Sunday, November 7, 2010

Pulse by Kailin Gow

Pulse
(Pulse Series Book #1)
by Kailin Gow

Genre: Paranormal Romance | Young Adult

Received book from Traveling ARC Tours

17 year-old Kalina didn't know her boyfriend was a vampire until the night he died of a freak accident. She didn't know he came from a long line of vampires until the night she was visited by his half-brothers Jaegar and Stuart Greystone. There were a lot of secrets her boyfriend didn't tell her. Now she must discover them in order to keep alive. But having two half-brothers vampires around had just gotten interesting.

Kalina loses her ex-boyfriend, Aaron, in a tragic accident three months before two handsome strangers, Jaegar & Stuart, show up in town to take over the Greystone family business. She eventually finds out that they are Aaron's older brothers and have also arrived to find out the true reason behind his sudden disappearance. When a dark family secret is revealed, Kalina must not only battle the scary truth of the people around her, but also what she has now become.

Firstly, I had to chuckle at the name Jaegar. This was my first time seeing it in print as a character's name and all that kept flashing through my head was my early drinking days with Jägermeist
er, eww. Besides name association, the brother characters were complete opposites of each other. I understand Jaegar's mysteriously dark & coldly flirtatious older brother attitude, but Stuart's sweet awkwardness stumped me a little. Certain parts of the story described him as "a bit awkward, a bit stiff -- a thousand years of practice hadn't cured him of his romantic ideals of women" (pg. 99) and at other times that "all the humans that [he] had spent any significant amount of time with fell neatly into one of two categories. Food - ... or sex. Stuart had been a rake in his day -- more romantic that Jaegar, perhaps, but in the end no less promiscuous." (pg. 72-73) Oddly to me, "awkwardness" describes an amateur attitude, someone who is uncoordinated and tactless, so Stuart's past rakish mannerism in the ways of women was very conflicting and I couldn't quite understand him as a male lead because of that.

The overall plot of Pulse was very intriguing, but it took me a while to get caught up in the story itself. From the beginning, I felt, it would have flowed better if the readers could have had a prelude of Aaron's accident or at least Kalina's discovery of the accident before cutting three months into where the story started. Except, what the readers got was a prologue to where both brothers deceived Kalina with "compulsion" right off the back, so it took me a while to figure out who and what exactly was going on the first few chapters and to warm up to the protagonists.

I did enjoy the twist at the end of Pulse and believed that could add some juicy intrigue to the future of the series, but I'm hesitant of reading further into the story since it may turn into another viscous love triangle similar to Zoey & her multiple guys in the House of Night Series . . . something I couldn't quite overlook. Yet, Kalina's character was wonderfully strong and I liked that she wasn't intimidated with any of the situations she was placed in. She portrays a normal teenager with jealousy tendencies, but she's calm, caring, a
nd remains chaste when the times calls for it. ;)

If you're big into series and ready for a little young adult vampire love twist, try out Pulse, but don't expect fireworks or a monumental in-depth story. Just check it out for an enjoyable lazy Sunday afternoon read.

Likes: The relationship between Kalina & her older brother/"acting father figure" was enjoyable.

Dislikes: This story had too many similarities to The Vampire Diary brother figures.

Rating:

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