Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Phantom Nights by Nola Sarina

Once again I was delighted to receive a message from author Nola Sarina asking me to review her new novella Phantom Nights. 
Phantom Nights is the third in the Vesper series and I have to say after reading the first two, Gilded Destiny and Jaded Touch, I was really looking forward to this latest addition to the series. You can follow these links if you want to read more about them.

Available from Amazon here:  Gilded Destiny 

Available from Amazon here:  Jaded Touch  


Phantom Nights by Nola Sarina. 

 Samantha Murphy isn’t afraid of the hallucinations that plague her nights. Phantoms aren’t real. They can’t hurt her. But then she meets a phantom who shakes her faith in her own psychosis: the impossibly fast and charming Sychar. He’s a Vesper... enslaved by a dark master and forbidden to consort with humans.

My Thought on Phantom Nights.

All I can start with is WOW Nola Sarina does it again!! 
This is a very well written novella that I found impossible to put down. The characters came to life in
a way that I could not believe. I really enjoyed Nola's first two novellas but this was something else. I won't go on, but I will leave you with one of my favorite lines...


'I hated the grim acceptance in his voice, the way he loathed his own existence 
yet could do nothing to change it.'
 


A brief excerpt.

I always knew I was crazy.
Most people probably think they’re crazy at some point or another... when they make assumptions about others that turn out to be false, or when a scorned lover calls them paranoid. But that’s not the kind of crazy I mean. I’m seriously crazy. Full-blown, see-things-in-the-dark, batshit nuts.
It started with window phantoms when I was a child. I couldn’t look out the windows after dark for fear of the faces I’d see staring back at me. No one else saw them, but I knew they were there. Vacant, black eyes sunk into pallid skin, beckoning me soundlessly through mouths open so wide it couldn’t be real.
Yet I saw them anyway. And while it was real to no one else, it was real enough to me. Cowered beneath blankets, shivering, unwilling to even blink for too long, I knew what lurked in the shadows beyond the walls. When morning broke and my mother came to wake me for school, I’d cry and throw the pillows at her, threading both hands into my hair and trying to rip it all from my scalp, banging my head against the headboard to quiet the phantoms. Only during the day could I rest without fear, chanting to myself, “It’s not real, Samantha. They can’t hurt you.”
Now, at eighteen years old, I’m crazier than ever before. I see new things. Not phantoms, but real dark creatures; monsters in the flesh without the barrier of window glass.
They are demons. Terrifying creatures. Things that prey on mankind in the night, shaped like men but darker inside than the black sky above. The wretched beings with mouths gaping open at me through windows as a child now slither through the dark streets around me, though they’re rare enough I hardly ever see them. I’m the only human who’s not oblivious. They’re so real to me. I’ve seen them, heard their voices, and even touched them. They call themselves Vespers.
And I’m madly, head-over-heels in love with one of them.

 You've read the excerpt here's where to buy the book

 

Friday, October 23, 2015

I, Vladimir - Early Reader's Comments.

 A few comments that were made by readers in the early stages of editing my novel  'I, Vladimir'.
 
The story which will travel through time and tells the tale of the oldest living vampire, Vladimir; his struggles living along side of humans; which was sometimes more out of convenience than one of mutual understanding-



To read the full Blurb visit I, Vladimir Cover Reveal & Blurb.
.

"Your characters are all so distinctly visible, and you have the tension knot strained perfectly."

"Well paced narrative with great detail and a wealth of imaginative creativity."

"Historically, this is minutely documented, making it more realistic than fantasy."

"I never would have read a vampire story before, but this has gripped me all along - testimony as to how great a novel it is."
 
 "Great character in Vladmir... humane but not human. Caring and consoling but still driven by desires that are carnal and base. It takes skill to convey such a complicated personality well, and Kaye accomplishes this in spades. It's as if he were born to it."
 
 
Watch this space for the release date.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

I, Vladimir Cover Reveal.



Hi all,
Well at last here it is the cover for my debut novel I, Vladimir.
It's taken so long and all of you have been extremely patient in waiting for this. I would like to say a huge thank you all that have shown such an interest, to my publisher Gentry Publishing, the editors, and designers. They've all worked incredibly hard.
Well here it is, I hope you love it as much as we do. Don't forget to read the blurb below. 
And remember to keep an eye out for the release date. 

All the best,
Daniel Kaye x





Blurb



My memory is different from yours. Over time you lose sight of people and places, dates are like the frayed edges of a painting that you will never see again. The faces and events still haunt me as if they happened yesterday. I remember every life I have taken for almost two thousand years.

For a long time, with our numbers growing, we had known safety. Throughout history, there had always been stories about us. Many believed them to be old wives’ tales. Never once did I believe our numbers could lead to our downfall.

 I have lived many lives and in all of that time, this was to become my darkest moment. The year was 1941 and war raged across Europe. Humans now traveled great distances to wage war on one another. The latest conflict had taken on a new face, a face of evil. One man had taken a sign of peace and placed it on a blood-red colored flag, which his troops followed into battle. Like locusts, they consumed everything in their path and invaded far off lands with little resistance.

As the war spread further, our clans divided into smaller groups to evade capture. We were forced farther east into colder, more hostile territory. Safe hiding places to sleep had become harder to find. I knew the day would come when we would be trapped, but never in my wildest dreams would have imagined it happening as it did.

                                      
                                                           Showing the wrap around cover, the back and front.