Friday, September 28, 2012

Review: Crooked Fang by Carrie Clevenger



Title: Crooked Fang
Author: Carrie Clevenger
Publisher:
Lyrical Press, Inc.
Release Date: August 20, 2012
Acquired Via: Author

Hi there. Long time no see! Been real busy with traveling to the US, meeting my in-laws, moving with my fiancée from the US back to Chile, you know... relaxing stuff. Oh yeah, getting married in December. *grin*

Anywho. That’s why I’ve been away. Barely any time left for reading anything! I have made time to play Skyrim, cause... DRAGONS!! *nerdgasm* But now I’m back, and my first post back is for a long overdue review of Crooked Fang.

I must admit that vampire books aren’t really my thing. I’m more of a werewolf guy myself. Not in that I like werewolf based books, but more in that if I were ever turned, I can see myself more howling at the moon than sucking someone’s blood and leaving them dry. Hmm... That was a weird detour into my brain there... Moving on... *ejem*

I don’t mind vampires in the books I read, like Leif in The Iron Druid Chronicles, or Thomas in The Dresden Files. But I’ve never had any luck with a main character vampire. Not even half vampires. They’ve all been good books, just not my kind of book. This book is different though.

When first looking into Crooked Fang and deciding whether to give vampires another try, I went to the website and saw this:

WARNING: Cussing, smoking, drinking and hot sex.

I remember saying to myself “Fiiiiine, I guess I’ll have to read it”. There is cussing, there is smoking, and there is hot sex. You’ve been warned. One particular scene involving a pillow and screams of pleasure crystallized that warning for me. *blush*

My first impression of the book as I got into it was how un-vampiric it was. There were some supernatural instances that made me think that we were going to be jumping into paranormal waters. But nope. No jumping. If anything, it was more like a getting your toes wet.

This isn’t the story of a vampire being a vampire. It’s the story of a vampire being a guy. Problems plague Xan. Band issues, girl issues, his past, etc. And then when you forget he’s a vampire, BAM, a wretched creature appears, and a slayer tries to stake him!

We move along the story and Xan is forced to leave his safety zone and go back to delve in his past. I got lulled into the normalcy of the situations he got himself involved in. Due to poor choices mostly – from his past and recent ones – he found himself with all sorts of strings attached. Poor guy. And then, he drank from his best friend in a moment of weakness and hunger. Vampire again.

These situations weren’t jarring. Nothing felt out of character for me. But the author didn’t write a vampire book in my opinion. She wrote a book about a dude, bassist in a cover band, long haired, killer with the ladies, who just so happens to be a vampire. But don’t let that get in the way. He’s ok, barring the massive lack of a tan.

There was one line that did sum up Xan for me: “Sure. One night can’t hurt.” Choices made out of fear and kneejerk reaction snowballed into a mess of urban fantasy proportions. He’s just a guy trying to be left alone to play his bass and rock out some covers in peace. But noooo, who’d read that! Gimme conflict, poor judgment, a tangled past, tons of whisky and hot sex. That I’d read. And so should you. Crooked Fang ain’t your normal brand of vampirism, but it’ll get your blood flowing. Hopefully, still inside your veins. Or maybe not, sounds like Xan has a heck of a bite. (Give me some credit, I resisted the puns till the very end!)

THIS BOOK IS FOR MATURE READERS

Buy Your Copy Today: Amazon | CreateSpace
Be sure to add it to your TBR list on Goodreads!

To satisfy FTC guidelines, I am disclosing that I received the book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an unbiased review. It has in no way affected the outcome. All expressed opinions are awesome, honest, and courtesy of me.

4 comments:

  1. This sounds kind of awesome actually. It sounds like the dude/vampire version of War for the Oaks which has a lady/faeries. I will have to check it out!

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  2. Yeah, I'm totally jealous of Will getting to read this. I may have to make time for it. :-)

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  3. I do recommend reading it. It's really good, and Xan is a pretty good lead character. :)

    Thanks for the congratulations Carrie! :D

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You are going to put words in my box?! *squeezes you* Now I shall stalk YOUR blog!