Laney by Joann I. Martin Sowles

Title: Laney: The Brookehaven Vampires
Author: Joann I. Martin Sowles
Published: October 2010 by Brookehaven

My Rating: 4.5 stars
Tags: YA | Romance | Paranormal | Series (Book 1)
Includes: Brief profanity, Sexuality, Violence

First Lines: "Laney, wake up." My eyes snapped open with a start.

Laney Alexander, a typical sophomore college student, is finally free from her overprotective aunt and is ready to experience life with her best friend Kiera. On her first day back to college, she encounters the handsome, charming, and mysterious Oliver Knight that's in all of her classes, not to mention shares the same apartment building as her. As they begin spending every minute of the day together, they immediately fall for one another. But Laney soon learns that life with Oliver is anything but normal. As they must fight for their lives and love, against Oliver's evil brother, Laney really does experience the thrills of life like she wanted.

From page 222
There was a snarl behind us. We all spun around and through the craze of the crowd we saw a vampire coming at us with his fangs bared. He looked feral and insane. His eyes bore down on us with a demonic leer and I scrambled to get closer to Oliver. He was getting closer faster than should've been possible.

This book has a mixture of just about everything: paranormal creatures, nail-biting suspense, sexy romance, sarcastic humor, and kick-butt action scenes. I've read so many vampire books lately that all seem alike, so I started this one expecting the same thing over again. During the first half, I wasn't too thrilled because it felt like I was simply re-reading Twilight. Oliver's personality was pretty much identical to Edward's and a few of the scenes were similar to Twilight, too. His unnatural beauty was mentioned on like every page near the beginning, but thankfully he didn't sparkle! However, once their undying love for each other was fully developed and some problems started to arise, the novel became its own. I really liked the author's unique spin off of vampires and their lifestyles, it was different than any other vampire book I've read - I especially liked the 'bonding' idea she created. I surprisingly didn't have a single question either! Usually with paranormal books I have many unanswered questions, but I was delighted to easily understand exactly how the vampire life worked.

Oh man, the steamy chemistry between Oliver and Laney was ridiculous, in a good way; they were made for each other! Even if you're not a vampire lover, but enjoy romance books, then I insist that you read this book. The hardcore kissing scenes and cute flirting between the couple were so romantic and sweet. Since the two of them are mature and in college, I could easily believe their love rather than in some young adult books where they are 'in love' by the third chapter. The author did a fantastic job at creating and developing this love at a nice pace.

I could definitely see this book/series becoming a movie in due time. The adventure and action scenes were brilliant and I couldn't put the novel down. Characterization was spot-on and I really stepped into Laney's mind and seemed to become her and experience the novel through her eyes. One thing that was a big issue for me though was all of the many grammatical errors. I'm not sure why, since I was reading the actual book and not an ARC, but it seemed like I found an error on every other page! However, that's about the only complaint I can think of about this wonderful book. I urge everyone to read it - well that is, older teenagers because of the romance. I can't wait to read the next installment in the series! Joann Sowles is an author to watch.

Cover Thoughts: It's just alright to me - the colors and picture were chosen well, but it doesn't scream originality or anything.

Book Supplied by: Author for review.