Morningside by Ashley Madau

By: Anonymous on Sunday, March 03, 2013

Title:  Morningside

Author:  Ashley Madau

Published: November 2012 by Cambridge Press, US. (first published March 18th 2010)

Page Count:  242

Genre:  Young Adult Paranormal

Shelf:  Review Copy

Rating:  ★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It’s easy to get caught up with bad-ass vampires, a killer love triangle, broken engagements, assumed clones, and enough sexual tension to drive anyone crazy.

Does society really know what it means to be a vampire? What it feels like? Tastes like? The struggles of going through life in a state of unacceptance, and using every fiber of your being to change?

MORNINGSIDE shows vampires in a new light. Humanity believes them to be one thing, without any deviation-- the perfection of a human hunter. One woman is able to prove them wrong. Trapped between both the mortal and immortal realms, she becomes the line between humans and vampires, and both the differences and similarities they share. When her life is put at stake, the worlds begin to collide.

My Review:

This book was quite well written. I never once got lost in the writing of the story. Sentence, paragraph, and chapter structure were phenomenal. I did, however, get a bit muddled up in the storyline. For me, this was one of those books that you want to see pulled apart and made into a couple of different books. There was a little too much going on for the page count, which meant that there were a great deal of things happening that didn’t get enough attention. Because of this, details were lacking in areas and you found yourself wondering where it was going. I found that the story just flitted around a bit and then ended without any real conclusion.

The characters in this novel were quite interesting. Some were developed in such a way that they had a mysterious air but didn’t seem underdeveloped. Others were more developed. You got to know a great deal about the main character. She fit with her role, including being the whiny debutante who is unsatisfied with her lot in life (because really, what deb is ever satisfied?). I also appreciated that Madau didn’t fall into the trap where an interesting minor character eclipses the main characters.

By focusing on the pertinent details to the main story and avoiding unnecessary narrative this story could have been phenomenal. The potential is definitely there. It had enough to keep me intrigued. I’d be very interested to see more from this author to see changes made.

Buy your copy online here today!