Apr 13, 2012

{Book Tour: Guest Post/Review + Giveaway} for Destined by Allison Kraft


Seeing Night Reviews is the next stop in the Destined Blog Tour with Parajunkee Blog Tours. Allison Kraft is here to talk about her novel as well as I'm posting my review about her uniquely themed novel. Don't forget to enter the two giveaways!

Thank you for hosting me today on my first blog tour! I’m excited to meet everyone, and hope you all enjoy the post. Today’s topic is one I’ve been asked a few times: why vampires on the Titanic?

Why the Titanic and vampires?
I was 9 years old when Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic, and was instantly fascinated. Over the years, I’ve devoured every book and documentary I’ve come across and visited multiple artifact exhibits. It’s mainly a hobby, so I’m no expert on the matter, but no one will ever play the Titanic trivia game with me, either. (Yes, such a thing does exist. It’s gathering dust in my closet as I type.)

About 10 years ago, I got the itch to write a time travel romance and started brainstorming settings. Ancient Egypt was an early consideration, since it’s another of my historical obsessions, but the research required was a little daunting. Plus, I really loved J. Suzanne Frank’s Reflections in the Nile, a time travel adventure/romance set in ancient Egypt (highly recommended!), and didn’t want to risk writing something too similar. I kept coming to back to one popular piece of writing advice: “write what you know.” When it comes to history, the Titanic is what I know best, and James Cameron had stirred up new interest with his movie a few years before that, so it felt like a good fit. There weren’t a lot of novels set there, time travel or otherwise, so it seemed like a genre with room to play around in. I would still need to do a lot of research to be sure the historical details were accurate, but it was a topic I loved, so research wasn’t exactly a hardship.

Why vampires? That one was easy: paranormal fiction is my favorite genre. Everything I write tends to have either vampires or some other paranormal element, so it was natural for me to add that in. At the time, I didn’t know of any books that mixed the paranormal and the Titanic, so it was an exciting idea to me. Why not put vampires on this ship? It gave the story a unique twist, and let me create a character that could be on the ship in 1912 as well as in the heroine’s modern-day life in 2012. When the vampire fiction explosion happened after Twilight, I debated editing the vampires out of Destined, but every time I tried, it fell flat. The story didn’t work as well without an antagonist who could be in both time lines.

I did have to edit one thing out, however: Noelle, Apolline’s great-great-grandmother (her 1912 persona), was originally named Bella. Just my luck, right? At least the hero wasn’t named Edward!
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
THEME: Vampires/Time Travel
RECEIVED:  Received for Review for Tour
AUTHORS BLOG: Allison Krafts Site



BLURB:
While flying across the Atlantic on the centennial anniversary of the Titanic's tragic maiden voyage, Apolline Greer, last in a long line of vampire hunters, finds herself suddenly transported from her airliner cabin to an eerily familiar ocean liner cabin—as well as the entirely unfamiliar body of her ancestor, Noelle Greer. Upon learning that she is, in fact, on board the very ship she’s been fascinated with all her life, she knows there's only one thing to do: get off as soon as possible.

But whether by destiny, freak coincidence or a really vivid dream, Apolline finds that her trip back in time comes with three very good reasons to stay on board: Alexander Walker, a handsome and charming fellow vampire hunter; Cristof, the vampire that has tormented her family for generations and very likely killed her own mother; and Sasha, the vampire Noelle was sent to kill.

Time, however, is not on Apolline's side. The Titanic is on a collision course with destiny, and she only has four days to complete her quest. What seemed like more than enough time at the start quickly becomes too short as she finds that hunting vampires on a luxury ocean liner is much more difficult than she expected. Sasha and Cristof become more elusive as each day passes, while her feelings for Alexander become increasingly complicated. As that fateful night approaches, will she regret her decision to stay and witness history first-hand?

REVIEW:

Destined has to be one of the most uniquely themed books I’ve ever read. When I first read the synopsis, I was wondering how Vampires and the Titanic would work out. I was happily surprised how wonderfully crafted Allison Kraft pulled this story together. I loved the theme, characters and the romance; this is definitely a one of kind story that I think any paranormal romance fan should read.

Apolline Greer is a hunter; from generation to generation each women in the Greer family become a hunter of vampires. Apolline is sent on a mission but strangely enough during a rocky flight, she is suddenly transported to April 1912 onboard the Titanic.  From there Apolline is transported into her ancestors body, Noelle Greer where she is assigned to hunt a vampire aboard the ship. But Apolline knows what happens to the Titanic and wants to get off as soon as possible, but a fellow hunter named Alex distracts her and the very vampire who killed her mother is aboard the ship. Now she has to make a decision and figure out if she wants to stay on the ship or stop the vampires aboard the Titanic with Alex.

Apolline is a tough hunter, but pretty much a loner who has social issues because of her job. She has a secret crush on her neighbor Logan but otherwise doesn’t talk to anyone. Once she boards the Titanic she realizes her purpose to complete her ancestors mission. But her emotions are all over the place because she feels for the people aboard who don’t know there on a ship that has a tragic end.

Alex is a fellow hunter and like Apolline is the next in line of hunter in his generation. He connects with Noelle (Apolline) and together they hunt the vampire Sasha, whom is connected to a very old vampire named Cristof. Alex is a charming and kind man who really connects with Noelle, but doesn’t know that inside is really a woman from the future. I thought this was interesting, he knows there is something off about Noelle but he truly cares and trust her immediately to where all he wants is to be with her.

Overall this was one heck of an adventure, the readers are kept on their toes waiting to that tragic moment to happen with the ship. And keeping their fingers crossed in hope that Noelle and Alex survive, but then there is the part to how Apolline was transported into Noelle. It’s full of twist and really keeps the readers guessing. I loved the ending and really thought that Kraft pulled everything together perfectly that I was actually smiling at the end. I recommend this adventuresome tale of romance, action with historical and paranormal elements.

RECOMMENDATION:

This is an adult novel with a lot of historical facts with a twist of paranormal Fans of authors Gail Carriger’s and C.E. Murphy’s writing will be fascinated with Allison Kraft’s Destined.

View all my reviews

Giveaway#1: 1 ebook fill out rafflecopter to enter
Giveaway #2:  Enter today to win the Grand-Prize offering, a $25 Amazon Gift Card and an autographed paperback of 'Destined' (US & Canada, eBook substituted for International entries). Enter to win by commenting on this post! Follow the tour and enter at each stop for more entries!!
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6 comments:

  1. WOW. The Titanic & Vampires. Just that alone makes me want to read this book. It sounds good & the review was was very helpful. I haven't heard of this one, so thanks!

    Lisseth @read-a-holicz.blogspot.com

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  2. I really loved the book too. All the Titanic details were so well done. This is a book that anyone who loves the Titanic should read. I also liked Allison's post as well. Go figure on the Bella name :)

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  3. Thank you so much for hosting me today, and for your fantastic review. I'm thrilled you enjoyed the book!

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  4. What a clever and unique concept! I have a pal who loves the Titanic and I'm always trying to get her to read...so, I bet I can get her to read this book!

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  5. This sounds better and better every time i read about it! Congrats lady! And what a plot! Cant wait to read and see what happens! ;)
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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  6. There is a camaraderie that grows up among those who work with old books and old papers, largely, I suspect, because we understand that we are at odds with the rest of the world: we are travelling backwards, while all those around us are still moving forward.
    Flights to Douala
    Flights to Windhoek

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