Dead or a Lie
Jason A. BarretParanormal romance
Available from The Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 978-1-60154-653-1
February 2010
| Afflicted with PMLE (a disease that makes individuals allergic to sunlight) Lee Teadora sleeps during the day and restricts her life to working as the night security director of New York Medical. By necessity, her existence is a solitary one filled with endless nights watching uneventful images on her security monitors, though Lee can't help longing for something more. However, when she is attacked by a group of crazed vampires after visiting her father's grave, she comes to the conclusion that from then on she was going to be a lot more careful of what she wished for. Despite her martial arts training, Lee is sorely outmatched and would have ended up dead, or undead, without the assistance of a shadowy figure who briefly emerged to save her before returning to the shadows without exchanging so much as a word with her.
Lee soon learns that her affliction is not just a freak of nature and that she has a larger role to play in the battle between good and evil, but she's no longer sure whom she can trust. Dead or a Lie offers a roller coaster ride for the reader as Lee discovers exactly what she is up against. Those out to kill her are truly evil and need to be stopped, but Lee has neither the resources nor the power to succeed alone, and the one person she thought she could rely on for help may have been lying all along about the role he accepted to protect her. Jason A. Barret has created a world where some vampires seek to be mortal again and others would rather die than give up their immortality. The key to both is Lee's heart. Her blood will release a vampire from the chains of darkness and bring him back to the light, but for this to happen her heart must first be taken. Vampires across the world believe this to mean that the taking of Lee's heart will enable vampires to walk in the light. For those that wish to remain vampires, the taking of Lee's blood after her death would free them to roam during the day as well as at night. Those who are unbound (by refusing to drink human blood) believe Lee's blood will offer them salvation, but they need to discover a way to create this miracle without murdering Lee in the process, even if she is willing to have her heart taken. Throughout the story, I had difficulty reconciling that the same act was being sought by the two opposing groups. The unbound believe that taking Lee's heart is wrong, but that the flush that occurs within her blood, once it is taken, will cure them of their vampirism, while the bound vampires believe that that same flush will enable them to walk in daylight. I never really understood why the two could desire the exact same thing, yet believe something so different would occur without reservation. It seemed to me that the bound would have some reticence over taking Lee's heart on the off chance that murdering her offered consequences they would not want to risk—like a return to mortality. Despite the seeming inconsistency, I really enjoyed Dead or a Lie and would recommend it to vampire lovers who relish stories that offer something new and different for their favorite legend.
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Kathryn |
