The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs

1/5 Stars

The Dark Heroine 

(Dinner With A Vampire) 

Author: Abigail Gibbs

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Publication Date: March 5, 2013

Goodreads ♥ Amazon

Review:

*This is a review for an New Adult/Adult book

I requested this title on Edelweiss because I was curious. I had heard of this story was originally written on Wattpad when the author was 15 and then a few years later was picked up a major publishing house in a six figure deal. That is enough to stir anyone’s curiosity. Unfortunately, curiosity can also get you in trouble and that was the case for me.

First off this isn’t going to be a nice review. I had so many problems with this book that is was impossible for me to enjoy. I am actually going to do something a little different with this book as well, I am going to review it using my Goodreads status updates so that you can see exactly what I was feeling as I progressed through this novel.

1. Page 1 "There are so many mixed reviews about this book I'm both nervous and excited to read it. I will keep my expectations low so I can either be pleasantly surprised or not disappointed."

See look! I started this book off with some apprehension but was going to keep my expectations low so that I didn’t get hurt.

2. P 61 "Is this book YA or NA? Its ok so far, a little wordy but I'm intrigued."

I found out as I continued reading that I would probably class this book as New Adult because the protagonist is 18 and there is sexual content. Also the wordiness NEVER STOPS. It was like the publisher just took exactly what was on Wattpad and never edited it. The purpose of editing is to take out the parts that aren’t needed or do not advance the story, unfortunately that never happens in this book and instead we are left with a wordy, disjointed and lengthy novel.

3. P.331 "Well this is taking a turn for the weird/disturbing. I actually think I hate all of the charterers in this book. No one has a redeeming quality. And now the girl with Stockholm syndrome is sleeping with the kidnapper who is a complete jackass, great."

This is the heart of why I hated this book. None of the characters were likable. None of them had a redeeming quality. The heroine, Violet Lee, witnesses a vampire murder and then to keep her silent the vampires take her back to their mansion. While at the mansion she falls for Kaspar (Stockholm Syndrome much?). Kaspar treats women, vampire and human alike terribly and then for some reason these two absolutely terribly people fall for eachother. I think at one point there is also an edict from Kaspar’s father that they can’t touch. I mean things just got SO ridiculous and disjointed the story became painful to read.

I also want to mention that this book has the honor of having the least sexy sex scene that I have ever read. There was no passion, no emotion it was completely blasé and sort of grossed me out to be honest. With this scene you could really tell that someone young and inexperienced was writing it.

4. P.381 "I'm debating whether to stop reading this but I feel like I've already made it this far...also random aside this whole Dark Heroine business feels like a completely different story that was just tacked on to the one I began. No foreshadowing or linking things up so they flow."

Randomly during the last quarter of the book Gibbs stops focusing on the relationship/problems between Kaspar, Violet, and Kaspar’s family and begins focusing on a Dark Heroine prophesy. It came completely out of left field and didn’t link up to the story at all! If the story had focused on the Dark Heroine from the beginning it actually might have been an interesting story.

Overall, I did eventually finish the story but it took months and it was the worst book I have read in recent memory. The story had good potential but was poorly executed and even more poorly edited. I think Gibbs has potential as an author with a little polish and a serious editor. Hopefully her next novel someone takes all this potential and turns it in to something worthwhile. 

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs