Review and Giveaway: What Kills Me by Wynne Channing

Synopsis:  An ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the vampire race.

So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally, the vampire bladesmith Lucas, must battle to survive.

How will she convince the empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals?

Where to purchase What Kills Me:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

  What Kills Me is only $0.99 on Amazon for the length of the tour!  It's worth way more - so get it while the price is this great!

Review:  I first would like to thank author Wynne Channing for the opportunity to review her book as part of her tour with Dark Minds Book Tours.  I would also like to add the disclaimer that I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Next, I would like to comment on the gorgeous cover.  Is it not stunning?  Wynne Channing wrote a guest post for me on the inspiration behind this gorgeous cover, which you can read here.

After the cover, the first thing that I really liked is that the book takes place in Italy – which is a place I’d really like to go – and that our heroine Axelia, or Zee for short, is from Canada.  I don’t read a lot of books where the heroine is Canadian, so I just found that interesting.  Most things I read are set in the United States or England, so it’s interesting to be able to learn something about our neighbors to the North.

I also like that Zee could be any girl.  She is a normal but shy teenage girl.  She has quirks and insecurities.   She talks – a lot – when she is nervous.  She is inexperienced with boys, and relationships.  Falling for the wrong guy puts her in a world of danger.  You see, the boy she likes isn’t a normal boy.  At first he’s all flowers and romance, but it turns out he is a vampire set on draining her of her blood.  While attempting to escape this fate, she falls into an ancient well of vampire blood and emerges a new kind of vampire.

Things go downhill from there for Zee.  She is considered an abomination to the vampire race because she has no maker.  The vampire Empress sentences her, and the vampire that tried to kill her, to death by sun.  But when the sun comes up something strange happens.  What you ask?  You need to read What Kills Me to find out. 

Fleeing for her life, Zee meets some people that wish to help her, and some which would do her harm.  One such character is Lucas.  He and Zee don’t seem to get along at first – but overtime, while they’re on the run, he and Zee develop a relationship.  I love that it wasn’t love at first sight.  That is so overplayed in books lately.  I liked watching their relationship develop and grow.

The best thing about Zee is that even after turning into a vampire, she stayed true to who she was, and retained her humanity.  She stayed silly, sarcastic, sometimes bumbling….and continuing to talk a lot when she was nervous or uncomfortable.  I also really liked that this vampire story is not your stereotypical vampire story. 

Overall, I rate this book 4 stars.  I hope that there is a sequel, so I can read more about this world. 

Giveaway:  The author has graciously agreed to a giveaway of a signed bookmark with a butterfly charm and an e-copy of What Kills Me.  This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada.  The giveaway is open from 8/22/2012 to 8/29/2012.  Winner will be notified by emaill and will have 48 hours to respond before an alternate is chosen.  Please enter using the rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the rest of the tour and enter an International Giveaway at Dark Mind Book Tours:  http://darkmindbooktours.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-kills-me-now-on-tour.html

Wynne Channing

Wynne Channing is an award-winning national newspaper reporter and young adult novelist. She loves telling stories and as a journalist, she has interviewed everyone from Daniel Radcliffe and Hugh Jackman to the president of the Maldives and Duchess Sarah Ferguson. The closest she has come to interviewing a vampire is sitting down with True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard (he didn’t bite). She briefly considered calling her debut novel "Well" so then everyone would say: "Well written by Wynne Channing." 

Where to find Wynne:

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