Review: ReVamped by Ada Adams

31 July, 2013 Reviews 63 comments

Review: ReVamped by Ada AdamsReVamped by Ada Adams
Series: Angel Creek #1
Published by Self-Published on 20th February 2012
Pages: 291
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Amazon・ Good Books・Book Depository
Goodreads
two-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.

Sometimes I see a book tweeted about, or mentioned somewhere, and on the spur of the moment I’ll buy it.  Randomly, I’ll neglect my careful pile of TBR ARCs that I’m supposed to be reading, deviate from my schedule and try something completely left wing.  Sometimes this turns out really great.  Sometimes it doesn’t.

This was one of those times where it doesn’t.  Ever been in a dream that you kind of liked, though couldn’t help but notice that it made absolutely no sense?  If you don’t, ReVamped is a great way to experience the sensation for yourself.  A young, president’s daughter is off on her first assignment!  To unite a ragtag group of weirdo vamps and turn them into a team!  For reasons…

Unfortunately, things go awry when mysterious forces work to attempt to kidnap her!  For reasons…

Luckily, there is a super hot guy who is mysterious, sexy, there to protect her and somehow knows something about her!  For reasons…

ReVamped was kind of like if you took The Vampire Diaries and Mighty Ducks and created some kind of weird baby.

Mighty-Ducks

There has got to be a fanfic of this somewhere…

It had the same kind of small-world,plot twists where everyone is related/knows each other somehow.  Drama!  So much drama!  And the ragtag group was, on one hand, extremely formulaic and, on the other, probably the best thing about this novel.  They were funny, interesting characters – eventually.  Unfortunately, getting them there required the smoothest road of annoying blandness I’ve ever come across.

Indeed, the beginning and ending of this story are its weakest links.  The very beginning because the author hasn’t finessed the balance of info dumping and narrative commencement.  Thus the beginning was like an alarmingly boring series on infomercials where I was left wondering if I could just skip it or flip to another channel.

“How’s it going, Dad?” I asked.

*Insert two paragraph explanation on protagonist’s relationship to father.

“Swell, daughter, I’m off to see the president tomorrow!”

*Insert three paragraph explanation on how her father is the president of vampires and how that came about.

“Oh, wonderful!  Hey can I totes head out of here on a mission?  I’m heaps bored.”

*Insert two paragraphs of the protagonist wallowing over her caged childhood and giving her entire back story.

“Sure.”

*Insert characters extreme excitement and mental checklist of everything she’s going to do*

It was so clunky and awkward that I found myself cringing, this was proceeded by the most inane, colourless writing, though that did improve.  It read a lot like a child’s fanfiction, which was interesting as the writing did pick up a good deal more later in the story.

The romance with the lead character was absolutely bland.  It seemed there was more focus on making him as mysterious and surly as possible to shoehorn him into a popular archetype than to actually develop him as a character, or the relationship in any meaningful way.  I felt like I slipped on a banana and they were in love.

Throw in some fiendish, mustache-twirling villains, a completely ridiculous ending which stretched even my ability to suspend my disbelief and you end up with ReVamped.  Something that seemed to realize how campy and silly it was, but ultimately, never managed to pack in the fun, vitality and necessary introspection to really pull off the effect.

Over all, I cautiously advise reading the free sample before purchasing this one!

Kat Kennedy

Kat Kennedy

Co-blogger at Cuddlebuggery
Kat Kennedy is a book reviewer and aspiring author in the Young Adult genre. She reviews critically but humorously and get super excited about great books. Find her on GoodReads.
Kat Kennedy

63 Responses to “Review: ReVamped by Ada Adams”

  1. Ambrluvsports

    “I felt like I slipped on a banana and they were in love.”
    LOL. I wish I could steal this line.
    Great review. I like the formula breakdown – it was like a morph of In 10 Lines

    Reply

  2. ABookishHeart

    Wait, the Vampire Diaries and the Mighty Ducks?  Are you sure you didn’t love this one?!
    The info-dumping definitely sounds cringe-worthy and awkward.  Yikes.  
    I don’t see myself reading this one.  For reasons…

    Reply

  3. Fangs4Fantasy

    “I’ll neglect my careful pile of TBR ARCs that I’m supposed to be reading”
    Bad Kat! Bad Kat! Shame! SHAAAAAAAAAAAME (I totally do the same thing)
    And if there’s one thing I LOATHE in a book (and there’s so many more than one thing) it’s things happening for unspecified REASONS! I just have a mental image of the author with a big hammer, a square peg and a round hole desperately forcing their characters through a plot that JUST DOES NOT FIT!
    Random infodumping of irrelevant trivia that has no role in the story and involves characters literally monologuing their lives to themselves is a close second
    And in third is not providing a free drink. Books should start doing that.

    Reply

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