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The Love of my Life <3

The Love of my Life <3

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Blood and Chocolate

Before I begin my windy and lengthy review of this book [ ;) ] I'd like to tell you a little snippet about myself. When I read a book - one of my favorite things to do is to guess how/why the author came up with the tittle of the book. Sometimes in the middle of the book I slap my forehead and go "AH! So that's where the title comes from!!" At other times I scratch my forehead and go "I don't get how the title fits with the book?" This book would be the later or the two. Well with that being said ladies and gents, the review awaits! . . .

Adam and Eve have nothing on the forbidden fruit (that was sooo 2006) what's new is: forbidden love! I'm sure at one point in time we have all been told that we can't have X - that X is bad for us. We were never told that we couldn't have X because it could 1) kill us or 2) endanger our family. When your a werewolf the whole "endangering your family" thing makes sense. You don't want a horde of slobbering humans (or in the book humans are referred as "meat-toys" ) with pitchforks and sliver running after you. It's a no-no win all around. When we meet Vivian her and her pack are in the mountains of West Virginia and are trying to escape with their lives. The humans are attacking! The only problem is not everyone escapes.

The pack has to relocate - and I'm sorry to say I can't remember where they relocated. I believe it's Maryland. Things are very tough for her - she lost her dad in the fire back in W.V., and she doesn't have any friends. The kids at school ignore her and the kids in her pack are hooligans (which she doesn't want to hang with.) What's worse is the Pack is in unrest since the death of their Alpha died (Viv's dad.) I'm sorry but that just sounds awful! No friends at school and no friends at home? Too bad she doesn't read ;)

Viv is a talented artist and when her teacher tells her to put on of her paintings in the local paper she does. When she looks at the picture she prays that there isn't some dodgy piece of art next to it - it would contaminate her work from the other page! There is a poem - and after reading it she notices that the poem is pretty dead on with what werewolves are. Two questions come to her mind - 1)Is he one of us? 2)If not then how does he know?

Viv decides that she will hunt (pun!) this guy down and find out the truth. When she does track him down, she never suspected that she would become his prey. It turns out that he is a human - and forbidden by pack law. Viv won't let that stop true love and still goes out with him - and one night she decides to show her true self to him (the boy is into magic and satan and all that stuff.) However, when she does he doesn't accept her - and she runs. A problem begins to brew when killings have started - and Viv has been blacking out. Adien (the boy) knows know of her true identity. She can't think back to those nights - they're blank - all she knows is that when she wake up there is blood all over her. But it can't be her! Can it?

Ugh. I'm not very impressed with my review - and I think that falls in line with my overall feeling of the book. Vivan annoyed me so much!!! I hate ABSOLUTELY HATE arrogant people! MY GOD! Ok, well you see why I didn't like her ;) At times there were some moments where she redemmed herself in my eyes, and by the next paragraph she was back to square one. Her mother was no help, being selfish and only caring about men.

Sorry for the horrid review!! It wasn't that bad - just not my cup of tea.

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. New York (1997)

12 comments:

Amanda said...

I recently won a contest where I had a choice of books, and this was one of the choices. I didn't choose it, and now I'm really glad I didn't. :)

margaret said...

HAHAHAHA! What book did you chose?

Jill said...

I'm sorry this one didn't work for you. I really loved it, though! I think her arrogance was more a natural part of her being not human, something that had been instilled in her from the time she was very young, and shone through everyone in her family's attitudes about humans. I thought it was a great, creepy YA horror novel that explored some of those issues that many books about the supernatural tend to conveniently ignore, particularly when it comes to relationships between humans and supernatural beings. It's been a while since I read it, but that's my memory of it, anyway.

margaret said...

I do see your point mrs d, but still - I've dealt too much arrogant people - and books are my escape and to have one there mad me sad :(

BUT that's not to say that all characters should be happy go lucky. I did see the arrogance throughout the pack especially with whatsherface...the name that started w/an A.

Jill said...

yeah, I know what you mean when your escapist reading turns on you! :-p I hope it won't put you off her other books, though.

margaret said...

I'll give her books another try. Like I said it wasn't a bad book :) And since this book is probably in a series(??) I'll have to finish it :)

Jill said...

I don't think it's in a series. She did do a vampire one called The Silver Kiss (I think). I remember liking it, but I liked this one, so don't take my word for it! :-)

margaret said...

I saw that on the back. I'll give it another try. You've never steered me wrong. I have a question: remember the book you recommended to me many eons ago? It was a sci-fi book - she was a dragon rider? or something like that? I'd like to re-read the series :)

Jill said...

Was it Anne McCaffrey's Pern series? There's the Dragonrider one that starts with Dragonflight, and then there's the Harper Hall trilogy (which firmly cemented me as a F/SF fan back in the sixth grade) that starts with Dragonsong. Those are such amazing books! I would love to do a(nother) reread of them some time soon.

Anonymous said...

Sounds strangely good, but I hate books where the main character(s) is annoying.

Briana said...

I've heard good and bad things about this book. I probably have to find out for myself if it's for me or not. A lot of people didn't like the movie.

-Briana

margaret said...

Hmm I wonder if this would be the rare case - where the movie is better than the book??

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book! :)