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A review by briarsreviews
Boys that Bite by Mari Mancusi
5.0
Book Title: Boys that Bite (Blood Coven Vampire #1)
Book Author: Mari Mancusi
Introduction: I read this book WAAAAAAAAY back when (like, way back when I was probably in early high school way back) and I absolutely loved it back then. I remember reading this book on the way to a swim meet on a bus filled with athletes who didn't want to talk to me (I was a minor niner who was a great swimmer so I got to go with the grade twelves who were also great swimmers to a meet) so I decided to let my inner book worm come out. Long story short, I read four books of the series there, and was incredibly upset that I left the rest of the series at home.
So, Mari Mancusi rebooted the book from my understanding so of course I wanted to reread it. Out of all the vampire books I obsessed over in my high school years, Mari Mancusi's Blood Coven Vampires was one of my favourite (Alongside Vladimir Todd and Vampire Kisses) so I wanted to get my hands on a copy! And guess what happened? I wiggled my way into a group that reads this very series so I got a copy sent to me!
My review is simply a review - it was not requested to be nice, it was simply provide a review and we'll continue throwing this series at you. So how could I argue? I loved this series and I had been meaning to pick it back up as some point anyways! It's my guilty pleasure!
Now off to the super spoiler-y review...
Review:
Rayne and Sunny are adorable. While the names are a tad silly (has anyone actually named their children like this? Please, leave me a link for proof. Maybe I live in too small of a town to see this being common), they are fantastic characters. Re-reading the series makes me wonder why having their names Rayne and Sunny was so important - was it for dramatic effect? Was it to show they are opposites? Was it just for comedy?
When Magnus appears, it still makes my heart pound. He was one of my book crushes, and I still adore him. How can you not? He's super hot and a great ying to our Sunny's yang. He's introduced as dark and sexy, which is how you want a YA/teen heart throb to be introduced. Mari does an incredible job expanding on his character -he's not just tall, dark, handsome and brooding. Slowly over the course of this series she delves deeper into this. Now as an adult, I really appreciate that. As a teenie bopper, YA-teenage addict back in the day, I wasn't as appreciative of the hard work she put in.
Bonus Marks: Shout out to Emma Stone!!
Cheesey factor aside, I really did enjoy the entire Sunny accidentally stepping in for Rayne portion of this novel. It's early on, and you can see it coming if you love your soap operas (like I do...), but it's still a great way to get this series started. It starts the series off with a bang and makes the entire potential plot flip upside down. What do you do if you accidentally step in and become a vampire instead of your sister? It's a great start! I still enjoy it, despite the slight cheesiness that goes along with it.
Mari is also the queen of vampire comedy. Random comments fly left and right (sarcastically, insultingly, and many other forms of comedy) and it makes this book better. Does it make it cheesey? Probably. Is this supposed to be a Shakespearean YA novel? Nope!! So it fits in perfectly! This book has a splash of comedy in it! That's one of the great aspects of it!
Bonus Marks: "Vamps-R-Us.com" and the Batman reference. Mari knows the way to my heart...
Overall, this book still holds up for me. When I was a teenager it was a lot "cooler" - the tone definitely fits a YA audience. Since I'm an adult now, I really do enjoy it. It's funny, slightly cheesey, and has the perfect amounts of romance, drama and comedy to make a really great book.
This book won't be for everyone, but as a throwback for me it's excellent. I definitely suggest this book to those who like the YA genre, who want just a splash of cheesey, soap opera-y drama or who want to read a different take on the vampire genre.
Forewarning: This book sounds like it's written by a teenager (isn't that kind of the point? The narrators are sixteen years old?). I have seen many, many, many, many complaints about this but you need to understand: THE NARRATORS ARE SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. If you have a problem with that, you need to see that this book is a YA novel. It's not a steamy, EL James Fifty Shades of Grey or Shakespearean novel. It's a YA vampire novel. That is all.
Five out of five stars!
Book Author: Mari Mancusi
Introduction: I read this book WAAAAAAAAY back when (like, way back when I was probably in early high school way back) and I absolutely loved it back then. I remember reading this book on the way to a swim meet on a bus filled with athletes who didn't want to talk to me (I was a minor niner who was a great swimmer so I got to go with the grade twelves who were also great swimmers to a meet) so I decided to let my inner book worm come out. Long story short, I read four books of the series there, and was incredibly upset that I left the rest of the series at home.
So, Mari Mancusi rebooted the book from my understanding so of course I wanted to reread it. Out of all the vampire books I obsessed over in my high school years, Mari Mancusi's Blood Coven Vampires was one of my favourite (Alongside Vladimir Todd and Vampire Kisses) so I wanted to get my hands on a copy! And guess what happened? I wiggled my way into a group that reads this very series so I got a copy sent to me!
My review is simply a review - it was not requested to be nice, it was simply provide a review and we'll continue throwing this series at you. So how could I argue? I loved this series and I had been meaning to pick it back up as some point anyways! It's my guilty pleasure!
Now off to the super spoiler-y review...
Review:
Rayne and Sunny are adorable. While the names are a tad silly (has anyone actually named their children like this? Please, leave me a link for proof. Maybe I live in too small of a town to see this being common), they are fantastic characters. Re-reading the series makes me wonder why having their names Rayne and Sunny was so important - was it for dramatic effect? Was it to show they are opposites? Was it just for comedy?
When Magnus appears, it still makes my heart pound. He was one of my book crushes, and I still adore him. How can you not? He's super hot and a great ying to our Sunny's yang. He's introduced as dark and sexy, which is how you want a YA/teen heart throb to be introduced. Mari does an incredible job expanding on his character -he's not just tall, dark, handsome and brooding. Slowly over the course of this series she delves deeper into this. Now as an adult, I really appreciate that. As a teenie bopper, YA-teenage addict back in the day, I wasn't as appreciative of the hard work she put in.
Bonus Marks: Shout out to Emma Stone!!
Cheesey factor aside, I really did enjoy the entire Sunny accidentally stepping in for Rayne portion of this novel. It's early on, and you can see it coming if you love your soap operas (like I do...), but it's still a great way to get this series started. It starts the series off with a bang and makes the entire potential plot flip upside down. What do you do if you accidentally step in and become a vampire instead of your sister? It's a great start! I still enjoy it, despite the slight cheesiness that goes along with it.
Mari is also the queen of vampire comedy. Random comments fly left and right (sarcastically, insultingly, and many other forms of comedy) and it makes this book better. Does it make it cheesey? Probably. Is this supposed to be a Shakespearean YA novel? Nope!! So it fits in perfectly! This book has a splash of comedy in it! That's one of the great aspects of it!
Bonus Marks: "Vamps-R-Us.com" and the Batman reference. Mari knows the way to my heart...
Overall, this book still holds up for me. When I was a teenager it was a lot "cooler" - the tone definitely fits a YA audience. Since I'm an adult now, I really do enjoy it. It's funny, slightly cheesey, and has the perfect amounts of romance, drama and comedy to make a really great book.
This book won't be for everyone, but as a throwback for me it's excellent. I definitely suggest this book to those who like the YA genre, who want just a splash of cheesey, soap opera-y drama or who want to read a different take on the vampire genre.
Forewarning: This book sounds like it's written by a teenager (isn't that kind of the point? The narrators are sixteen years old?). I have seen many, many, many, many complaints about this but you need to understand: THE NARRATORS ARE SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. If you have a problem with that, you need to see that this book is a YA novel. It's not a steamy, EL James Fifty Shades of Grey or Shakespearean novel. It's a YA vampire novel. That is all.
Five out of five stars!