Mikayla Symonett

Velicious Part One by Shelique Lize is an intriguing paranormal-suspense story that starts in 1818 & moves to the present time.

I gave it four stars. It needs some editing for typos & homonyms. This does not reflect on the quality of the author's writing.

"My little sister had no issues yet, but our mother forced her to talk to Dr. Fields once a week about her emotions and life. According to our mother, she already had two screwed up daughters, and she didn’t want a third kid flying over the cuckoo’s nest into a dark abyss? my mother’s exact words. My mother could be just a tad dramatic."

It is Justice's, the protagonist's twenty first birthday. She hadn't celebrated the prior year because it was only four days after the suicide event. This year her sisters & best friend are planning a big one for her.

“I’m open enough,” I huffed in denial. I winced when memories reminded me that being the good little girl, Daddy’s angel, and the perfect overachiever, had seriously hampered my ability to be more open-minded. A minor plight, I planned on fixing in the near future."

Mya took her to a psychic & she had a strange experience. She was told to embrace the unknown but was not told what the "unknown" was.

Justice describes her dormitory room mate: "As a matter of a fact, Erin's whole life was filled with drama. Drinking, boys, betrayal, backstabbing, drugs?my God, she’s done it all. Erin was a toxic person, and even though it was painful to cut her out of my life, I knew I would be better off. She was the dandelion growing in my garden and making it unsightly. Nevertheless, if Erin ever needed anything, I’d still be there for her. Simple as that. We have too much history."

Justice met Dante & Marquis & wondered which one of them would be her dark stranger.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. That did not change my opinion for this review.… (meer)

WOW! THIS BOOK BLEW MY MIND! It begins with Calvin and Jessica chasing a parasitic monster inside of a human's dying body (that is after a girl escapes a sexy man's lair). Fast forward to Justice Labelle, sorority sister. She attempted suicide, or did she? She gets cryptic and confounding news from her sister's psychic on the eve of her 21st birthday. The predictions start to make sense at her birthday party when she is slammed into a jerk who can't watch where he is going. Who is this ass and why is he so vulgar?

I love the interaction between Justice and Dante. She can't get him out of her mind, and visa versa. The sexual tension electrified even the reader!!!! Her ex-boyfriend shows up to put a crimp in her style after vanishing for 3 years. And, what the hell happens to her best friend? Who can Justice trust, and who should she stay away from and how? Midterms are coming up soon, and she is trying to get into law school next year!!!! Good thing there is a sequel I can sink my teeth into right away!!!

Thank you, Shelique Lize, for giving me a copy of this book to read and give my honest review.… (meer)

Justice is having enough trouble with her life between classes at a prestigious law school, dealing with a house of her sorority sisters, and troubles with her ex-boyfriend, Calvin. She really didn’t need a force from somewhere inside her directing her to kill herself. Now, Justice has to convince her family and her therapist that she isn’t crazy or suicidal. Justice is doing pretty well until her sister takes her to a psychic for her birthday and the psychic gives her a very specific reading about a man entering his life. Her reading comes true as Justice meets two incredibly handsome and mysterious twins, Dante and Marquis, one of whom she can’t get out of her head. Justice’s ex-boyfriend, Calvin also decides to come back into her life and tell her all about his job protecting humans from the creatures of the night, Vampyres.
This was an entertaining, quick paced, paranormal vampire read. I like that it had a different type of vampire, still dangerous, but integrated into society and known to exist by some. Not all of their abilities and lore were explained in this book, but so far it seems really interesting; they can be out at all times of day when they wear a special piece of jewelry and they can seem to feed without turning victims. Dante’s history was intriguing along with his potential interaction with Justice was very intriguing and I really want to know more and bring more of the past into the present narrative. Justice is an interesting character; she is dealing with a lot of crap and paranormal stuff, but is holding it together pretty well. There is a lot of mystery involved with the vampires themselves as well as the Cerebus agency, which is meant to keep them in check. A lot of things still need to be explained, there is a quite a cliffhanger at the end and there were a few editing mistakes, but none that affected my enjoyment of the book.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.… (meer)

Justice is going to college and trying to move on past a terrifying experience in her past – but when she visits a psychic on her 21st birthday, it’s a herald of old events returning and a whole new world of vampyres and hunters opening up to her.

She can’t go back to a normal life, however she tries to, but at least there are plenty of sexy guys along the way

I think what this book needed more than anything else was a proof reader and an editor – the lack of both shows sadly and it really hurts the story.

The most obvious indication of this comes from quite a few errors in the text – there’s a fair amount of malapropisms or bad spellcheck (“were” instead of “we’re” and engine is “revived” rather than “revved” and there’s some rather bizarre conjuration of the verb “bound”). Some of the sentences were really oddly structured and clearly missing words that just cried out for a good read through and edit. The tense shifted a lot as well, even mid conversation we’d have one person urgently in the present tense but the person he’s speaking to is happily delivering his lines in a more laid back past tense. It doesn’t help make the book readable.

Next to that we also have some more common and less glaring issues – like severe word abuse and over-elaborate and convoluted dialogue and too much thesaurus thumbing (most people “think”, it’s rarely necessary for them to “ponder” and people can talk, all this mumbling is unnecessary).

But the lack of line editing underscores that this whole book could have used a polish – someone to read through it and say things like “this isn’t necessary” or “who is this person? Why are they here?” or “Chekhov’s gun needs to apply” because it really needs it.

Take the characters – this is a 216 page book. In that relatively short book I have Justice (also – unless she has a cape and super-powers “Justice” is a bad choice of name) the protagonist. Her big sister Mya, her little sister Kailah, her two best friends Audrina and Nicolle. Audrina’s on-and-off boyfriend Anthony. Justice’s ex, Calvin and a possible love interest Chace. And Jordan. I have no real idea where Jordan fits into things but the does. And there’s Justice’s ex-friend Erin.

Then there’s Calvin and his team: Jessica, Bianca, Kyle, Vincent and Jonathon. Then there’s the actual vampyres (yes with a “y”), Dante, Marquis, Angel, Chalice, Tayce and Nolanna. And odd psychic Selena

That’s about 16 significant and 5 potentially significant characters in a 216 page book. And I say significant for a reason because there’s a whole lot more names we pass by. Normally that’d be understandable, don’t make extras nameless nobodies – but there is such a soup of names here that when Justice describes someone going past one of her sorority sister’s rooms using their names I’m suddenly wondering if these are more characters I’ve missed and who exactly they are.

Read More… (meer)