Review: Immortalis Carpe Noctem - Katie Salidas

Bleeding to death after a brutal mugging on the campus of UNLV, twenty-five year old Alyssa, is rescued by the cold and aloof, vampire, Lysander.  Taking pity on her, he shares the gift-and curse-of immortality.  She awakens as a vampire and is soon devastated by harsh realities of her new way of life: the loss of her friends, her independence, and her humanity.

As if having her humanity stripped away was not enough to make life interesting, Alyssa finds out her "turning", did not go unnoticed by the rest of undead society.  Old enemies; an ancient sect of vampire hunters, known as the Acta Sanctorum, as well as a powerful vampire mistress, each set plans in motion to destroy both Alyssa and Lysander.

Only by accepting her new found immortality, seizing the night, will Alyssa hope to survive.  She and Lysander must fight together against two sets of enemies bent on destroying them both.

Immortalis Series:
Immortalis Carpe Noctem
Immortalis Hunter and Prey (2011)

Visit Katie Salidas' Website for more information.

Review:
When Alyssa is walking home alone late at night she is brutally attacked by 2 muggers.  Lysander rescues Alyssa but she is so badly injured that she is almost dead leaving Lysander no option but to change her into a vampire or watch her die.  Waking up to discover she has been turned into a vampire comes as quite a shock to Alyssa - she had no idea that vampires even existed.  While trying to come to terms with her new life Alyssa also has to deal with a powerful vampire mistress who isn't happy that Lysander turned her without permission and the Acta Sanctorum - vampire hunters.  Will she survive long enough to learn how to use her new abilities?

I first heard about Immortalis Carpe Noctem when I saw it was going on a tour arranged by UK Book Tours, it wasn't a book seen before but it sounded interesting and I couldn't resist signing up to read it.  I'm glad I did as I've discovered a new author who I will definitely be keeping an eye on in the future.  This book is the first in the Immortalis series and I'm looking forward to reading future books as they are released.

I really enjoyed watching Alyssa deal with being turned into a vampire - she has been introduced to a whole new world without having any choice in the matter.  As Lysander says in the book "Becoming a vampire is easy.  Living with the condition, that is the hard part" I'm sure Alyssa would agree with this statement!  I've not really read anything that covers the issue of being turned without prior knowledge of what is happening and goes into as much detail as this book did.  I thought Katie Salidas did a great job of showing how hard that must have been for Alyssa.  She had no choice but to leave behind her old life, for their safety she could have no contact with her friends and wasn't able to return to her apartment.  Not to mention having to come to terms with needing to drink blood to survive.

I found it quite easy to relate to Alyssa and understand what she was going through.  She did complain a fair bit at the beginning but I think that was to be expected in the circumstances.  Lysander was a great character but at times he didn't make things easy for Alyssa.  He wanted to protect her but didn't always manage to explain his reasons to Alyssa which led her to feel suffocated by him.  I enjoyed watching the 2 of them interact with each other though and I really liked the Peregrinus - a travelling group of vampires who were friends of Lysander.

The action in the story was good but a little predictable in places, there was a good twist towards the end though.  Overall Immortalis Carpe Noctem was an enjoyable start to a new series. It's one of those stories that crosses the lines between paranormal romance and urban fantasy so I think fans of either genre would enjoy this book.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Katie Salidas comes up with next.

Source: Received as part of a book tour arranged by UK Book Tours, this book has already been sent on to it's next destination.

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