#1)
by A.D.
Marrow
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Full Fathom Five Digital
Date of Publication: May 6th, 2015
The Nines, an elite group of
vampires, was established to stand as protection for their race. Fractured by
centuries of betrayal and loss, the group is now little more than myth, its
remaining members scarred and shattered.
Taris, the oldest living vampire, is
no stranger to loss and heartbreak. He is all that holds the Nines together as
they struggle to save themselves from total extinction.
Enter the beautiful and brilliant
Dr. Sarah Bridgeman, whose medical research has resulted in a breakthrough for
both humans and vampires. Her work may be the salvation this weary band of
guardians has been looking for.
Taris needs to reach Sarah and enlist
her help—before those aligned against him can act. Can a vampire king convince
a stunning young scientist to save a species that isn’t even supposed to exist?
For now, only one thing is certain:
no science can explain the explosive chemistry between them.
Chaos
and Moonlight is the first installment in the Order of the Nines series, and is
A. D. Marrow’s debut novel.
My
Rating: 3.5 Coffee Cups!!
Let me start by saying I did, in fact, enjoy this book
despite the lower ratings. I’ll explain my reasoning in a bit. I had been on
such a New Adult/Romance kick that when I saw the blurb of this book I decided
that I needed to get back to my roots and read what I’ve always loved.
Paranormal. Yeah I couldn’t go too far off the romance pack, but I’m a girl
what do you expect. This book helped to give me a quick hit. Chaos and
Moonlight in its heart is more sci-fi than paranormal IMO. It has the bad-ass,
old and cranky vampires but these paranormal beings are looking for a
scientific cure to a pretty imminent problem within their race- their inability
to produce children. The vampire race is close to becoming extinct. They cannot
have children or create new vampires, something in their blood is preventing
them from doing so.
Taris, the oldest living vampire, and his sister Kalin
have been in search of a cure for years. They hit the lowest of low points when
their adopted human daughter experiments on herself to a tragic end. Just when
they begin to feel all hope is lost they catch a disastrous talk show
interview. The brilliant Dr. Sarah Bridgeman essentially blows up on a pretty
obnoxious talk show host. But that’s not what catches Taris’s attention.
Besides the fact that he finds her utterly captivating is the fact that she is
on the show to talk about a serum to aid in organ donations. A serum that could
very well be their salvation. As Sarah and Taris work together you meet
baddies, dip a bit into the backstory of the other Nines and watch another love
story bloom. Oh by the way, the Order of the Nines are a closely held secret. An
elite guard that protects the Vampire race from any threats that may come their
way.
So, the reasoning for my 3.5 on the coffee cup meter.
There were quite a few unfinished thoughts. Thoughts such as why is Bane (the
baddie) actually bad? I’m suspecting (and hoping) that this is just A.D. Marrow’s
way of kick starting this series. Which I am definitely interested to follow.
Although I liked Taris and Sarah, they actually were not who kept me hooked. It
was the other Nines. Judah, Zillah, Rhiannon and most especially Achan that had
me reading more and more.
Excerpt:
"It was
several minutes before Sarah realized she wasn’t dreaming. The tall guy in her
room, the creepy guy on the stairs, all of it had been real. After about five
miles of telling herself to wake up, then looking at the tall guy who was
driving, then pinching herself, then telling herself to wake up again, then
looking at the tall guy some more, reality and the promise of a full-fledged
panic attack set in.
“I swear, if you let me go, I won’t tell
anyone, okay?” Sarah finally found her voice. She had a moment where she
thought that maybe this was a dream again, judging by the way the driver of the
car looked. He was dark and mysterious, chiseled from head to toe—she should
know, she all but crawled into him when they were running away from that other
guy. She couldn’t make out much in the dark of the truck’s cab, but even in the
faint light of the street lamps, something about this guy made her feel
different. Maybe it was his voice—that deep, gravelly, slightly British voice.
Maybe it was the smell that came off him, that
man-mixed-with-leather-and-aftershave smell.
“Who are you?” Her damned voice box
rebelled against her and her question came out in a whisper.
He was focused on the road, his eyes never
leaving it as he maneuvered the giant diesel truck in and out of the one a.m.
traffic. “I’ll explain everything when we get to where we are going. In the
meantime, just sit back and try to relax, okay?”
“Relax? Okay, yeah. I was taken out of my
bed in the middle of the night by some guy I don’t even know, and then I was
chased up the stairwell by a Sherman tank of a drag queen, and you tell me to
relax? Yeah right, pal! Listen, seriously, whatever ransom you’re asking for, I
can pay it. Just bring me to an ATM, and you can have whatever you want, okay?
Just let me go.”
“It’s not that simple, Dr. Bridgeman.”
“The hell it’s not. Look, just let me out,
and anything you want, it’s yours. Cross my heart, I won’t tell a soul you took
me.” She made a little crisscross motion over her heart.
“Like I said, Dr. Bridgeman, it’s not that
simple. I don’t need your money. I need you to do a job for me. That Sherman
tank drag queen apparently wants you to do the same job. I think, circumstances
being what they are, you might want to consider working for me.”
“Work, my ass.” Sarah mumbled to herself.
“Who the hell are you, anyway? And what job could I possibly do for you? I’m a
medical researcher, you dickhead.”
He didn’t bother looking at her. He took in
a deep breath and let out a long sigh.
“My name is Taris. I’m an
eight-hundred-year-old vampire, and I need you to use your medical research to
help me stop the slow yet brutal extinction of a race of people who really do
exist but are made into horror movie villains and romance novel heroes.”
When he was met
with silence, he glanced over to see her passed out cold in the seat.
“I knew it wouldn’t work.”
About the Author:
A.D. Marrow is a registered
Sapiophile, a proud geek since before geek was chic, and believes that everyone
deserves a happily ever after.
She lives in the foothills of North
Carolina with her ridiculously hot and amazingly supportive husband, three kids
that rock so hard there should be a national holiday for their awesomeness, two
really stupid dogs and a plethora of Post-it notes with book ideas to last her
until she’s 90.
Her childhood dream is realized in
the fact that YOU have cause to read her bio. She hopes that one day, it lends
her enough credibility to live out her second dream, which is to write an
episode of Doctor Who.
Her personal mantra echoes that of
Morticia Addams: “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos
for the fly.”
Twitter: @admarrow
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