Thursday, February 18, 2010

Review by Shellie: RELEASE by Nicole Hadaway

Release-Bookcover-11-181x300

  • Genre: Historical Fiction/Horror
  • Format: Ebook
  • Publisher: EBooks Undead

Synopsis:

Set in war torn Europe during WWII where a group of otherworldly women – a vampire, a werewolf, and a demon - help the resistance move Jewish children to safety. They team up with an incognito Jewish doctor as they make their way across the countryside. The cast goes on to include a witch, fallen angels, a lesbian couple, and an interesting concept of the devil himself.  Throw in a male vampire and demon, a priest fallen to the dark side and you have a complex set of characters, where some feed on humans but are saving children too. Most of the protagonists exist in a “grey area” of morality. All this is set within a horrific time period where factions of Hitler’s legions are attempting to connect with total evil.

Love ensues within the intense drama of the story, however, in the end an important “soul” is lost possibly leaving the setup for another novel in her series.

My Thoughts:

This is a first novel for Nicole Hadaway and she has created a well thought out and mostly well explained paranormal world. She has taken one of the most horrific events in our collective consciousness and recent history, and coupled it up with the occult and religious mythology with some elements based in truth, thereby creating a very scary tale.

One interesting aspect within the story line is that the title is brought up on several different levels throughout the book. Which solidifies the concept and why it was used. It did take me some time to figure exactly why the title was  RELEASE which makes it multilayered and intriguing. (No spoilers here.)

My only minor grumble is that I would have liked to see definitions for some of the otherworldly and biblical connections, names, and symbols, perhaps at the end of the book. The references are numerous and I believe many readers will not know what they are – I did not. This aspect does however make the book interesting, intelligent, and challenging. All good things. And thanks to Google, I now know some of their creepy definitions.

Highly recommended if you like historical fiction – especially WWII, vampires, paranormal, otherworldly, religious, occult, and mythical connections. If so, then you will devour this book.

I give the book 4 Stars since I enjoyed it immensely!

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Nicole is currently working on her follow up book for this series. The sequel is called  RETURN and is planned to be published in Fall of this year. She is also working on several short stories related to the main character with RELEASE. One which is set in New Orleans in 1842 and the other in Egypt in 1906. Her third novel in the series, REDEEM is planned to be published in 2011.

If your interested in finding out more about RELEASE, reading a sample, want to find out more about Nicole Hadaway, or purchasing the book, please link above and here to Layers of Thought’s Preview of RELEASE.

This book is offered in e format, and is published by a small press - EBooks Undead. RELEASE is, however, well edited and worthy of your time, especially if you love intelligent horror and/or vampires. It is our pleasure to support new authors with small press publishers at Layers of Thought.

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This book review will be used in a number of challenges:

image image  image image image

This books is appropriate for the GLBT challenge since two secondary characters within the story are women in a long term committed relationship.

All badges will link to the challenge update posts here on Layers of Thought when the review has been posted to each challenge site.

Thanks for reading Layers of Thought.

16 comments:

David Simpson said...

That sounds like high praise, Shellie! Congratulations, Nicole! I hope Release catches on soon and gets the success that it deserves! :)

Unknown said...

David -
Yes I agree on all counts!

Anonymous said...

Thanks David, and thank you so much, Shellie! I'm so glad you caught on to the multi-layered meaning of the title; it's the same for Return and Redeem. And there's less symbology in Return due to its content, and I was thinking of adding a characters/definitions section -- thanks for pointing that out.

My publisher just asked me for some information on the sequel to Release as it's getting geared up to go to print very soon!!

Jennifer said...

This sounds interesting. It is WAY out of my normal genre, but you've convinced me to give it a shot!

I've given you an award! Come check it out! :)
http://www.crazy-for-books.com/2010/02/and-emmy-goes-to.html

Unknown said...

Nicole -
I can't wait for the others.
You know RELEASE is my second Vampire novel?

The first was Dracula.. which I read right before I started yours. I would give it a 4 star as well...ok maybe 4.5 stars. :)

I like symbolism, it makes the book more complex and interesting.

Keep me posted!

Jennifer -
Its fun to go outside of your genre (and support a new author *smiles*)... a perfect read for Halloween or any time and its scary...I love scary.

Thanks for the award will be right by to pick it up!

Robin M said...

The book certainly sounds intriguing. I'll have to look into getting it. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Robin -
Thanks for commenting...
It look like Ebooks/Vamplit will be doing a paperback edition for RELEASE and I may be doing a giveaway here for it soon.

So stay tuned.....

Unknown said...

oops....corrections EbookUndead/Vamplit.

Anna said...

Glad to see it will be offered in paperback, since it sounds really good and I don't read e-books (at least not right now).

I'll add your review to the WWII book reviews page on War Through the Generations if that's okay. :)

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Unknown said...

Anna -
Thanks I had planned to contact you about that. :)

Yes of course - it would be wonderful to have the review posted there.

I was so excited when I heard they are planning to paperback versions....

Missy B. said...

Hi Shellie!

I have an award for you at my blog!

http://missysbooknook.blogspot.com/2010/02/award.html

Unknown said...

Missy -
Thanks!
Wow can you believe that this it my fourth awarding of this particular award? - The Prolific Blogger Award.

LOL! two of which have been given within this post.

That poor little hard working blogger on the badge says it all... I think I should be getting a message here.

Unknown said...

Hi Shellie!

Just thought I'd pop over and take a peek at your review, see if I missed anything, and damn, if I hadn't already read the book, I'd be seeking it out. LOL I think I liked your review better than mine!

((hugs))

Dottie :)

Unknown said...

Dottie -
You are so sweet. Thanks - I do agree and the funny thing is I was thinking the same thing about yours. Good job!

MCrittenden said...

Nice review! Now I really can't wait for this book to come out in print. I'm not an e-booker, just not ready to cross that line yet. Anxiously waiting for the hard copy to come out.

Unknown said...

Mark -
Thanks. :)

This was an interesting read, and I am really liking a few of Vamplit's other publications too.

Stay tuned since Nicole has stated interest in doing a giveaway for her book when its finished in hard copy here on Layers of Thought. Also I think there is a printable version when purchased on Smashwords.

I just stopped by your blog and will have to check it out a little more in depth here in the next couple of days since we have a number of writers who subscribe here, and it looks like you have a contest going on?

Thanks for stopping by. :)

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