Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

I ordered The Coldest Girl in Coldtown after reading a kindle sample last month, and it lived up to my exceptions. Trash is the best way, a proper guilty pleasure read.


The Plot: Vampirism is regarded as an infectious disease, those who are bitten are quarantined in Coldtowns, and have the choice of either drinking human blood and completing the transition, or resisting the urge for eighty-eight days and remaining human. Either way, they're trapped in the Coldtown. When Tana wakes up after a party surrounded by her dead friend, she knows vampires were the cause. After rescuing her infected ex-boyfriend Aidan and a crazed, chained up vampire called Gavriel, the three make their way to the nearest Coldtown. Tana, Aidan and Gavriel enter the town each with their own agenda and a shaky alliance.  

This will no doubt be popular with the Twilight crowd, but in my opinion it's a better book. Tana is a better heroine by far than vapid Bella. Though of course, there is the now obligatory love triangle between Tana, Aidan and Gavriel, it's not the main event of the story, the danger of Coldtown and the desire for vengeance gives the plot the twist and turns. 

kindle samples 2

Continuing my quest to discover new authors, I downloaded a couple more kindle samples (the first part can be read here), here's my findings:-

Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor 

Synopsis: On a beach in Lagos, aliens first make contact with a marine-biologist, a rapper and a solider 

My Thoughts: After really enjoying the first sample if Nnedi Okorafor's work (Who Fears Death) I've ever read, I had high expectations. I wasn't immediately grabbed with this though, it does however have potential. I'm a fan of alien films/tv shows (star trek enterprise and voyager in particular) so this sounds like it would be my kind of thing. Basing it just of the short samples I've read though, I think I'd rather read Who Fears Death first.

Verdict: would like to read the full book.      

The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, Holly Black 

Synopsis: Vampirism is regarded as an infectious disease, those who contaminated are contained in Cold Towns, and ostracised from the rest or the society.

My Thoughts: I secretly liked this. I say secretly because it's not the sort of book I'd like to be caught reading in public, so it's ideal for kindle, it's kind of trashy. It's YA fiction so no doubt will be full of teen angst, and I suspect a love triangle. Holly Black as certainly jumped on the Twilight bandwagon. Which means this novel is pure easy-reading escapism. 

Verdict:  would like to read (in fact I've already ordered in from the library- but shhhhh, don't tell anyone)