Review - The Vampire's Warden by S.J. Wright

 

From Goodreads:

I couldn't seem to contain the inferno burning inside me, being that close to him. Even knowing the danger he posed and the gruesome scenes that must have been caused by him, I still felt a burning inside me every time I heard his voice or felt his hot gaze on me.

But I was the Warden. He was one of the damned. We were destined to be at odds. Enemies.

Sarah Brightman, having just lost her father to cancer, is stunned to discover that the mother she thought was dead is actually still alive. She also finds out that the legacy her father left her is a lot more than just an Inn on the outskirts of Nashville, Indiana. She has a frightening new responsibility.

What I thought... 

 I really thought the premise of this book was unique. Humans being set to be caretakers of bad vampires, the wardens of vamps who misbehave- love it!
    

Overall, this book was enjoyable and left me salivating for more. I will definitely be checking out the next installment. I really liked Sarah. She was a tough, no-nonsense woman. She was always honest, never beat around the bush, and took no crap from anyone. I really enjoyed that about her. Unlike, her over-emotional sister, who I think went a little overboard… The characters were overall well-developed, though there are a lot of questions still unanswered about where some of them come from, how much they each knew of the past, and who can be trusted. I liked the backstory, how it was brought into the plot through the journal, that’s so much better than paragraphs of description.
   

As for the plot, at times it felt like the characters knew things that had not been revealed to the reader, like the author knew the details and just kind of forgot to write them in. The relationship between Alex and Sarah’s mother is not quite fully explained. The relationship between Michael and Sarah, which I feel has great potential, felt rushed. I felt like they needed more scenes before her confusing feeling started. But they do have a couple awesome, tense scenes that I’m looking forward to seeing more of. And do we ever find out why Alex was found unconscious and bleeding on the side of the road in the beginning of the book? How did the rogue group know that Sarah knew? And who was the mastermind of the rogue group? Victoria? A couple things in the climax scene confused me and I hope they will get answered better in the next book. And I want to know what Michael is eating while he’s being held captive… :)
   

At times, the author’s writing is great. Her descriptions draw you right into the story and by the middle, I felt like I was there. I had trouble in the beginning, however, because I felt like the plot was sluggish and I was instead focusing on grammatical errors and choppy sentences. By the middle - I was no longer noticing these things, instead focusing on the story.
 

   I don’t want to be overly picky, and the average reader may not even notice these things, but I used to be an English teacher, so it was my job, and errors in grammar and choppy writing catch my attention. I assume these would be taken care of with the help of a professional editor.
   

In summary, I liked the idea of this book and it was a fun read. In my humble opinion- and really I feel horrible - I’m not trying to be mean, I just feel like a good going over would help this book go from good to awesome. I would rate this 3 stars, it has a lot of potential and I’ll be reading the following books in the series.