Diana Bocco

*Book source ~ Purchased at Amazon

Isabelle Bryant, her brother and a handful of others have survived five years after vampires rose from the shadows to claim Earth as their own. The human race has nearly been wiped out and Isabelle is tired of hiding and scavenging to survive. Her plan is to turn herself over to the vampire king’s compound, become a vampire pet and hopefully get close enough to kill the king. Cut the head off the cobra and maybe humans can survive. She hadn’t counted on becoming pet, and more, to the king himself or for Marcus to take her into his confidence. You see, there’s a bigger threat than vampires out there and if she kills Marcus as planned then she would be dooming all humans to extinction or worse. Caught between love and loyalty Isabelle has a tough decision to make.

I have a soft spot for post-apocalyptic/dystopian tales and this one is a bit different. Instead of zombies overrunning the world though it’s vampires. Tired of hiding in the shadows they have risen up and they have no intention of letting humans have control again. Going from seven billion to a million or two is a huge blow, but Isabelle wants to try to get humans back in the driving seat. I’ll give her an A+ for guts. The world building is decent and I can picture what it’s like to live in her new reality. Told from the POV of both Isabelle and Marcus, I got a pretty good idea of their personalities. There are a few decent secondary characters, but for the most part it’s an interaction between Isabelle and Marcus. I like that there is a bigger picture than just Marcus and his followers. There’s his brother who wants the throne for himself as well as a virus that is consuming vampires at an alarming rate. My only complaint is that the story ends in a cliffhanger. I am so not a fan of those especially when there is a climatic scene at the end that has no resolution. Harumph! All-in-all though, a decent start to a series and a great intro to a new-to-me author.… (meer)