Tara Shuler

I enjoy YA fiction and found this to be a captivating and interesting read. I liked the different take on vampires - not being portrayed as immortal and had families and children. To me this was an interesting baseline for the story.

I enjoyed the characters but found myself getting frustrated with Kai's immaturity - a total difference from the self-confident Max.

This is a captivating read and will appeal to those that enjoy Twilight and other YA paranormal romances. Be warned that this is show more a cliff-hanger (UGH! Now I NEED to know what happens next!) that contains no sex, but some offensive language.

I received this book from the author through LibraryThing for me to honestly review. show less

I don't know, I'm really not sold on this book. The plot was not entirely believable at times, I was a little bothered by how quickly they decided they were absolutely in love, and many scenes between Alice and Kai were textbook abusive relationship in flavor. It's a story that has potential in it, but I think it needed more developing to quite get there.

I loved that the vampire was a female instead of the sterotypical male. This has some unique observations on vampires and did provide a good back story. I was dissapointed that it ended. I am looking forward to the next in the series.

"Shelter" provides an interesting interpretation on vampire lore. These vampires are not immortal, they simply age well. They do not perish from holy water or fear garlic, and a bullet to the heart will do just as well as a stake. Most importantly: vampires are a race, not a communicable disease. Our protagonist is Alice, a seventeen year old vampiress who is forced to enroll into human high school for her last year of school. She is reluctant to enroll -- after all, humans are purely food. show more

Alice immediately falls head over heels for whiny, downtrodden Kai. Alice is a sweet soul and is immediately attracted to the wounded underdog, who she does not realize is entangling her into a potentially emotionally abusive/controlling relationship ("Promise you'll never leave me," he says early in their relationship. On day two, he texts, "I love you," and he is prone to calling her obsessively and violent bursts of jealousy. All in all, he makes a horrifying example of young love for the pre-teen set). Almost immediately, she meets another sexy, magnetic, new student Max, who is also inexplicably drawn to Alice and who charms her with his heart of gold. As a reader, I felt zero attachment towards these characters. They never felt realistic, they were always unnatural caricatures.

Shuler has composed a short, fast-paced story that makes for a quick read. This book is suited towards a younger audience, who will find the heated kissing scenes scintillating and who will not judge the characters for their lame dialogue or their frighteningly rapid attachments.

(Disclaimer: I was provided with a free ebook by the author) show less