Sweet Blood of Mine: Book One of the Overworld Chronicles

Justin is your typical nerdy, overweight, high school kid, or so he thought. He usually kept to himself and had his 2 close friends that were always by his side and had his back. Everything changes in a way you aren't expecting.Justin's parents love each other but one day out of the blue something changes. Justin notices his Dad is drinking all the time and drunk, and his Mom just doesn't seem happy anymore and is upset about something.Things have been a little for Justin but he can't talk to either of his parents because they seem to keep asking the wrong questions. Justin is so upset about how his parents are acting and everything going on that he gets drunk one night and things get messy.Justin needs to figure out what is going on with him, what is going on with his parents, and figure out who his real friends are, so he knows who has his back.This book is an exciting fantasy book with some romance, action, and a touch of humor. I think this would be a great book for any teenager and up.

The book was heavy and paperback. It had little protection but luckily it came unharmed. I fear though if a delivery driver had not been so careful it would have been bent. The book however had no corners bent, no tears, and no scratches.

After having inhaled his 'Chronicles of Cain' series, I was eager to dive into more of Mr Corwin's work.I am giving this first (of the series) a full five stars based LESS on this book itself, and more on what this book leads to. As a whole, it's worth every star and more.This first book (and the prequel?) is, as another review said, a bit clunky. I gather these are some of the author's earliest creations. But don't be deterred...any awkwardness in style is quickly overcome and a genuinely GOOD STORY is waiting for you to journey through.This series sort of hovers on the cusp between Young Adult and Adult fiction. To me, as a 50-something grandma, I'm totally ok with that. I don't care how a book is classified, so long as it presents an enjoyable ride. And this series definitely delivers!While the series contains numerous supernatural 'types' you've seen before (vampires & daywalkers, lycans, seraphim, demons, etc ), the author introduces us to his own take on these classics and introduces a few new ones which I'd not heard of before. And believe me, if you had a 500+ books a year reading habit (almost entirely Sci-Fi/Fantasy) as I do? That would be a LOVELY surprise!The story has plots within plots which can be a mite difficult to keep straight in your head, but I think the author does an excellent job of periodically offering fresh summations of the twists and turns in a manner that is very organic and not at all distracting from the plot progression. He almost has a sixth sense about when it's time to reconnect the dots for the reader and make sure they haven't dropped any important plot points along the way.In fact, I'd say that I've not encountered another author with such complex plots who does it better. Even one of my definite Top 10 faves, Shayne Silvers, is not quite as good at gently reminding the reader where his own complex plots are connecting through his books (sorry, Shayne! Love ya man!).For me, with an aging brain that is also affected by a few autoimmune disorders, those reminders are a HUGE deal when it can be difficult for me to keep all the threads of a story straight. So I particularly appreciate Mr Corwin's talent in this regard. I suspect he would be a good editor or advisor for other authors with similarly complex plotlines to help them thread things together a bit more seamlessly. I really admire this talent a great deal.Bottom line...if you are seeking an engaging story with a complex quest, characters you can relate to, or admire, or just emotionally attach to, along with some extremely satisfying victories and a few tragic moments mixed in... All with a subtle humor and some very human foibles... This is a series worth lending your time to.

It took me an astonishingly long time to decide whether or not to grade this book with 3 stars, 4 stars, or 5. Had you asked me when I picked up the novel and read the first chapter to judge the book at that point, I might’ve considered 3 a generous score and ended reading there. However, I didn’t let the clunky start prevent me from digging further and reading more. After all, origin stories are almost never perfect (example: the new Power Ranger’s movie). I endured the beginning and found myself happy I did.I won’t lie, within the first few pages of this book, I found myself grimacing at some of the writing. I could not help but wince at the interactions between the characters; how bland and cold the “bad guys” or bullies were from the start, or how non-dimensional the initial female love interest of our main character, Justin, proved herself from the very start. I thought to myself, Dear God, this is going to be a train wreck. Nothing about this book will be bearable. And for a while, that became more and more evident with every passing page and every interaction and dialogue traded between Justin and, quite literally, every other character. I also noted early on that every single character sounded EXACTLY alike. Their language choices and use of certain vocabulary had me audibly confused and groaning along. It didn’t take long for me to get bored.But something happened. Not a cliff hanger or a single notable piece of the book, but something about it kept me hanging on. Yeah, for a while, I was complaining to my wife in sporadic pop-up fashion about how the characters were terribly written and the plot a cookie cutter replica of many Young Adult Fiction novels; however, I never put the book down. Whatever it was—perhaps the growth of the writing from a bad, high-school-grade essay to something more gripping, something deeper than the words on the page—hooked my attention strongly, and I finished every last word.Sweet Blood of Mine, which I am assuming is a creative play on the Guns n Roses hit, perhaps tries a bit too hard to incorporate a realistic intensity of teenage angst and its impact on teens today. Yeah, some of the pop culture references are a bit too much and get a little cumbersome (Heisenberg as a chem teacher), but if you chalk those up to writer’s voice, strip them away as minute issues, and explore the novel’s story, you can easily fall away into Justin’s world. You can play the scenes of misfit teens braving high school over and over in your head, cheering on the protagonist in his newfound bravery. You can sympathize with a broken-hearted Justin, as he unjustly loses his true love interest, Elyssa. You can swell with pride as Justin drops that floozy harlot, Katie, for a girl of substance. The characters start to become something more than stereotypes personified and the world becomes believable, realistic, and beings for which you give a shit.Thinking back to it, perhaps the side characters were so bland and tasteless simply because that is what the writer wanted. He needed his reader to understand that the high school bullies are simple nothings in the grand scope of things. They never develop or grow as people simply because they do not need to. As they stand, these characters are perfect examples of how much those high school bullies and bitches mattered; close to nothing. They get the story going, as they did for all of us; but, in the chapters that mattered, they served no purpose and really did not need to grow for us to get what we needed from them.In the end, after I flicked past the epilogue and found myself staring down the empty Kindle pages with no more of Justin’s story for me to consume, I immediately text my wife, “I’ve gotta buy the rest of these books.” What started as a gamble into a .99 cent book advertised on Facebook turned into fandom; the excited clamoring of a reader for more. I look forward to the rest of the series, and I hope desperately that they are as engaging as the first

This is one of those books where I wonder if I somehow got slipped a different copy than everyone else. After reading all the rave reviews for this book I was expecting something that was at least good if not mind blowing. This is not even close to being the case.This is the story of a super creepy geek with serious impulse control issues and the mannerisms of a stalker as he gets the powers of a super rapist. He is able to force any woman to instantly want to sleep with him even though they would not like him without his magic power and would never have agreed to any kind of sexual encounter with him in normal circumstances... if that isn't rape then I'm not sure what is. In spite of the fact that he never actually goes all the way with any of these women he does severely mess with a lot of women to the point that they must be severely traumatised afterwards.In spite of his actions throughout this book, we are supposed to feel that the protagonist is special because he doesn't want to sleep with any women unless it's for love. This might have been a noble thought except for the fact that he has a screwed up notion of love. His ideas for love are very shallow being as beauty seems to be a prerequisite in the women he is interested in (he is incredibly derisive of the love interest until he sees her looking pretty out of her goth makeup even though she has been nothing but friendly toward him), and from his actions I can only describe his actual feelings as being those of an obsessive stalker who never takes no for an answer.Basically what I am saying is that the protagonist is a serious creep and that is only the start of the problems in this book.You can add onto that the fact that there is absolutely no depth to this story whatsoever. Supposedly deep and meaningful relationships (romantic, friendship and familial) all are supposedly developed in the space of little more than a week or two. The powers that are manifested throughout the book are so woefully depicted that when each one turns up it almost feels like its no big deal and the characters just accept it and move on. Enmities that arrive in his school life have no sense of believability to them and they are not decisively dealt with by the end of the novel.To be honest I could keep going but I fear I may start swearing in frustration over the time I wasted on this book. Clearly my opinion here is not a popular one, there are a lot of good reviews for this book so as always I encourage readers to make up their own minds.Whatever the case, I was not impressed with this book and I will not be reading any sequels.

I admit I went looking for this. Not specifically this book, but for urban fantasy novels with a male lead. I thought this looked interesting and it was free on kindle, so the decision to download was easy. I was not disappointed, this was a great read.The book has an imaginative plot and that alone makes it stand out within the mass of YA and urban fantasy books being published at the moment. Plus the "voice" of the main character hit just the right spot. There are a couple of cliches around High School interactions and football but even there, the author stamps his own individual slant and heads off in a slightly different direction. It is such a relief to find a book (even better, a series) where the lead character isn't some kick-ass female teen who falls for the first hot guy she sees. Admittedly the hero (Justin) has some romantic and lustful interludes but they are actually part of the plot rather than an excuse for gratuitous sexual/romantic encounters. Even more importantly, this guy can write. Having struggled to get through several urban fantasy novels recently that I had to abandon because of really poor writing, this was a welcome change. If you're looking for a novel with a difference, YA urban fantasy that rolls along at a cracking pace, then I recommend you give this a go. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

As well as being badly written this book screams of incel and 'nice guy' syndrome. Justin is a teenage boy obsessed with a girl and doesnt understand that maybe shes just not that into him. He blames being single on his looks rather than his garbage personality that revolves around trying to change woken to fit his standard.If you want to read a book about a teenage boy who cannot understand that women do not exist just for his pleasure then go ahead. Because it sure as hell doesn't get to any fantasy aspects fast enough to even be considered a good fantasy story.

Read from July 19 to 20, 2012I loved this book immensely. The original storyline and quirky writing style made me laugh out loud at times. I enjoyed watching Justin (the nerdy teenage boy) grow as he discovered a few odd things about himself and others while having to deal with all the teenage angst as well. I highly recommend this book. Can't wait to read the next installment.Kim

I am enjoying this book. A little bit childishly written (that isn't meant as a derogatory review of the authors writing skills) - the story is wrote from a teenagers perspective! It is a very interesting story line & although I haven't finished I already know I will be buying the second book!