Scarlet, Vivian...

Vivian al transformarse se deshace de su madre y su único objetivo es transformar a Blake para que sea de ella, como si de una propiedad se tratase. Y acabar con Scarlet. Ahí es cuando de la nada y sin razón alguna nos enteramos que María, la amiga de Scarlet está encerrada en un hospital psiquiátrico por secuelas del primo de Sage...

Sage y Scarlet logran huir, pero el primo de este va tras ellos y en el camino conoce a tu alma gemela y en menos de pocas horas, que es lo que les queda de vida se enamoran profundamente. Aunque planean acabar con la vida de Sage y Scarlet para poder seguir con vida.

En su intento de salvar a Sage, de la nada el collar que antiguamente era de Caitlin y era la clave para llegar a su padre cuando está era vampiro...ahora se abre con las lágrimas de Scarlet y la conducen a una torre donde se encuentra a un trío de mujeres que le dan la "ayuda" y respuesta para salvar solo la vida de Sage. Una especie de equivalente de Las Moiras. Es en esa visita donde el primo de Sage se lleva a este como cebo para que Scarlet aparezca.

Simultáneamente Caitlin y Caleb en casa de la abuela de Caitlin, encuentra una caja que es un tipo de teletransportador que la lleva hasta la Ciudad Vampiro perdida y ahí en el único giro de trama interesante, se le revela a Caitlin que ella es la clave y que en realidad ella es la última Vampiro. Luego vuelve al sótano de su abuela y se vuelve a la ciudad con Caleb donde miran los recuerdos de su vida pasada cuando estos fueron vampiros. Y ahí le revela que ella se debe sacrificar para que Scarlet sobreviva y sea curada.

Por azares del destino, todos los neofitos de Kyle, Vivian con Blake, Caitlin y Caleb, llegan a la antigua casa de la familia de Sage dónde están Scarlet y Sage a punto de ser sacrificados por el primo de este, el jefe de los Inmortalistas, la madre del primo y su ahora alma gemela. Pero al final el primo se redime porque ahora entiende lo que es el amor verdadero y es como acepta su final convertido en piedra junto a su amada tomados de la mano...

En eso llegan todos y comienzan con sus disputas, Caitlin le explica brevemente que ella es la clave, se sacrifica y todos dejan de ser vampiros. Justo cuando crees que Caitlin por fin ya no está en este mundo pero de cierta forma valió la pena porque salvó al mundo de los humanos, resulta que se salvó de milagro y Scarlet al ser mortal puede llevar a Sage a la Ciudad Vampiro, darle lo que le dieron "Las Moiras" y hacerlo humano para vivir juntos una vida mortal. Lo cual hace y fin.

Haber, ¿Por dónde empezar a desglosar todo esto? Mi calificación pese a ser alta, es porque lo juzgo como libro en solitario, tiene más acción y el giro de la trama fue muy bueno, aunque mal implementado ya que nadie salió perjudicado al final.
El ritmo del libro se siente más ligero y aunque sigue con su drama escolar innecesario, ya es casi nulo, por ende más entretenido.

Pero voy a ser honesta y despotricare todo lo malo de la saga en general. Ya que aunque la disfrute, al menos hasta el libro 9 y parte del 10, puedo aceptar y ver los errores.

-Huecos argumentales y poder del guión, a montón en cada libro. Por ejemplo, se supone que el embarazo de Caitlin, ese bebé no nato no podía ir hacia el pasado pues ellos solo pueden avanzar hacia el futuro y de la nada nos presentan a Scarlet en un viaje más hacia el pasado ¿Cómo?
Se supone que Blake era así en el primer libro, porque perdió al amor de su vida y le entrega un vidrio de mar a Caitlin antes de viajar, pero luego en el pasado eso hace que entienda que ella era ese amor del pasado, cuando se supone que eso no había pasado y que cada que se reencontraba con sus colegas era la primera vez para ellos porque iban viajando hacia el pasado.
Y así hay muchos más, pero mencionaré los de los últimos libros, se supone que Scarlet tenía que ser drenada de su sangre para que los Inmortalistas sobrevivieran, pero tenía que ser antes de que ella empezará su transición, o sea mordiera a alguien ¿Entonces para que la querían si ya había transformado a Kyle? Y ¿Cómo se supone que Caitlin era el último vampiro si era humana? No tiene sentido, pero como dije, huecos argumentales y poder del guión.

-Personajes y acontecimientos importantes que al final no lo son. Con esto me refiero al desperdicio de personajes, desde el primer libro por ejemplo nos hacen hincapié en el afecto de Caitlin hacia Jonah, pero después del primer libro jamás volvemos a saber de él, como si no existiera. Lo mismo aplica para el sacerdote que habla con Scarlet en los últimos libros, los sacerdotes del Vaticano, "Las Moiras" e incluso la policía que tanto te mencionan desde que Scarlet se vuelve la protagonista y se hace el nuevo caos Vampirico. Y seguramente se me escapan más personajes por lo mismo, solo son mencionados, te hacen creer que son relevantes y luego ya nunca salen. Así mismo acontecimientos como el embarazo de Polly y su muerte o la conversión a vampiro de la chica del pasado que ya olvide su nombre. E incluso el que nunca explica el porque de las lobas que acompañan a Caitlin en su viaje.

-Blake...honestamente es un personaje que maltrata en exceso la autora, todo el tiempo te lo muestra como es el mejor aliado de Caitlin, aparte de Polly, el eterno enamorado, sacrificando todo por ella y su felicidad, honorable y un buen caballero/vampiro/persona(?) para que al final ni tuviera final feliz, solo lo menciona como el interes romantico de Scarlet en el reinicio y al final lo vuelve un chico patético ¿En serio?

-Cambio en los personajes. Esto pasa en el reinicio al momento de volverlos a todos humanos, Polly de ser genial y la mejor amiga es ahora la tía cotilla que se cree joven. Sam es un adorno, Caleb es un llorica, Caitlin se exalta por todo y Scarlet es lo equivalente a una patada en el hígado, caen muy mal. ¿Realmente era necesario? Y ¿Por qué Aiden sabía todo cuando reinició su vida como humano por el deseo de Caitlin?

En fin, creo que ya saque al menos la mayor parte de mi frustración...¿Disfrute la saga? Digamos que un 3.5/5 ¿La recomendaría? Me duele mucho, pero no. No soy erudita ni experta, creo que no sería buena si escribiera un libro, pero aún así pude ver muchísimos fallos en esta historia lo cual me entristece mucho ya que fue un final muy amargo. Y si aún te preguntas porque califico este libro tan alto, bueno, nostalgia, añoranza y que pese a todos sus grandes fallos, me entretuve más con este libro que con el anterior. Lo reseñó en solitario, pero como dije recién, si tuviera que calificar la saga entera 3.5/5 sería mi calificación y ya estaría siendo benevolente. Una pena, porque realmente amo las historias de vampiros.

[Haley · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s a big no for me.

[Rishab · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine. Better than last three. Immortalist weren't explored much. Why they existed, don't know? Sage came back because of the true love kiss?

[Brent Soderstrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the 12th and final book of the Vampire Journals series and Rice did save the best for last. There wasn't as much teen drama in this one. Wasn't as many editing errors (there were some though). This was actually a fun read with one of my favorite lines from a book "I am a vampire, I am not an animal." This was said by Scarlet to Sage at the end when he feared she would suck his blood.

This book would have been even better if Rice would have stopped before the final chapter. Instead, she tries to make it a happy ending with all things coming up rainbows and unicorns.

This final book covers Scarlet trying to save Sage who only has hours left to live (as if 2,000 years wasn't enough). Sage and his race will die unless Scarlet dies for them. Sage's brother Lore, and his new girlfriend are leading the Immortalists in their search for Scarlet.

Scarlet's parents are looking for Scarlet to try and save her. They have discovered a way to prevent her being a vampire but it involves some sacrifice on Caitlin's part. There is some flashback scenes which I wish were covered more thoroughly since it has been awhile since I read the early books.

Finally the vampire army, led by Kyle is also on the hunt for Scarlet, although I am not really sure why Kyle wants to kill his sire.

Good read with a ticking clock that doesn't get resolved till the very end. Still make this two books and hire an editor next time.

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5
Age: Pg-13
Just not sure if I can make it through 7 more books..I usually always finish a series but dang this series is frustrating..and not in a good way. Has so much potential to be great but....
Mrs.C

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been an emotional roller coaster from the first installment to the finale of this beautiful and exciting series.

I was brimmed with excitement the moment I flicked open this series! I couldn't wait to find out how it all ended.
The moment Caitlyn and Caleb revisit there past my heart melted,I seen the flash in my own mind like a movie reel in each time they travelled and there experiences and heart break and beautiful love.
The waterworks started as I was so invested in this series,each time era explored was written with such grace and it literally drew me into that time again and it felt like I was there in each time and place and felt so very real!
This author created a true treasure in this series,the finale held my every breath and I really threw myself into every word written, I will miss all the characters bad and good and it was a fantastic twist and I loved seeing a lot of old characters resurface and see there fates changed once again.
This story is highly deserving of hitting the screens either as a movie or tv series,I really hope somebody discovers this hidden treasure and it gets to grace the world with its beauty,intelligence and originality.

Assassins Reading Reviewing Group

[Rosemary Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have submitted this review after listening to the audiobook of this title (Goodfm)

The Finale, and it is dramatic and compelling.
Trying to find both a cure and a weapon to use. The authorities are one step behind, all the time.
Eventually it comes to ahead, but the carnage and toll on a small town must be horrendous.

[Heather Heater · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to read a book that has so many errors, typos and inconsistencies. The story was a bit rushed too. I'm sure the author was ready to finish the series but there could have been another book or two out of this one, it just felt rushed.

[Redd Velvette · Rating 5 out of 5]

best series ever so sad its ended. may read again soon.

[Sonia Knippshild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good series. Bad editing.

[Sanvi Yadav · Rating 5 out of 5]

This final book was the best in the whole series. I will always feel sorry for Blake.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best of the series.

[Caroline Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

From book one to 12 it kept my attention. Read them all in about a month n 1/2

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last book and it’s weird. To me, anyway.

I was very confused and not just because it’s been awhile since the last book or because this has been a time messed up series. After the first couple of chapters, it felt like I was back to the first book. The series time frame looped back again like a roller coaster. Didn't help that we jumped from character to character each in the middle of their own dangerous crisis. No place to breathe and figure out where we are. So make sure you remember the past story lines before you start reading this.

The best thing of this whole book for me was Sadie Marlow. She has guts and brains. And I like Blake too. He has honor.

And the ending? Everything came together too fast, too perfectly, except for no epilogue on the Scarlet/Sage thing. And what about Maria? Need a SS or Novelette on it.

Quick Thoughts: 1) Where was the Biplanes owner? And why was if filled with gas in a junk yard? A lot of stuff in here doesn't make sense. Pure fantasy.

2) People should always trust a dog’s instincts. They ‘know’ when situations aren't right: people, dangerous weather, etc. And you tell a lot about a person on how the treat animals and children.

3) Another hidden library! So many books (and movies) lately have special libraries in them. I love it.

Fave Scenes: crashing the plane, the tower & the 3 sisters, the pigs and shooting the four convicts.

[Krys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Awesome series, characters and story line! So sad it's over, but I'm hoping more moghf be added!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than book 11 but I caught several errors in the writing of the book.