Although not all my reviews are spoilery, which I do not consider this one to be, here is a little warning just in case.

Review Written: 6th January 2013

The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs 

Violet Lee is wandering around London’s Trafalgar Square at night, by herself because she is waiting for a friend. Her dad is a leading politician, and I’m not quite sure why he didn’t take the time to tell her that seventeen year olds should not be by themselves at night in the middle of London, but I believe he was too busy saving the country. Usually you wouldn’t run into a group of vampires massacring a group of slayers but unfortunately for Violet, she does. A capture follows by a vampire prince and Violet spends the rest of the book battling with the notion that she will not be leaving the mansion she’s staying in as a human. An underlying prophecy runs throughout the book, and two Dark Heroines are revealed. With them follows as lot of bad things and is not a fate anyone would want.

A book that claims to be ‘the sexiest romance you’ll read this year’ should be sexy. No. It is less sexy than a majority of the teen books I have read. It’s not even the sexiest book I’ve read this year and it is the only book I’ve read this year.

Certain lines wound me up.

What on Earth would my (feminist) citizenship teacher think about that? P.322I’m uncomfortable about the fact the word feminist is in brackets. There is nothing wrong with saying ‘feminist citizenship teacher’ like she is just a normal human being who happens to believe women should have full equality. The problem I have with the main character is how she constantly describes herself as ‘prey’. She is aware of this situation and should be seeking to change it.

I do not like the main male character Kaspar. Now, that rarely happens because authors usually make him such a great match for the main female. The two hate each other to begin with, and although they claim to love one another at the end, I feel like it happened just for the sake of it. I prefer other love interest Fabian. When Violet says no to his advances, he isn’t a dick to begin with; however, as her feelings for Kaspar develops Fabian swaps personality with a douche to try and get the reader to hate him and ultimately want Violet to end up with Kaspar. It fails to work with me. I’ve read too many supernatural books. Whereas Fifty Shades had the annoying ‘laters baby’ phrase, this book sees Kaspar call Violet ‘girly.’ I hate it with a passion. How can you fall for someone who calls you girly? It is demeaning.

                    

I’m being unusually critical but that’s not to say the book is bad. The plotline itself is a good one and contains the right amount of gore for a vampire book (no weedy sparkly vampires here); it’s just that the smallest things in this book happen to annoy me. Although I feel the book doesn’t need to be as long as it is, it is an easy read so it's perfect for when you have other things going on.

NEXT REVIEW: FELIX J. PALMA'S THE MAP OF TIME