21st October 2010, Decadent Publishing
221 pages, ebook (available in other formats)
Review copy
Young Adult Paranormal,
Infrequent violence, family relationships, teen romance (some), psycho boyfriend, vampires
Summary from Decadent Publishing
Running and screaming will have to wait. A blood-sucking dead guy may be a vampire to you, but he’s an alien/human hybrid to Ophelia and she really must examine his olfactory nerve under a microscope first.
Ophelia longs to be free, free of diabetes, free of her ex-boyfriend, free to live.Something transformed Martin and made her his drug. If he has his way, she’ll never achieve the freedom to learn his true nature and origin.
Adrian’s the new guy in school. He faked his identity to get close to Ophelia, knowing the monsters who took his diabetic sister would try to take Ophelia, too. Then, he’d have them. But, he knew better than to get too close.
Oh, yeah, he did. Seriously.
Nayuleska's thoughts
Orphelia is a trekkie! It's clear where a lot of the inspiration for Sugar Rush came from when Orphelia shares many of the lives that Kimber An does with all things sci-fi. Orphelia was an instant hit with me. I was so scared about her safety from her psycho boyfriend (who is incredibly creepy and will have you double-checking you've locked the doors), more so when I discovered just why he was so smitten with Orphelia. She has a pretty hard time living with diabetes, which is a full time disease that needs constant monitoring. I didn't know a lot about diabetes before reading this, but I understand a lot more now. On top of that she discovers that she's suddenly a very attractive dish to vampires, which up until recently she didn't really know existed. Orphelia is a scientist. And, as Kimber An herself will say - they aren't vampires, but alien/human hybrids. Orphelia finds the proof for that theory too! (In my view, they are vampires...but I wouldn't want to upset this author).
Orphelia's story isn't the only one that caught my interest. I love her sister Bianca. Bianca is hyper, and a drama queen. One of my favourite scenes (which also had me reaching for a tissue) was the sewing machine incident. It's clear that Orphelia will do anything to keep her family safe. Unfortunately, safe isn't a word which enters the book.
I think the only part of the book which didn't work for me was the transition between the first and second chapter. I can't put my finger on it, but it was a little off for me.
Final Conclusion
If you think vampires/alien-human hybrids have saturated the market, you'd be wrong. Sugar Rush is a new slant on vampires, with one of the most likeable heroines I've come across.
To keep up with this Alaskan author, check out her website here.
2 comments:
Ooh! I've been wanting to read this, Nayu. You made me want to read it even more! *excitement*
Does it come in PB? Will have to check!
Good morning, Nayu and Beth! And thanks for reviewing Sugar Rush for me, Nayu.
Yeah, I don't know what the deal is with the transition between Chapters 1 and 2. I can tell you it was rewritten a million times! It was the hardest beginning of any story I have ever written, I swear to dog! The hardest parts of a novel to write, for me, are the first paragraph, the first page, the first chapter, and the first three chapters. It's absolute heck.
I think it's so hard for me because the story originally dumps out of my head in a huge mess. It's this one big long story and I have to pull one little slice out and make sense of it. A lot of writers write from an outline. I create an outline AFTER I create the story as a means to sort out the mess.
Anyway, I created the vampire-like alien/human hybrids first, but I realized they wouldn't make sense if I didn't bring in 'real' vampires. So, that's why the Newbloods (alien/human hybrids) are addicted to diabetic blood, but the Oldbloods are not. The Oldbloods originated the vampire myth. The really humiliating thing is I didn't know much about the mythic vampire, so I, um, had to go look 'em up on Wikipedia.
My daughter just made me read Twilight and I just became interested in Buffy the Vampire Slayer after watching a YouTube video clip. I'm a little slow on the draw, but I get there eventually.
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