Book Review on the Vessel by Felicia Tatum

The Vessel is the second book in Felicia Tatum’s YA urban fantasy. It takes off where The White Aura had ended. 

Olivia Whitehead is the main character in this tale. She’s kidnapped and held captive for two months. To her surprise, Aiden (the guy who tried to kill her in the first book) is thrown in the room with her. She soon discovers his eyes are a different color, and he has no recollection of the past two years of his life. To her horror, Olivia realizes Aiden’s body was just a vessel being used by the evil sorcerer. It wasn’t Aiden himself who tried to end her life; it was that damn sorcerer instead. She feels horrible for almost killing Aiden, and let me tell ya . . . the guy’s wounds  she had inflicted on him has him in bad shape.

In The Vessel, Felicia did something I really appreciated: she wrote chapters with just Aiden’s POV. I enjoyed reading those chapters, and I have to admit, I like his character better than Scott’s (Olivia’s love interest). I was secretly hoping Olivia and Aiden would hook up, or Aiden and Sadie (Scott’s sister).

Both Sadie and Aiden are my favorite characters.

Olivia and Aiden manage to escape after Olivia discovers another magical ability she has and is able to leave Scott a message on her whereabouts. But her troubles are far from over.

I don’t want to give any spoilers away, so I’ll leave it at that.

We get to meet Olivia’s estrange brother, Kyle in this book.  Their parents have been kidnapped, and he wants to know what happened to them.  Olivia tells him, and then in turn, he tells her shocking information about herself and their parents.  

Kyle’s character is standoffish. I’m hoping we get to know him better in the next book because right now I’m not too sure how I feel about him.

Olivia’s best friend Juniper plays a larger role in this second book.

I like her.

She has spunk and is a great friend to Olivia.

Scott has two emotions running on high octane this time around: frustration and jealousy. He’s frustrated because he feels powerless to help Olivia and fears death will take her from him, which I can understand. His jealousy, though, of Aiden, is making me dislike him even more. Olivia is getting annoyed by it too, which is great because maybe she’ll ditch him for Aiden. 

Hint, hint, Felicia.

I think this whole story Felicia is weaving together is coming together nicely and it’s imaginative. I’m looking forward to the third book, especially since she ended The Vessel the way she did.  Now, I’m on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what’s going to happen next. So, yeah, I’ll be grabbing the next book when it comes out. That’s for sure. J 

Character Picture

Do you guys want to know what Nathan in my Beyond the Eyes trilogy looks like?

Sure you do.

I mean, you wouldn't want to turn down some serious eye candy, would you?

Check it out.

I'd show you a picture of Aosoth (one of the bodies she possesses), but I don't want to ruin this moment for you. I'll show you some other time. :)

Research Before Writing Your Story Or After?

I wonder how many authors do research for their story before they write it. In the past, I’ve taken several writing courses and was taught to do your research as you’re writing it, so that’s how I do it. To me it makes sense because what if you spend all your time researching before you started your story and then discover as it unfolds, you didn’t need the information after all? You totally wasted all that time, right? But I guess it’s a matter of perspective. I mean, if later on in the future you’d need that information then I suppose it was worth it.

I don’t know.

Each writer is different on how they do things, but it works better for me to research as I write my story.

This week I had to do some research on Africa because my characters were going there. I knew very little about this continent and learned quite a bit looking stuff up on it. Now my characters are there, so I’ll be doing further research to make their journey more accurate. The only thing I don’t like about doing it this way is it slows me down. I much rather write. However, I do find this process beneficial in the long run and it’s worth it.

So what will I be doing this weekend?

I’ll be doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but in between those things, I’ll be joining the gang in Africa. :)

Happy Friday!

Dreams

My niece posted on Facebook the other day how cool it would be to video tape your dreams.

I agree.

Some of my dreams, though, would be a horror flick.

I tend to have dreams about vampires.

Imagine that.

The Vampire Diaries is my favorite TV show, and I write paranormal books.

So, yeah, I can totally understand why I have those types of dreams.

Sometimes I’ll dream about demons, and when they’re really scary, I’ll wake up with my heart pounding. This of course, doesn’t surprise me. I mean, my Beyond the Eyes trilogy has dark spirits AKA demons in them, and they play a huge role in my stories. I also sometimes have haunting dreams about a basement that has wood paneling walls. When I enter that room, my heart is racing, and my blood runs cold. I approach the wall, slide it back, and I'm confronted by darkness. It’s endless, and I somehow know it’s a doorway into another dimension. I can feel the evil pulsing outwards from the depths of this hidden realm within the house I dwell in. It seeps into my very soul, chilling me to the bone.

I’ve had dreams similar to that one throughout my life. I’ve always wondered if it’s because when I was very young we lived in a haunted house with a basement just like the one in my dreams. I can recall being afraid to go in that room by myself. So naturally it makes me wonder, even to this day, if something malevolent resided there. Or, maybe it wasn’t evil at all, but then again, why was I frightened to be alone in that basement?

I don’t know.

This one time a friend of my parents was staying with us. One night, he ran up the basement stairs scared out of his mind. He told them as he was falling asleep the covers levitated off him. Needless to say, he never entered the basement again by himself.

So, back to recording our dreams. It would be cool to do, because maybe it would help us answer questions about things we’ve always wondered about. It might even unlock a subconscious door that would help us discover things about ourselves or what happened to us we’re not consciously aware of. But then again, are some things better kept under lock and key? What do you think?