ReVamped - Ada Adams

ReVamped (Angel Creek #1) - Ada Adams
Grade: YA
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

A simple mission turned deadly.

Nineteen-year-old vampire Dawn has led a sheltered life within the confines of her father’s presidential headquarters. Upon being sent on a mission to revamp four goofy misfits into guardians of a peaceful little town of Angel Creek, Dawn believes that all her dreams have finally come true. What starts off as a simple task, turns into something unexpected, changing Dawn’s life forever and leading the action-loving, thrill-seeking vampire teen on a path of mystery, danger and intrigue.

When a human girl is kidnapped by a group of rogue vamps, Dawn discovers that there is more going on in Angel Creek than meets the eye. And it all connects to Ethan, the cute newcomer who seems too perfect to be true, Sebastian, the mysterious vampire with a turbulent past, and even Dawn herself. Dawn must not only succeed in revamping the troubled recruits, but must also prevent the vampire race from being overtaken by a malevolent villain who has a strange and obsessive fascination with her. As threat escalates, romance blooms, and ghosts from her past begin to surface, Dawn is sure of only one thing: her life will never be the same. (Description from Goodreads)

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When I was asked to join the ReVamped Relay I was instantly intrigued, and not just because I’ve been craving more vampire stories lately. Ada Adams’s ‘ReVamped’ looked like the perfect story for me. A tough, but cool female lead, protecting humans, solving mysteries and falling in love? Who wouldn’t want to read this one! I couldn’t wait to dive right in.

I love a good mystery and ‘ReVamped’ did not disappoint. Trouble arrives when Dawn, our main character, moves to Angel Creek to train a new group of vampires to guard the town. Dawn expected everything to go smoothly; what she didn’t expect was to be attacked by rogue vampires who want to kidnap her. The struggle to discover why Dawn is wanted and the action and shocking revelations that follow make for an exciting story that moves so quickly towards the end of the novel. There were quite a few twists that left me with my mouth hanging wide open, which is always a plus in my books. I like when novels throw curve balls into the plot that you never saw coming, it definitely raises the action to a new level.

There were two parts of this novel that stood out for me above everything else – the main character, Dawn; and the vampire world. It might be a little strange to say the main character was something that was exceptional for a story – you’d hope that the main character has spark – but I really liked her position in the story. Dawn is a 19 year old vampire. I don’t mean she’s been a vamp for 19 years, but that her age is 19. This shocked me. How often do you find a main character in a YA story that is 19? It’s an age range that is often skipped. Characters miss the 19-22 years – it’s just not done. I really liked that from the start Dawn’s character pushed the boundaries. Combine that with the fact that she’s a fighter, a vampire, comes from an important family and cares deeply for the people she works with and you have yourself a really neat leading lady.

Then we have the vampires – they’re not the type that hides...not anymore. Vampires are out in the open and most of them are trying to protect the humans. But what grabbed my attention was the fact that there are two ways to become vampires: be turned by another vampire’s blood or be born a vamp (in a complicated and rare way that’s best explained in the store by Ada) I really liked that there was more than one type of vampire in Ada’s world. It gave the story more of an edge.

And of course – what would a book be without a little romance. Dawn has a tough choice with two hot guys thrown in her path: Ethan, the human bartender who stumbles into the vampire world in an unexpected way; and Sebastian, the unknown vampire with a mysterious past who seems to know more than he lets on. The choice might be difficult for Dawn – but I couldn’t help falling for Sebastian immediately. He’s one cool vampire.

I did have a few issues with the language. At times it was very simple and seemed young. It matched the teen feel very well and made it easy to get through, but I found it harder to connect to the characters when their personalities were so overly Hollywood-teen like. But it wasn’t enough to put me off the book; I was able to move past it. The characters go through quite a few changes during the story, you see them evolve a bit; I noticed the teen-feel less by the end.

I’ll be interested to see what Dawn gets up to next.

3.5/5 stars


Kim
(Originally posted on Goodreads)