What Kills Me

Author: Wynne Channing

Series: Stand Alone (for now??)

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Action

Publisher: Jet & Jack Press

Released: June 6, 2012

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com An ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the vampire race.

So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally, the vampire blade smith Lucas, must battle to survive.

How will she convince the empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals?

For Fans Of: Hush, Hush, Forbidden, Angelfire, Crave, Graceling.

My Review: I acquired this eBook from Wynne Channing about a month ago (I geeked out after reading a text from Hopeless Wonderer while camping that we got a free copy--Thank you!). It saddens me that it has taken me this long to read it. Not that it was boring; it was far from being dull! I’ve read my fair share of vampire books and this one was far different from all the others I have read. Zee (Axelia) isn’t the torn between staying human and trying to stay with her vampire lover. It is the exact opposite. Zee kicks butt! You all know that I love a strong heroine and Zee definitely delivers! She’s the reluctant vampire who thrills in finding out her superhuman powers are unmatched by any other vampire. I love how Channing has written Zee’s character. She is like the innocent, carefree girl who suddenly finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time but is very good at adapting to any of the circumstances that stand in her way. Zee’s wit was fantastic and I loved how light hearted she was and loved her even more when situations got dirty and serious.

The love story between her and Lucas seemed rushed. I’m a hopeless romantic (part of the reason for my pen name) and I love to read budding and blossoming romances that tend to bloom and grow throughout the entire book, not the last 4 chapters. I feel that Channing could have made more subtle hints about Lucas and Zee liking each other. It seemed too much like Lucas was constantly annoyed with Zee and mad that he had to honor his father’s wish to watch over her. I am happy they ended up together though, don’t get me wrong!

Sometimes the transition between chapters and scenes were too choppy for my taste. There were a few where I thought I had a bad copy and that somehow my Kindle left out a chapter or two. However, it did make the book flow very fast. It almost had a ‘movie’ feeling to it, like how you can suddenly jump from one minute to 2 days later and you knew exactly what was going on. I got that feeling after a few times of encountering this little irk.

Oh yes! I absolutely loved the fight scenes. They were very detailed and I could almost see them happening! Through all the fights, I thought, “gee this would make an excellent action/martial arts movie!”

All in all I found What Kills Me a really fun, fast paced, original read. Definitely worth a few hours of your time!