Author: Tricia Rigli
Published: 04.10.12
Publisher: Create Space
Pages: 314
Format : e-book
Source: Author/Making Connections
Purchase Here:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Author Website:
http://triciarigli.weebly.com/amaranthine.html
Goodreads Synopsis:
Amaranthine is a tale of the dark side of desire. Crimson Wilkinson is a seemingly normal high school senior who, bored with life, finds her kicks in reading a popular vampire series. But her boredom is well remedied when she becomes an active part in the very true vampire stories the world thought were fiction and falls in love with their author, Nicholae Albaric, the dangerously gorgeous and sweetly lonely vampire celebrity. The rush she once so longed for becomes a burden as Crimson discovers she has a rare gene that makes the carrier extremely powerful once they are made into a vampire, and she is targeted as the vampire community's number-one most wanted, some who want to kill her before she can become a threat and others who want to use her powers to their own ends.
MY REVIEW
I received a copy of this book from the author, Trici Rigli through the Making Connections group on Goodreads. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to read this book, however, the following review is not positive. If you cannot handle negative reviews there is no need to read further.This book was such a disappointment. The synopsis makes it sound fantastic and to put it bluntly, it is not. My following review may contain spoilers. So, if you wish to continue reading, you have been warned!
The story starts by following Crimson and her misfit group of friends through their daily activities in high school. This goes on for the first 50% of the book. I’m serious. Nothing interesting happens until Stephen dies, then it is back to boring until Crimson meets Nicholae. And then, wham! Nicholae and Crimson are in love and doing very inappropriate things for a 17 year old, in my opinion. I could have gone my whole life without hearing how Nicholae had magic fingers. Ewww. Then at about 75% through the book, the vampires actually get into fighting action. It doesn’t last long enough though. And then the writer goes absurd again by taking Nicholae to Crimson’s family Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving! Least coolest holiday ever to invite an Immortal to attend.
Anyways, I kept reading, determined to finish this book. And this was a very hard book to trudge through. The plot was all over the place. There would just be pages of meaningless dialogue. If this dialogue was supposed to make me empathetic to the characters it did not work. In fact, I never believed in any of the characters. They were stereotypical and one dimensional.
I also did not enjoy the writing style. There were instances where Crimson used outlandishly advanced language for no reason at all. I think the word “Chimerical” was used in different contexts at least 2-3 times. Each time on my Kindle I would look it up and never did the definition fit what I had thought Crimson was trying to say. I felt like I was studying for the SATs vocabulary portion. There was even one word (that I can’t remember at the moment) that wasn’t IN the dictionary at all. That was frustrating.
The good part of the book was the concept of Amarants. I thought this was a highly creative and interesting idea. I wanted to spend time learning about them and more about Crimson after she had been turned. But the author decided this was not to be. I am assuming this is a stand-alone book. If that is the case, the author really missed the mark on this one. Such an interesting concept could easily had been stretched into a series.
The last chapter is what completely aggravated me to the point of having to write a review that is far from positive. And I hate doing negative reviews. In my opinion, this was a horrible way to end the book and to me personally made no sense. When I did finish this book, I just felt completely confused and a little pissed off. That is not a good sign.
One star to “Amaranthine”
I hate to do this, but it was a Disaster.
In my opinion that is...
