Fionn Jameson

When Emi Tsukijima is attacked by a serial killer and survives, her whole life as a successful business woman is disrupted. The trauma consumes her, fear makes it nearly impossible to do her job and, below that is the terrible knowledge that humans are not alone. That there’s something dark and terrible on the streets that hunts them

After that, the emotional impact of knowing her presumed dead ex-boyfriend is hunting them is just an extra blow to her fragile realisation.

The emotional journey of Emi in this book is incredible and powerful – and excellently balanced

She begins as a very normal woman with very mundane problems. Her job, her love life and her romantic plans being dashed rather terribly

Then the supernatural hits and we get the devastating impact of her victimisation, her desperate fight for her life and being thrust into a world she doesn’t understand, facing monsters she never knew existed and trying desperately to hold her world together. She is damaged, she is hurt, she is afraid and she cannot return to normality

She has the excellent emotional impact of discovering and old lover is a hunter and the incredible pain that was caused by him leaving her life and his family’s life. It’s an extremely heartbreaking scene as she describes the pain he has caused.

But from that we also see Emi progress, find her strength, find her determination, her honour, her courage. We see her fight and sacrifice because she simply can’t expect less of herself. She cannot stand to be the person she would be if she didn’t. We definitely see her rise up from the ashes to an extent that impresses even the monsters

Her emotional journey is one of the best I’ve ever seen

Ok so everything I’ve written up there is practically screaming “but”. So let’s hit that but.

This book is, like so many others, twice as long as it needs to be. And it is that long because we have pages and pages and pages and pages of Emi’s emotional journey. There’s a section of the book where Emi and several strangers are trapped in a cage while Emi despairs and fears about being killed and worries about who will be next

This goes on for what feels like 20 or more pages. A lot more. She spends pages upon pages of chasing her thoughts around, arguing with her fellow captives and generally nothing happening

There’s another section of the book where she and Naoki argue over him faking his own death and it goes on and on and on and on

Don’t get me wrong, these scenes are powerful. They’re full of emotional growth and realisation. They’re painful and dramatic and you can feel her pain and how difficult it is for her to grasp. But I can see that after 5 pages, after 5 paragraphs. But it keeps on going and going and going and going and we get it already! Please get back to the something HAPPENING.

Read More… (plus d'informations)

This book was free for a review. Thanks to the author and Netgalley.
This was a gory,fun read with lots of blood and brains drenching everyone, but written so it reads as more of an occupational hazard than horror. There was tension but also black humor as the TV warns of a serial killer in the area attacking lone women, so off goes our heroine after hearing this, alone down a dark alley, late at night after leaving a bar. She is Emi, the focus of the book and the only character to become more than a puppet, used to set up her next scene. I did find the book interesting and I enjoyed parts of it. There was a problem with the boyfriend calling her rich, too good to associate with when according to the background given , she was poor all the time he knew her. The book is set in Japan, but only the names confirm this. The creatures are evil, the hero's not much better(beats them to death with his hands by choice) but some of the demons kind of grow on you. Anyway a good beach or rainy day book. No thinking allowed.
Did not get ending of book!… (plus d'informations)

This is the second in the Blood Martyr series by Fionn Jameson. Tannith Quin, the female vampire who is the lead character in the series is probably not someone I would want to have as a friend but perhaps not all bad as far as vampires go. I was expecting there to be more about the two males in her life but this seemed more of a “between” type of book that introduced a new character named Dorian rather than dealing with Kieran Black (the werewolf love interest) or Jamison Bell (the witch love interest). In this book we meet the council of vampires and others, a quest to take out an older vampire serial murderer occurs, a fallen angel is summoned to make a deal with and groundwork laid for future books in the series.… (plus d'informations)