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A review by nooralshanti
The Replacement: Book 1 of The Replacement Series by Bianca Sierra
3.0
In The Replacement, author Bianca Sierra-Luebke takes pretty much every single thing I hate in fiction and somehow manages to make me like it! I think you call that good writing. It's an Urban-Fantasy-type story that begins with a teenage girl who is captured by the vampiric alien race called "Lymerians" while she's attempting to run away with her Lymerian boyfriend. What follows is a well-written initiation into Lymerian society with several characters that make you care and social structure that is both intriguing and well-thought out. Even though, as I mentioned before, it has pretty much everything I usually hate (love stories, vampires, etc) I probably would have given this book four stars if it didn't end on a cliffhanger.
The world-building behind this story is extensive and it's revealed in such a smooth, natural way throughout the story so that the reader is able to effortlessly slip into Lymerian society and understand the basic workings of it while still leaving many questions and mysteries intriguingly open. I'm not used to thinking of this sub-genre of fantasy as having such great world-building, but again, this book truly shows the author's skill.
The characterizations are also great. What might seem like your typical teenager-falls-in-love with vampire at first glance turns into this book full of complex relationships between several different characters that all have their own interesting backgrounds, desires, and motivations. And there are some great twists that rely on this character development and are pretty shocking and unexpected when you realize all the subtle betrayals and lies - both intentional and unintentional - that are going on. The only warning I would have about this is the weird way the blood-sharing is mixed with intimacy which I found a bit concerning, especially when I think that the intended audience for this is YA. With that being said, it was all well-written, so well-written that I really wanted some answers by the end of the book, but unfortunately it ended on a cliffhanger.
I don't think I would have minded the cliffhanger so much if I hadn't come to a point where I really cared about the characters and their fates and pasts. Everything was well-paced until the very end and I was really into it, but I just needed at least a little hint of all the mysteries that are supposed to be revealed in the second book. If there were even a few pargraphs, just one short page, showing us at least the tip of the iceberg of what was about to revealed I wouldn't mind so much.
Anyway, if you like Urban fantasy and vampires you'll definitely love this. And if, like me, you lean more towards epic fantasy with strong world-building you will likely also enjoy it - just be prepared for a cliffhanger at the end.
The world-building behind this story is extensive and it's revealed in such a smooth, natural way throughout the story so that the reader is able to effortlessly slip into Lymerian society and understand the basic workings of it while still leaving many questions and mysteries intriguingly open. I'm not used to thinking of this sub-genre of fantasy as having such great world-building, but again, this book truly shows the author's skill.
The characterizations are also great. What might seem like your typical teenager-falls-in-love with vampire at first glance turns into this book full of complex relationships between several different characters that all have their own interesting backgrounds, desires, and motivations. And there are some great twists that rely on this character development and are pretty shocking and unexpected when you realize all the subtle betrayals and lies - both intentional and unintentional - that are going on. The only warning I would have about this is the weird way the blood-sharing is mixed with intimacy which I found a bit concerning, especially when I think that the intended audience for this is YA. With that being said, it was all well-written, so well-written that I really wanted some answers by the end of the book, but unfortunately it ended on a cliffhanger.
I don't think I would have minded the cliffhanger so much if I hadn't come to a point where I really cared about the characters and their fates and pasts. Everything was well-paced until the very end and I was really into it, but I just needed at least a little hint of all the mysteries that are supposed to be revealed in the second book. If there were even a few pargraphs, just one short page, showing us at least the tip of the iceberg of what was about to revealed I wouldn't mind so much.
Anyway, if you like Urban fantasy and vampires you'll definitely love this. And if, like me, you lean more towards epic fantasy with strong world-building you will likely also enjoy it - just be prepared for a cliffhanger at the end.