Wednesday 23 August 2017

#BookReview Graveyard Shift by Michael F. Haspil @torbooks

Graveyard Shift by Michael F. Haspil
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Alex Menkaure, former pharaoh and mummy, and his vampire partner, Marcus, who was born in ancient Rome, once hunted evil vampires for UMBRA, a super-secret unit of the NSA. That was before the discovery of a blood substitute and a Supreme Court ruling allowed thousands of vampires to integrate into society.

Now, Alex and Marcus are vice cops in a special police unit. They fight to keep the streets safe from criminal vampires, shape-shifters, blood-dealers, and anti-vampire vigilantes.

When someone starts poisoning the artificial blood, race relations between vampires and humans deteriorate to the brink of anarchy. While the city threatens to tear itself apart, Alex and Marcus must form an unnatural alliance with a vigilante gang and a shape-shifter woman in a desperate battle against an ancient vampire conspiracy.

If they succeed, they'll be pariahs, hunted by everyone. If they fail, the result will be a race-war bloodierthan any the world has ever seen.


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First I want to say that I tend to stay away from vampire books nowadays, it's just a book motif that has been done so many times now that I feel it's been overdone and I prefer other paranormal creatures. As long as it's not zombies, I feel the same way about zombies. However, the main characters in this book, Alex Menkaure, is a former pharaoh and mummy. That sold me, and I thought "what the heck, let's hope the vampire storyline works!"

And, yes and no, it was not that bad, I liked the book, but I felt that the whole vampire conspiracy plot didn't totally rock my boat. But, at the same time, I really liked both Alex and his vampire partner Marcus who was born in ancient Rome. This is the kind of book that, despite the storyline not completely enthralled me still was enjoyable thanks to awesome characters actually made me enjoy the book and want more. This book really has the feeling of being the first in a series since we only gotten to know some tidbits about Alex, that some woman has made him the way he is today, but not why or who she really was. And, I want to know more about both Alex and Marcus pasts. How they met, the years the work together for UMBRA, etc.

Now, I know I was a bit negative when it came to the plot of the book. I did find part of the book quite good, it was more that I didn't truly love the story. It's definitely an OK book and I guess I just wanted it to get to me more than it did. I did like the vampire aspects of the book, them being known to the humans. And, it was refreshing to find a vampire book that actually worked for me. I just hope that the next book will have a stronger story, one that will captivate me. Because I truly loved the idea of reading a book about a main male character who is a mummy.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

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