The Descendant, Kelley Grealis

Publishers: KG Publishing

Pages: 288

Main Characters:

Allison, Victor, Marlo

Allison had always been told that she is special and will do something great with her life. But, as life usually turns out, Allison is stuck in a job that she can’t stand in a town she feels trapped in. And when she comes down with a mystery illness that gives her an extremely sore stomach and throat, uncontrollable body temperature and insomnia, she puts it down to the ‘mid-life crisis’ she feels she’s in. What’s even stranger about the sickness is that no doctor can diagnose her with any illness and continually sends Allison home with no aid to get rid of the awful pain. Even though the doctors can’t diagnose anything wrong with Allison, her husband Matt knows she isn’t imagining things as Allison’s insomnia keeps him awake at night!

To try and cheer her up, Matt takes Allison to a friend’s birthday party. After a few drinks, Allison doesn’t feel any better and drives Matt and herself home. On the drive home, Allison and Matt’s car is crashed into and she and Matt are knocked unconscious!

Allison wakes in a hospital several days later asking for her husband. She is shocked to find that her husband has been dead for three years and that the crash has caused her to lose some of her memory. When she is discharged from the hospital, Allison is driven home buy a friend. When she arrives home, she discovers pictures of her in another handsome man’s arms but has no idea who the man is! That evening, the mysterious man comes around to Allison’s house and introduces himself as Vincent and explains that he and Allison have been dating for the last year. At first, Allison does not believe his story, but after spending more time with Vincent, she realises that she does in fact love him and accepts that her beloved husband Matt did really die three years ago.

However, Allison soon realises that Vincent holds a very dark secret and that there is a reason why she has always felt special in her life. As Vincent reveals, Allison is not just a normal human being but a descendant of the first ever vampire, Cain! Allison is thrown into a world she never realised existed. But because of her infamous ancestors, Allison is hunted in the vampire world by Luscious; an evil vampire obsessed with ending Cain’s lineage! Vincent and his siblings must keep Allison safe but that is no easy task…

For me, this was a book of two halves and even though I did enjoy both halves I thought the story behind the first part of the book was really great. I loved the mystery behind Alison’s illness and why she was feeling depressed and unfulfilled.  I also thought the mystery behind her car crash and the death/memory loss over Matt made the book really interesting to read. This is because you kept asking yourself  ‘was or wasn’t’ he really alive? Plus, Vincent’s character was much more appealing in this half of the book. He was the cool, rich kid who wasn’t afraid of a good time.

However, in the second half of the book (the part that introduced the vampires) I thought the mystery behind Matt was forgotten right until the end. I also found Vincent really annoying! I don’t want to give too much away, but I think maybe Grealis made him more unlikeable on purpose (which does sort of make sense when you read the book) but I still preferred him in the first half. Nevertheless, I did like the idea of the Secret Coven and I think it would be great that if in the next book the different members back stories were broaden a little more.

All in all, I did enjoy this book but I preferred the first half to the second. I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys Vampire novels such as Legacy of the Vampire: The Pits by Kristofer McLaren or novels such as Destine by Katherine Polillo. If you’d like to purchase this novel, it is available for eReaders at Smashwords.com and for Kindles at Amazon.co.uk or in paperback here.

For author’s official website click here.

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