The Wrong Side of the Sun: The Dáuþeins

by Gabrielle Nykol, Katherine McDougall (Editor)

It's not easy to be pushing a century and still have the face of a twenty year old, especially when your survival mandates that you live in the dark and feed on human blood. Victoria hasn’t had a friend in years. Her fierce martial art skills, mixed with her aloof demeanor has a tendency to make people run the other way. On most days that’s exactly how she prefers it. Then she meets Rick, a classmate with the undeterred friendliness of a golden retriever, who is bound and determined to crack her icy shell and takes on the challenge of finding friends for the most antisocial person he knows.
Despite her protests, Victoria is introduced to Skye, a beautiful and talented artist whose encounter with a stranger in a darkened alley brings her to Victoria’s self-defense class. Quickly, Victoria finds that Skye’s rebellious attitude outcompetes her own, and her entire world is turned upside-down as she becomes closer to Skye than she ever intended. One day, Victoria knows her dangerous past will catch up with her, but she can't help imagining a future with Skye, even though she’s risking herself and the friend she holds so dear. But as Victoria struggles to keep her deadly secret from her new friend, she never imagines Skye has a secret of her own….

Genres: Fantasy

457 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2016

Reviews

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25*
Warning there are some very graphic scenes so this is not for everyone.
This is probably one of the few books that headed straight towards a DNF 1* and yet managed a very respectable and solid 3.25. But, as we are all different, here’s what worked and what didn’t work for me.

The bad bits (for me).
The opening is dreadful. I think I almost DNF’d in the first 3% (not 30%, struggled to get through 3%). First person, oodles of progressive verbs, and self-propelled body parts. Nope. Seriously. Very much a no. We were stuck with the first person all the way through and as it is from 3 Points of View it jars every time there is a chapter change. One of the POVs is very strong (the baddie), but it was very easy to confuse the other two characters.
For a long, while I thought the main character immature, and she didn’t have much going for her, and then for the earlier part, say the first 30% this was meh, throw it at the wall kind of book.
There are some internal consistency issues, missing words, and some editing re-use of British phrases. Mis-use of which would usually be minor but could probably do with another editing pass. And apparently, all Brits are plain looking with bad teeth? Right.
It is also pretty wordy. There is a little scene-setting either.
The good bits.
When the story actually comes together it’s a decent one. And with a little editing and a little more work this would soon shift to a 4-5*. I particularly like the idea of being on the wrong side of the sun. It is a story full of violence, mistrust, and blood. Lots of action.

[Geo (rain) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What did one lesbian vampire say to the other lesbian vampire? See ya same time next month.”

Maybe more like 3.5 stars. This story is told from two points of view: Victoria, a vampire in her 90s who looks like she's in her 20s. She teaches karate and is quite lonely, not used to socializing much with people outside of her students. A college classmate, Rick, who despite her efforts wants to be her friend and help her make other friends, introduces her to Skye and encourages her to teach her some self-defense classes.

Skye is the other narrator, and you can differentiate between the two narratives because she comes from England and uses some British words/expressions such as “You’ve got your knickers in a serious twist” and “I was afraid you’d think I was a tosser.”. She's an aspiring artist with a secret past and has trouble keeping a job. The two discover they have a lot in common and hit it off pretty quickly.

No one knows Victoria's a vampire. Although she's not exactly that, she's a Dáuþein, a half-breed: neither human, nor vampire. But she does have many vampire traits, and is also able to control the growth of her hair, which apparently is unique to her but is never explained further. She constantly fears the sadistic vampire who turned her is going to find her again. She's been hiding from him for years and is pretty much traumatized by their encounters, often having nightmares about her conversion and the times he has told her she's "forbidden", "not supposed to exist".

That vampire, her sire... a few of the chapters are also from his point of view, and they were pretty uncomfortable, to be honest (this is an example of it:

So I ass fucked her until the light flickered out. Life faded from her too fast and she refused to hold out until I could climax, even after I stopped hitting her and let her hands go. I told her she could get up and was free to leave, but she just laid there letting me pump away at her like she wanted it. Or maybe it was because I had smashed her skull a bit too hard on the linoleum floor. I laughed at myself for the mistake. My dick didn’t get soft until long after her heart had stopped beating. I was sure I’d cum. I didn’t.

). He rapes women (he did the same to Victoria when he converted her) and enjoys their fear and suffering. He also seems like a caricature (I mean -not really a spoiler- This bitch is pissed; I have to get that mother-fucking gun, or I’m toast. I’ll go for it on three. One…two…three! ), but he is crazy, so maybe that's why!

Anyway, I enjoyed most of the book. It was entertaining, although a bit slow in some parts (and then fast in others, the story can jump from two days to two months in just a moment). I learnt a few karate terms, and there was also some background on vampires, but most of all, what I enjoyed was the protagonists' relationship. I think they had good chemistry and it took some time to develop into a romantic relationship. It was an interesting one, too, I mean, they were sweet one moment and then they were yelling at each other (usually in a good way) “you self-righteous little bitch!”, there was a lot of "bitch" thrown around.

In conclusion the story was okay (even if I did find it slow or a bit uninteresting at times, and some things for me didn't make much sense || especially the brutal fight between Victoria and Skye. What the hell? After everything you've been through, why not give her the benefit of the doubt before stabbing her multiple times? And not much about Vic's sire made much sense to me.

And Rick? He just disappeared/reappeared when it was convenient, and how come in two months he didn't find out Skye and Vic were talking? Skye wanted to hide it, I could believe that, but in that time he never spoke with Victoria at all?

And what happened with college? And how come if the "sun was setting" when classes were ending, how could Skye be there, earlier in class with Rick? || ), the characters were likable, and the romance was really nice.

And I also learnt bean-flicker means a lesbian. Although as a non-native English speaker I did have to Google the meaning behind it, haha.

And here's more of Skye's jokes:

“What's the definition of confusion? Twenty blind lesbians in a fish market. What you do call a room full of 50 politicians and 50 lesbians? 100 people who don't do dick!”

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Everyone this is the most biased review as it is MY book.

If you read it, I hope you like it and enjoy it. It was fun to write and there are more to come once I finish my last semester of school.

Thank you to everyone who helped me and supported me with this novel.

If you decide to read I would love feedback and reviews on Amazon help me out a lot.

[Paulette Townshend · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Other Side of the Sun leaves you with many emotions. It was a tender love story, yet you also experience hate, happiness, and horror! The characters, Victoria and Skye are beautiful characters who have a difficult time letting each other know their true feelings. TOSOTS is a can't put down book! I can't wait until the sequel! Good luck to this new and upcoming author!

[Heather Henkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

I think this was a really amazing story on all levels. I liked the vampire mystic, the relationships between friends and the romance. I liked the ending as I thought it was fitting.