Action/Adventure Archives – Jamie's Two Cents

Book Review: Thirst 3 The Eternal Dawn

Thirst No. 3: The Eternal Dawn by Christopher Pike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What the??

What the what?! I’m not sure about this book, but let’s discuss and maybe I’ll decide by the end of this.

There are some spoilers here, but nothing too significant. This might even be in the blurb, but I don’t read those, because I won’t read a book most times if I do. I know, I’m odd.

Anyhow, the final book in Thirst 2 was the last book in the original series. Sita goes back in time to change history and in the final scene, she decides to go all the way back to the day Yaksha was born and kill him before he can be born and she never becomes a vampire. Then we also have a scene with Seymour closing the book as if he was authoring the story the entire time and none of it happened to begin with.

Due to that ending, I was really curious how book 3 even happened. Something must have majorly changed. So, I was expecting a rewrite of sorts on the history. I wasn’t quite expecting this though.

The biggest change is probably with Seymour. In the beginning of book 3, we find out that Sita never met Seymour. Never cured him of his AIDS, but Seymour got on a drug cocktail that did extend his life and he did write the book about Sita. They are psychically linked.

Ray, Joel, Paula, Eddie, Arturo, Kalika, Yaksha, all their stories still happened mostly the way they were originally written. Except that if you’ll remember, Sita used John’s blood to bring Seymour back from the dead, but that didn’t happen in this version. I think something was mentioned about Sita using the blood on herself.

Christopher Pike does explain pretty much every change eventually, but it’s not right away. This makes it confusing if you recently read Book 2 and you’re wondering what the heck is going on?!? Try to get past that and take this book as it is. It’s really well done, action packed, and impossible to put down at times.

I’m looking forward to reading book 4! It’s nice to be reading more Sita stories. Even if they newest villains are a little odd, they’re also incredibly interesting. Give this series a try!! Happy reading y’all!! There's a link below if you want to see or order Thirst 3!

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Book Review: Thirst 2

Thirst No. 2: Phantom, Evil Thirst, and Creatures of Forever (Thirst, #2)

Thirst No. 2: Phantom, Evil Thirst, and Creatures of Forever by Christopher Pike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As good as the first!

Thirst 2 is the last three books in the original last vampire series.

If I tell you anything about these, it will give them away. So, I won’t tell you about the plots. I’ll give you a hint...it involves Sita, the last vampire, and beings who want her blood and/or want her dead. Haha...that also described the first book. Yet somehow it’s not repetitive or dull to me. Quite the opposite! Try putting them down and it feels like Sita is compelling you to keep going.

I was surprised that I didn’t notice any change between this and the original series. I expected a different ending in order for the series to continue. Yet there wasn’t one. It still ends with Seymour and his computer. This makes me even more curious about the next books!!

Read this series y’all! See why Sita grabs your heart and not in that vampiry I’m going to eat it way 😉 See why when someone says “I don’t want to die,” you will always secretly respond with “then you never should have been born.” And why you suddenly find yourself googling "Krishna" and Bhagavad Gita. Happy reading y’all! Below is a link for you to read more about Thirst 2 and purchase if you so desire.

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Book Review: Thirst 1

Thirst No. 1: The Last Vampire, Black Blood, and Red Dice (Thirst, #1)

Thirst No. 1: The Last Vampire, Black Blood, and Red Dice by Christopher Pike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Best Vampire Series

I have loved this series since I was a kid and first read it. I re-read it every few years. It is that good!

Thirst's main lead is Sita, who believes she’s the last vampire, but discovers she isn’t. She needs to stay alive and out of danger as foes (new and old) try to take her down.

This is my first time reading this electronically as “Thirst,” instead of the original series as paperback. It didn’t disappoint. I’m super excited to continue reading the series!!

For those of you not familiar with Christopher Pike books, this is a young adult book, so there isn't any sex scenes, but sex is mentioned, which use to make teenage me feel like I was reading something scandalous. Haha. Adult me would love to see this turned into an adult series, but I still love it how it is.

For any vampire book readers, this is a must-read series! There is so much action, adventure, history, and mythology in this book, it's hard to put it down!

These aren't the shiny/sparkly vampires of Twilight and that's okay. If you've read some of my past reviews, you'll know I'm a huge Twilight fan too, but this book and this author started my love of vampires. Sita has classic strength, speed, and most of all, heart. Plus, we see her acquire new skills. It's neat to know that even a 5,000 year old vampire can learn and grow. Don't get me wrong though, she often still sounds like the 19 year old she was when she was changed.

I hope you give this series a try or give it to a tween/teen you know. It deserves to keep coming around for many generations. I've included a link to it on Amazon. Happy reading y’all!!

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Book Review: The Antiquities Dealer

The Antiquities Dealer (A David Greenberg Mystery)

The Antiquities Dealer by Ed Protzel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perfectly balanced in Sci-Fi meets reality, the plot is by far a 5 out of 5. The premise is that a scientist is working on a cloning program and he needs the crucifixion nail to create another Jesus, but as you can imagine, it's not easy to obtain. The person who had it was murdered and they must decipher a code to locate where he hid it. This book has action, adventure, suspense, mystery, and a little bit of romance. It's fantastic! It's like Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code.

If the plot was the only thing I was reviewing, I would stop here and give this a 5 star review. However, I would be remiss to ignore the editing. I would love for the author to sit with a good editor and work out some of the kinks in the book. This book is really good, but with the help of a good editor, it could be really great! It could even turn into the next big Indiana Jones type series. I could see it now - David Greenberg and The Holy Nail.

Some of the editing issues are little. I would suggest adding the POV person with the chapter titles, because it's not always clear who is talking. I know with some authors they do this by design for parts where we are meant to be guessing, but if it's not done by design, there needs to be better acknowledgement of who is talking to us in the other chapters. Otherwise readers become frustrated with turning pages to determine who the main character is when it's constantly switching.

Other items are larger. I really struggled with what year it was and what age the characters were. Maybe I missed it early in the book, but I knew it was supposed to be newer, because there were cell phones and other technology that's newer. Also, David was divorced twice and had graduated college, but Miriam wanted to have another child, so I would assume they were younger than 40. Perhaps they were around 35? That seems awfully young to be divorced twice, but not impossible.

Another reason I struggled with the year was because a lot of the dialogue felt older. It was like dialogue I would be reading from a book that's a few decades ago. Especially among David and his friends. David's friends...I was totally confused every time Finkel and Daddy were involved. Their dialogue often left me scratching my head and led to the majority of the confusion about which decade it was. They seemed like they were relics themselves.

Finally, David...oh David. You had a lot of monologues. I'm okay with monologues if it helps us explore the character and what they're feeling. I thought somewhere in the book it was mentioned that David is an atheist. I believe he was Jewish by blood, but didn't share those beliefs. I don't know too many atheists, which is fine, but I question how many atheists monologue about ancient gods. There were quite a few references to different mythologies, which seemed odd of an atheist. That could be a bad perception on my part, but it seemed odd.

Then there was the romance. It's been a long time since I reviewed a fade to black book. So, if you're looking for hard core sex scenes, this isn't the right book for you. If you're looking for a few mildly romantic moments overshadowed by a lot of action, adventure, and mystery, then read this one!

Overall, I would have given this book 3.5 stars if that was possible. In cases where I want to give half stars, I round up for the author's benefit. I hope the author works with an editor to clean up some of the book that could shine more with some help. If he does, then this has a strong chance of being picked up and mainstreamed. It has a really solid base with a lot of potential!

**I was provided a copy of this book by the author to review**

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