Derek Novak – Kbooklover: Living + Loving + Reading

“Just because sandcastles are temporary, it never stopped me from making them as beautiful as possible.”

– A Shade of Blood by Bella Forrest

I posted my review of the Kindle edition of A Shade Of Blood in 2013 in this Blog but it wasn’t until years later that I bought the audiobook and it was this week when I finally started listening to it (using my Amazon Echo Dot while I was doing things around my apartment).

It was nice to go back to the story of Derek and Sofia and I’m planning on resume reading the A Shade of Vampire Series.

It was enjoyable listening to this Audiobook and I especially liked the chapters narrated by males, my favorites being the ones in Derek’s POV.

The choice in narrator for Derek Novak was spot on and it made me look for more books narrated by him (I truly loved his taking on the character and his voice, and I think he makes a perfect Derek). Searching in Audible I found out his name is Zachary Webber, and he’s also Christian Grey in the Audiobook version of Grey and Darker (Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian) and a narrator in Maybe Someday and November 9 by Colleen Hoover, among other books (I have these other four Audiobooks in my Audible library and I plan on listening to them this year).

If you like Fantasy, YA and Paranormal Romance books the A Shade of Vampire series is a good option for you to explore.

Book Description (from Goodreads):

What Sofia has with Derek feels like a sandcastle; temporary and something that the waves of life and time will soon ruin…

Since the return of Gregor Novak, the island has turned several shades darker. His hatred toward Sofia and thirst for fresh blood lead to a brutal war igniting between father and son.

Meanwhile, the hunters are gaining formidable strength and resources by the day; they know that the safety of The Shade hangs entirely on its ability to remain hidden from them.

And a sinister secret lies in wait for Sofia within the bowls of an Egyptian desert … a secret that threatens to crush her sandcastle much sooner than she could have expected.

Book Review:

“What we have is a sandcastle, temporary, but beautiful and we can only treasure and enjoy it for as long as nature allow us”.

The first third of the book has a slow pace but it provides a good insight about the relationship between Sofia and Derek and also about the life in The Shade (these characters start to see and face the real challenges for their relationship), as you advance in the book the action begins (and is really good).

In this book, apart from the protagonists Sofia and Derek, there are some good secondary characters that enrich the world that the author created for this Series (and I have to admit that I liked more Ben in this book that in the previous).

I think the title of the book is perfect (I liked the references to sandcastles and how they fit into the story), also I love how the author use the multiple POVs in her writing (I believe that’s what makes me feel more connected to the characters).

Overall, I enjoyed this book (it started a little slow, but as I kept reading I loved that it had some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming), I liked the action, the suspense, the intensity and by the end I was so immersed in the story (as it happened when I read the two prior books in the Series) that I didn’t wanted it to finish.

Would I recommend it? Yes, specially to people who enjoys paranormal romance.
Am I going to read the next book? Definitely, as usual the author left me anxiously waiting for the next book