Review: What Kills Me (What Kills Me, #1) by Wynne Channing

What Kills Me (What Kills Me, #1) by Wynne Channing
Publisher: Jet & Jack Press
Released: June 6th 2012
Format: Kindle Ebook (308 pages)
Source: Amazon.com (US) - gifted by friend

The fight for survival begins.

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?

[Sherlyn's note: One of the shortest and sweetest synopses ever!]

This. Book. Is. AWESOME.

What Kills Me is filled with action, blood and romance. I was completely hooked from the first chapter. Wynne Channing is truly gifted and her writing made the whole story like a movie for me (I hope she gets a movie deal for her book someday!).

Axelia, our main character, is the most hilarious character I have ever come across in all the books I've read. I actually sat there guffawing at the insanely funny moments for a good five minutes before continuing the story, and this happened like SO many times!

That said, there was also gore and blood in this book. I say gore because I'm not a person who likes the horror/gore genre, and I turn squeamish when I see blood (except my own). There is killing, sword-fighting, awesome kung-fu moves and heads being lopped off. And I actually loved the action. Channing kills off characters as quickly as you get to know them – with the exception of Axelia and a few – which literally ripped my heart out as I'd grown to love some of them very much. It was, however, essential in reiterating how ruthless a world Axelia has been thrust into.

Another thing I loved was that part of the story is set in Taiwan. Having been there quite a number of times, I felt I was there again when Axelia explored Taipei.

There are a few major plot twists, especially the ending (which is totally ingenious). The tension was practically screaming out of my Kindle and I couldn't do anything except read on.

Axelia is a really loveable character and I admire her strength. She is perfectly flawed, and I love that as I hate seeing characters start out small and weak, then undergo a 360° transformation at the end of the book and become invincible or something. Axelia, while she grows stronger and surer of herself, takes a long time to adjust and is still very much vulnerable, especially when it comes to the people she cares for. Lucas complements her wonderfully and is her rock. It's amazing how these two realise their growing affection for each other.

I was already looking forward to the sequel when I wasn't even halfway through this book – which means you totally need to pick this up and read it! This is a vampire book like no other (nothing like Twilight, so don't compare) and is seriously worth your time. I'm absolutely looking forward to the sequel to see what Wynne Channing is going to come up with next!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wynne Channing is an award-winning national newspaper reporter and young adult novelist. She started writing horror/fantasy tales as a girl. She still has the first novel that she wrote when she was 10. It’s (unintentionally) hilarious. Wynne 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.”

Get your copy of What Kills Me – it's FREE!

 Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

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