Thunder and Blood
by: Stacey Voss
Paperback: 230 pages
Publisher: Donner Publishing (April 27, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981251609
ISBN-13: 978-0981251608
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Portals, vampires and fantasy. If any of those words stand out to you and pique your interest, you will love Thunder and Blood by Stacey Voss. We've all encountered fog while driving, perhaps even thick and impenetrable fog. What if that fog was actually a portal into a whole other world - one that looks normal and as though it is no different than the surroundings you are use to? What if that fog was actually a portal into a world of vampires, where blood is currency and a madman lives who has no respect for human life? This is the world in which Ms. Voss takes the reader, in Thunder and Blood.
Sisters Christine and Sarah leave Thunder Bay for a weekend girl's getaway, escaping recent problems that have weighed their lives down. However, instead of a weekend of fun and frolicking, the girls encounter a thick fog which turns their world literally upside down.
Beautiful Christine finds herself captured by the crazed Lord Radek, who is the stereotypical vampire and treats the humans that he is in charge of cruelly. While Sarah, who has a very extreme self esteem issue, finds herself being aided by a handsome and kind man, Hillard. Little does Sarah know that Hillard is a vampire, though a kindhearted vampire who only wants to do what is right - which is stop Lord Radek.
Together, Sarah and Hillard come up with a plan to save Christine before it is too late. As Sarah finds herself being more drawn to Hillard, how will she handle his secret, if it ever comes out? Will Christine fall under Lord Radek's mesmerizing spell and become his queen? So many questions and so many twists and turns fill this delightfully wonderful tale of Thunder and Blood.
As a person who does not have a lot of experience with vampire stories, I was completely and totally hooked on Thunder and Blood, the moment I started reading. Ms. Voss has a great talent for weaving a story that will leave the reader racing from page to page to see what is going to happen next. Thunder and Blood is also written in a way that once the reader starts reading, they fall into the story and the characters and before they know it, an hour or two has passed.
Not only did I love the author's style of writing, but I loved the way she humanized and brought her characters to life. I especially enjoyed Sarah and Hillard - they were fascinating and I easily and quickly formed an emotional bond with them. I have to also mention that the ending was fabulous! As I read the final words, this is the thought that came to mind (That can't be the end!" It was perfect segue into the next book in the series, Thunder and Ice.
*As a side note, I do want to comment on my rating. The format of Thunder and Blood that I read was in e-format, which when converted from PDF often times messes up the format on my reader. The reason that I want to mention that is because I am not judging/rating Thunder and Blood on sentence structure/mechanics too harshly for the simple fact that I am not sure what was truly the format structure messing up compared to the actual print copy. That being said, I only found this to be a problem in a couple of areas within the story and nothing that took away from the story itself. I did, however, find a few spelling/grammar errors, so will take that to mind in my final rating.
*overall rating 4.5/5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Thunder and Blood:
When Sarah Ingram and her sister Christine left Thunder Bay on a chilly November afternoon, they thought that they were going on a weekend getaway, leaving their problems behind. What they didn't realize was that they would end up in a world that was, in many ways, very different from their own, but at the same time eerily familiar. Separated almost at once, the two women found themselves struggling to come to terms with the reality of their situation. How did this world become so different from the one they knew? What secrets were their new 'friends' hiding from them? Was it possible that there could be more to the vampire stories from their own world than simple myth?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Stacey Voss:
Stacey Voss was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. In late 2005, she and her daughter moved to Wuppertal, Germany to live with her fiancé, Heiko Voss, whom she married in July 2007. She wrote Thunder and Blood during the November 2007 National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) event, with a two week hiatus during which she honeymooned with her husband in the Canary Islands. The story takes place in her hometown of Thunder Bay, reflecting Stacey's yearning to feel close to her roots once again. Realizing that four trips back to Canada in three years was an indication of more than simple homesickness, Stacey, her husband, and daughter moved back to Thunder Bay at the beginning of 2009.
She is really enjoying being back in Thunder Bay, despite moving back in the middle of the cold winter months, and has been drinking copious amounts of Tim Horton's coffee while she has been preparing her book for print. Her hobbies include reading, writing, camping and fishing and she considers herself to be quite a computer geek.
Stacey has two Diplomas in International Business, certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a Minor Degree in English Literature. While in Germany, she taught Corporate English to a wide variety of students and discovered a real love for teaching. She is currently teaching Business and Computers part-time at Everest College in Thunder Bay.
Stacey has already begun the next novel in the Thunder and Blood series, entitled Thunder and Ice, and wants to assure her readers that many of the questions left unanswered in the first novel are answered in the second. After writing Thunder and Ice, Stacey plans to write two prequels in the series, one covering the transformation of DaVinci into a vampire and the other expanding on the origin of the first vampire.
Visit Stacey Voss' website: http://www.thunderandblood.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Thirty-year-old Sarah Ingram slowly sipped her hot black coffee and looked out the balcony window of her sister's sixth floor apartment. The weather outside looked deceptively warm for the middle of November and the slumbering stone form of the Sleeping Giant seemed to be reclining peacefully in the bay. The large peninsular land mass was a prominent landmark, best seen from the Thunder Bay harbour front. It resembled a man, lying on his back, with his hands crossed over his chest. There were many Native Canadian legends about the large figure they called Nanibijou. Sarah's favourite was the one in which the spirit of the mighty Nanibijou called up an awe-inspiring storm to punish the white men for daring to steal silver from his sacred mine. After the storm, his people gazed across the bay in horror, seeing that their revered protector had been transformed to stone because of his magical exertion.
Sarah loved watching the sun rise over the Giant. She hadn't had many opportunities to just sit and watch the sun rise since she had gotten married three years ago. She sighed resignedly and listened for the tell-tale sounds of her sister emerging from the shower. Last night they had made an impulsive decision to take a road trip to an expensive spa located just across the border in the United States. They had booked an overnight stay in the most extravagant room available and planned to take full advantage of the spa services. Christine insisted that they really deserved a nice, relaxing break from reality, and that Sarah's husband, Paul, deserved to foot the bill. Sarah had to agree that both ideas sounded good to her at this point.
Christine walked into the room, a big fluffy blue towel wrapped around her long, curly blond hair.
"Feeling recharged?" she asked, looking brightly, but carefully, at Sarah, almost as if she were afraid that her sister might fall apart at any second.
"I'm fine. Quit worrying about me. I'm just looking forward to a nice massage. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a manicure." Sarah was grateful for her sister's concern, but every time she saw that worried look on Christine's face it reminded her that she had good reason to be upset. She forced a smile to her face, trying to convince Christine that she was doing much better today than she had been the night before.
Last night, when they had called The Blue Cove Inn and Spa, the desk clerk must have thought they were crazy, the way they were giggling when they had made their reservation. Or maybe he could tell that they were nearly falling-down drunk. Three bottles of Rosé could do that to someone - or some-two as the case may be. The wine had been Christine's idea of how to cheer up her emotionally devastated sister. The silliness had helped to temporarily numb the pain, although it had returned all too quickly this morning.
Sarah did wish, however, that she had gotten a bit more sleep - it might have helped with the hangover she was currently experiencing. Her head was aching and she was too nauseated to even enjoy her morning coffee. The fact that she had a horrible cold didn't improve matters. However, her coffee cup, still warm in her hands, let off some nice aromatic steam that seemed to help a bit - as long as she didn't actually try to drink too much of it. The thought of the acidic coffee hitting her stomach made her stomach wince. Nevertheless, she breathed in the pungent scent, grateful for any wakening effects it might have. She still felt as if she was in a trance, but that wasn't solely from the wine. It was probably due more to the fact that her husband had, for all intents and purposes, destroyed her world yesterday. She pushed herself up out of the chair and thrust all negative thoughts back to the corner of her mind as she started to pack her things for the road trip.
An hour later, the two women were speeding down the road in Sarah's red 1992 Pontiac Grand Am, heading south. Sarah was at the wheel and singing soulfully along to the radio. The old Leonard Cohen version of "Everybody Knows" was playing, and it was the deep, dark kind of song that matched her current mood perfectly.
Despite the sunny start to the day, rain clouds were now suspended overhead and a thick fog had started to roll in. Thus far oblivious to the changing weather, the women chatted about inconsequential things as they sped down the lonely highway. Christine described some of the comedic antics of her grade three students in her class at CD Howe Elementary School. She'd been a teacher there for four years now, and she had yet to develop the cynicism that plagued so many of her colleagues. Christine still saw every child as her own personal project to mould and shape into a future citizen. She hadn't yet experienced enough disappointments to taint her sunny view of the world. Sarah hoped that she never would, but knew that the inevitability of some students falling through the cracks would eventually bring her sister's optimism down.
The fog was really rolling in now. The edges of the highway were barely visible to her straining eyes and Sarah could feel the adrenaline starting to flow as the driving became more and more hazardous. She slowed their speed to a crawl, afraid that oncoming cars wouldn't see her or that she would inadvertently cross the highway dividing line.
What normally was a vista of rolling hills, majestic forests, and lush farmland, was now obscured by a thick mantle of mist. The vapours were sliding over the hood and windshield of the car like blankets of silk and the combined effect was eerie.
Neither Sarah nor Christine were talking now. The conversation had just faded off as the driving became more perilous, almost as if their spoken words had been swallowed by the fog as well.
The road itself became rougher, and the small area of motorway that Sarah could see in front of the car changed suddenly from pavement to gravel.
To continue reading from this Chapter 1 excerpt, click here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by: Stacey Voss
Paperback: 230 pages
Publisher: Donner Publishing (April 27, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981251609
ISBN-13: 978-0981251608
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Portals, vampires and fantasy. If any of those words stand out to you and pique your interest, you will love Thunder and Blood by Stacey Voss. We've all encountered fog while driving, perhaps even thick and impenetrable fog. What if that fog was actually a portal into a whole other world - one that looks normal and as though it is no different than the surroundings you are use to? What if that fog was actually a portal into a world of vampires, where blood is currency and a madman lives who has no respect for human life? This is the world in which Ms. Voss takes the reader, in Thunder and Blood.
Sisters Christine and Sarah leave Thunder Bay for a weekend girl's getaway, escaping recent problems that have weighed their lives down. However, instead of a weekend of fun and frolicking, the girls encounter a thick fog which turns their world literally upside down.
Beautiful Christine finds herself captured by the crazed Lord Radek, who is the stereotypical vampire and treats the humans that he is in charge of cruelly. While Sarah, who has a very extreme self esteem issue, finds herself being aided by a handsome and kind man, Hillard. Little does Sarah know that Hillard is a vampire, though a kindhearted vampire who only wants to do what is right - which is stop Lord Radek.
Together, Sarah and Hillard come up with a plan to save Christine before it is too late. As Sarah finds herself being more drawn to Hillard, how will she handle his secret, if it ever comes out? Will Christine fall under Lord Radek's mesmerizing spell and become his queen? So many questions and so many twists and turns fill this delightfully wonderful tale of Thunder and Blood.
As a person who does not have a lot of experience with vampire stories, I was completely and totally hooked on Thunder and Blood, the moment I started reading. Ms. Voss has a great talent for weaving a story that will leave the reader racing from page to page to see what is going to happen next. Thunder and Blood is also written in a way that once the reader starts reading, they fall into the story and the characters and before they know it, an hour or two has passed.
Not only did I love the author's style of writing, but I loved the way she humanized and brought her characters to life. I especially enjoyed Sarah and Hillard - they were fascinating and I easily and quickly formed an emotional bond with them. I have to also mention that the ending was fabulous! As I read the final words, this is the thought that came to mind (That can't be the end!" It was perfect segue into the next book in the series, Thunder and Ice.
*As a side note, I do want to comment on my rating. The format of Thunder and Blood that I read was in e-format, which when converted from PDF often times messes up the format on my reader. The reason that I want to mention that is because I am not judging/rating Thunder and Blood on sentence structure/mechanics too harshly for the simple fact that I am not sure what was truly the format structure messing up compared to the actual print copy. That being said, I only found this to be a problem in a couple of areas within the story and nothing that took away from the story itself. I did, however, find a few spelling/grammar errors, so will take that to mind in my final rating.
*overall rating 4.5/5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Thunder and Blood:
When Sarah Ingram and her sister Christine left Thunder Bay on a chilly November afternoon, they thought that they were going on a weekend getaway, leaving their problems behind. What they didn't realize was that they would end up in a world that was, in many ways, very different from their own, but at the same time eerily familiar. Separated almost at once, the two women found themselves struggling to come to terms with the reality of their situation. How did this world become so different from the one they knew? What secrets were their new 'friends' hiding from them? Was it possible that there could be more to the vampire stories from their own world than simple myth?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Stacey Voss:
Stacey Voss was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. In late 2005, she and her daughter moved to Wuppertal, Germany to live with her fiancé, Heiko Voss, whom she married in July 2007. She wrote Thunder and Blood during the November 2007 National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) event, with a two week hiatus during which she honeymooned with her husband in the Canary Islands. The story takes place in her hometown of Thunder Bay, reflecting Stacey's yearning to feel close to her roots once again. Realizing that four trips back to Canada in three years was an indication of more than simple homesickness, Stacey, her husband, and daughter moved back to Thunder Bay at the beginning of 2009.
She is really enjoying being back in Thunder Bay, despite moving back in the middle of the cold winter months, and has been drinking copious amounts of Tim Horton's coffee while she has been preparing her book for print. Her hobbies include reading, writing, camping and fishing and she considers herself to be quite a computer geek.
Stacey has two Diplomas in International Business, certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a Minor Degree in English Literature. While in Germany, she taught Corporate English to a wide variety of students and discovered a real love for teaching. She is currently teaching Business and Computers part-time at Everest College in Thunder Bay.
Stacey has already begun the next novel in the Thunder and Blood series, entitled Thunder and Ice, and wants to assure her readers that many of the questions left unanswered in the first novel are answered in the second. After writing Thunder and Ice, Stacey plans to write two prequels in the series, one covering the transformation of DaVinci into a vampire and the other expanding on the origin of the first vampire.
Visit Stacey Voss' website: http://www.thunderandblood.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Thirty-year-old Sarah Ingram slowly sipped her hot black coffee and looked out the balcony window of her sister's sixth floor apartment. The weather outside looked deceptively warm for the middle of November and the slumbering stone form of the Sleeping Giant seemed to be reclining peacefully in the bay. The large peninsular land mass was a prominent landmark, best seen from the Thunder Bay harbour front. It resembled a man, lying on his back, with his hands crossed over his chest. There were many Native Canadian legends about the large figure they called Nanibijou. Sarah's favourite was the one in which the spirit of the mighty Nanibijou called up an awe-inspiring storm to punish the white men for daring to steal silver from his sacred mine. After the storm, his people gazed across the bay in horror, seeing that their revered protector had been transformed to stone because of his magical exertion.
Sarah loved watching the sun rise over the Giant. She hadn't had many opportunities to just sit and watch the sun rise since she had gotten married three years ago. She sighed resignedly and listened for the tell-tale sounds of her sister emerging from the shower. Last night they had made an impulsive decision to take a road trip to an expensive spa located just across the border in the United States. They had booked an overnight stay in the most extravagant room available and planned to take full advantage of the spa services. Christine insisted that they really deserved a nice, relaxing break from reality, and that Sarah's husband, Paul, deserved to foot the bill. Sarah had to agree that both ideas sounded good to her at this point.
Christine walked into the room, a big fluffy blue towel wrapped around her long, curly blond hair.
"Feeling recharged?" she asked, looking brightly, but carefully, at Sarah, almost as if she were afraid that her sister might fall apart at any second.
"I'm fine. Quit worrying about me. I'm just looking forward to a nice massage. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a manicure." Sarah was grateful for her sister's concern, but every time she saw that worried look on Christine's face it reminded her that she had good reason to be upset. She forced a smile to her face, trying to convince Christine that she was doing much better today than she had been the night before.
Last night, when they had called The Blue Cove Inn and Spa, the desk clerk must have thought they were crazy, the way they were giggling when they had made their reservation. Or maybe he could tell that they were nearly falling-down drunk. Three bottles of Rosé could do that to someone - or some-two as the case may be. The wine had been Christine's idea of how to cheer up her emotionally devastated sister. The silliness had helped to temporarily numb the pain, although it had returned all too quickly this morning.
Sarah did wish, however, that she had gotten a bit more sleep - it might have helped with the hangover she was currently experiencing. Her head was aching and she was too nauseated to even enjoy her morning coffee. The fact that she had a horrible cold didn't improve matters. However, her coffee cup, still warm in her hands, let off some nice aromatic steam that seemed to help a bit - as long as she didn't actually try to drink too much of it. The thought of the acidic coffee hitting her stomach made her stomach wince. Nevertheless, she breathed in the pungent scent, grateful for any wakening effects it might have. She still felt as if she was in a trance, but that wasn't solely from the wine. It was probably due more to the fact that her husband had, for all intents and purposes, destroyed her world yesterday. She pushed herself up out of the chair and thrust all negative thoughts back to the corner of her mind as she started to pack her things for the road trip.
An hour later, the two women were speeding down the road in Sarah's red 1992 Pontiac Grand Am, heading south. Sarah was at the wheel and singing soulfully along to the radio. The old Leonard Cohen version of "Everybody Knows" was playing, and it was the deep, dark kind of song that matched her current mood perfectly.
Despite the sunny start to the day, rain clouds were now suspended overhead and a thick fog had started to roll in. Thus far oblivious to the changing weather, the women chatted about inconsequential things as they sped down the lonely highway. Christine described some of the comedic antics of her grade three students in her class at CD Howe Elementary School. She'd been a teacher there for four years now, and she had yet to develop the cynicism that plagued so many of her colleagues. Christine still saw every child as her own personal project to mould and shape into a future citizen. She hadn't yet experienced enough disappointments to taint her sunny view of the world. Sarah hoped that she never would, but knew that the inevitability of some students falling through the cracks would eventually bring her sister's optimism down.
The fog was really rolling in now. The edges of the highway were barely visible to her straining eyes and Sarah could feel the adrenaline starting to flow as the driving became more and more hazardous. She slowed their speed to a crawl, afraid that oncoming cars wouldn't see her or that she would inadvertently cross the highway dividing line.
What normally was a vista of rolling hills, majestic forests, and lush farmland, was now obscured by a thick mantle of mist. The vapours were sliding over the hood and windshield of the car like blankets of silk and the combined effect was eerie.
Neither Sarah nor Christine were talking now. The conversation had just faded off as the driving became more perilous, almost as if their spoken words had been swallowed by the fog as well.
The road itself became rougher, and the small area of motorway that Sarah could see in front of the car changed suddenly from pavement to gravel.
To continue reading from this Chapter 1 excerpt, click here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4 comments:
This sounds like an interesting book. I like tales of vampires and the supernatural on occasion. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, April!
Great review! I read this book and loved it too!
Great review!!! I have followed stacey all through her virtual tour and just get pumped up more and more each stop . I can't wait to read it !!!
Great job !!!
I loved your blog. Thank you.
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