Boys that Bite

From the very first page, this book is pure enjoyment in the form of words! This is the type of book that doesn't try to take itself too seriously, and no I don't mean that it isn't written well. What I mean is that the blindingly obvious pun will jump off the page at you and all you can do is crack up laughing. Any book that makes references to Buffy, Angel and the whole Whedon crew automatically wins points with me! I don't want to ruin it by referencing it exactly, but let's just say that there is a Buffy reference in here that had me rolling with laughter! The jokes, the acerbic wit, all of it just made me fall completely in love with this book.

Now on to the characters. Those of you who read my reviews often know that I have to love show more my characters. If I'm to enjoy a book, they need to be interesting and fun! Enter Sunny and Rayne, the identical twins. They may be identical in appearance, but in personality they are total opposites. Sunny is the sporty, school-driven twin who is trying to get on the radar of the resident "Sex God". Rayne, on the other hand, is a goth at heart who has an affinity for the vampire kind. It was this yin and yang between them that allowed me to connect with both of them equally. They completed one another in the best way possible. There was such fantastic chemistry between them, and the witty banter was amazing!

Remember how I said that this book doesn't take itself too seriously? Well that means that you, my dear readers, shouldn't go into it without the proper mindset. Let me explain. Sunny is a teenager. Sunny does not want to be a vampire, especially not right before prom. Sunny deals with this issue like any typical teen would, with massive amounts of snide remarks and observations. So yes, it's true, sometimes Sunny can be a little obnoxious in the way she speaks and acts. However, keep in mind my friends, this is a satirical type of book. Think Buffy! It's meant to be taken with a grain of salt and big heaping helping of humor!

Can I be honest? I loved this book. Every single minute of it. Sure, there were times when I thought the "teen speak" might have seemed a little heavy, but I've read books (that I won't mention the name of) where this issue completely turned me off of reading the book and the rest of the series. Sunny's way of thinking and talking didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story at all. This is coming from vampire novel skeptic of the highest caliber. Trust me, it means a lot. Don't go into Boys That Bite expecting anything less than a fun and light read! If you're not smiling at least a little at the end of this book, you're either a robot or an alien. Both of which, I might add, are not nearly as cool as a vampire.

Book two here I come! show less

Sunny McDonald couldn't be more different than her identical twin Rayne. Sunny plays field hockey, is the understudy for the star of their high school musical, and has an unrequited crush on high school hottie Jake Wilder. Rayne is Goth and very interested in vampires. She even blogs about them.

One evening Rayne convinces Sunny to go with her to Club Fang for some vampire fun. Once there Sunny is hit on by another real hottie. Magnus picks her out of the crowd and takes her outside. Sunny thinks there will be a little kissing. She isn't expecting to be turned into a vampire!

Magnus has mistaken her for her twin and accidentally turned her into a vampire. She hasn't studied or filled out the forms or done anything that would qualify her show more to become a vampire. She doesn't want to be a vampire. When she finds out that there is a cure, she wants it even if it means traveling to England with Magnus and finding the Holy Grail.

While she and Magnus are together, Sunny begins to question whether or not she wants to become human again or spend an eternity with Magnus. This was a fun story with a pitch-perfect teenage voice. The story was written in 2006 and some of the cultural references might seem a little dated to today's readers. But the story of a young woman torn between two very different futures will resonate with today's readers quite well.

And that cliffhanger ending... show less

It's a light but enjoyable story!
I particularly liked the various cross-references to Buffy ("Bertha the Vampire Slayer" LOL) and other famous movies but, most of all, I found entertaining the business-like attitude the vampire's society assumed in order to promote and protect their lifestyles.

Book Title: Boys that Bite (Blood Coven Vampire #1)
Book Author: Mari Mancusi

Introduction: I read this book WAAAAAAAAY back when (like, way back when I was probably in early high school way back) and I absolutely loved it back then. I remember reading this book on the way to a swim meet on a bus filled with athletes who didn't want to talk to me (I was a minor niner who was a great swimmer so I got to go with the grade twelves who were also great swimmers to a meet) so I decided to let my inner book worm come out. Long story short, I read four books of the series there, and was incredibly upset that I left the rest of the series at home.

So, Mari Mancusi rebooted the book from my understanding so of course I wanted to reread it. Out of show more all the vampire books I obsessed over in my high school years, Mari Mancusi's Blood Coven Vampires was one of my favourite (Alongside Vladimir Todd and Vampire Kisses) so I wanted to get my hands on a copy! And guess what happened? I wiggled my way into a group that reads this very series so I got a copy sent to me!

My review is simply a review - it was not requested to be nice, it was simply provide a review and we'll continue throwing this series at you. So how could I argue? I loved this series and I had been meaning to pick it back up as some point anyways! It's my guilty pleasure!

Now off to the super spoiler-y review...

Review:
Rayne and Sunny are adorable. While the names are a tad silly (has anyone actually named their children like this? Please, leave me a link for proof. Maybe I live in too small of a town to see this being common), they are fantastic characters. Re-reading the series makes me wonder why having their names Rayne and Sunny was so important - was it for dramatic effect? Was it to show they are opposites? Was it just for comedy?

When Magnus appears, it still makes my heart pound. He was one of my book crushes, and I still adore him. How can you not? He's super hot and a great ying to our Sunny's yang. He's introduced as dark and sexy, which is how you want a YA/teen heart throb to be introduced. Mari does an incredible job expanding on his character -he's not just tall, dark, handsome and brooding. Slowly over the course of this series she delves deeper into this. Now as an adult, I really appreciate that. As a teenie bopper, YA-teenage addict back in the day, I wasn't as appreciative of the hard work she put in.

Bonus Marks: Shout out to Emma Stone!!

Cheesey factor aside, I really did enjoy the entire Sunny accidentally stepping in for Rayne portion of this novel. It's early on, and you can see it coming if you love your soap operas (like I do...), but it's still a great way to get this series started. It starts the series off with a bang and makes the entire potential plot flip upside down. What do you do if you accidentally step in and become a vampire instead of your sister? It's a great start! I still enjoy it, despite the slight cheesiness that goes along with it.

Mari is also the queen of vampire comedy. Random comments fly left and right (sarcastically, insultingly, and many other forms of comedy) and it makes this book better. Does it make it cheesey? Probably. Is this supposed to be a Shakespearean YA novel? Nope!! So it fits in perfectly! This book has a splash of comedy in it! That's one of the great aspects of it!

Bonus Marks: "Vamps-R-Us.com" and the Batman reference. Mari knows the way to my heart...

Overall, this book still holds up for me. When I was a teenager it was a lot "cooler" - the tone definitely fits a YA audience. Since I'm an adult now, I really do enjoy it. It's funny, slightly cheesey, and has the perfect amounts of romance, drama and comedy to make a really great book.

This book won't be for everyone, but as a throwback for me it's excellent. I definitely suggest this book to those who like the YA genre, who want just a splash of cheesey, soap opera-y drama or who want to read a different take on the vampire genre.

Forewarning: This book sounds like it's written by a teenager (isn't that kind of the point? The narrators are sixteen years old?). I have seen many, many, many, many complaints about this but you need to understand: THE NARRATORS ARE SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. If you have a problem with that, you need to see that this book is a YA novel. It's not a steamy, EL James Fifty Shades of Grey or Shakespearean novel. It's a YA vampire novel. That is all.

Five out of five stars! show less

Boys That Bite by Mari Mancusi

Paranormal YA romance. 1st in the Blood Coven Vampire series.
Definitely written for the younger crowd with plenty of current day references. Included teen angst and teen values as well as teen crushes and love.
Emphasis on innocence and the introduction to the darker world.
Light and easy read.
The only discordant note for me was the attitude of Sunny towards the slayer. Her issue wasn’t so much the danger but rather the weight and appearance of the slayer. Intolerable fat shaming.

First in a series. Epilogue makes it a cliffhanger.

I actually read this in the format of the [b:The Blood Coven Vampires, Volume 1|10557752|The Blood Coven Vampires, Volume 1|Mari Mancusi|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1302648570s/10557752.jpg|15464469], but what the heck.

Anyway, I REALLY enjoyed this book. It was a really fun and lght read. I especially loved all the puns and witty plays on words and vampire jokes. Seriously. There was at least one on EVERY SINGLE PAGE. It was amazing.

Also, the biggest irony of the book, which was hilarious: We are turning a Girl named SUNSHINE into a vampire.

I don't think I'm going to stop laughing at that for a very long time.

LOL!

Also, being a Buffy fan, I did appreciate all the Buffy references.

What I liked....I enjoyed that it was a simple, easy read, that quickly got your attention. It's a page turner and will leave readers wanting more by the end of the book. Mari Mancusi brings out the old vampire myths in a new way, that will definitely have you laughing. The humor kind of reminded me of the, Vampire Kisses Series by Ellen Schreiber. I also enjoyed that Sunny was a type of character who really resisted becoming a vampire, even if she was a bit closed-minded, which put a spin on most YA vampire genre books. Also the vampire was the type of character who wasn't like: "Don't become a vampire! Live your human life!!" Instead he was a bit self-centered and lonely and wanted Sunny to become a vampire. I would think, if I were a show more vampire, that after living a million-bajillion years that you be a bit self-centered and greedy. Are the characters relatable? To me, not really. But can you imagine them and understand them? Of course. The authors makes a simple plot into a 272 page book, that's interesting, fast paste, and you don't have to really think a lot while reading it. It's not complex, which is nice. So I definetly recommend this to anyone, even if you hate the vampire-genre.
What I didn't like..... I found the main protagonist, Sunny, thoughts to be really annoying at times. I don't like to label people/characters, but I found Sunny to be way to preppy. Also in the book the word: "vampire" was brought up like every page. I undersand that she doesn't want to become a vampire, but do we really need to hear about it every second? Though these two things that I disliked are rather my compliants then stuff that would be wrong with the book. But also, it would make sense for the main character to be thinking about it a lot because if I were in this situation I'd probably do the same thing. But I just wished, the word: "vampire", was toned down a bit.
Also, at the end of the bok you get to see Rayne's POV. Basically she narriates the ending, and I found from her thoughts that she's identically like Sunny. Like I understand that they're twins, but for moments on end I felt like I was listening to Sunny not Rayne. Was that suppose to be that way? I don't know. When Rayne talks, she sounds different from Sunny.
In All... it was a great book that anyone would love to read and I definetly recommend the book. I didn't really find anything wrong with book, just one person compliants. Anyways till next time, show less