Title: Never Bite a Boy on the First DateAuthor: Tamara Summers
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 280
My Rating: 2.5/5
Kira, once known as Phoebe Tanaka, is a teenage vampire who has a big problem. (Which young bloodsucker doesn't?). Sure she bit a guy she temporarily lusted for but it didn't mean she took another snack out of someone from her new school! But her vampire family doesn't believe her. She must clear up her name within a week or else she'll have to face the consequences!
With three cute suspects she is eyeing on, how can Kira keep focus on her little "detective" work? Especially when she might be crushing on one of them!
Well, I don't hate the vampire part of this novel but it is practically everything else the bothers me.
In first-person narration, Kira fell flat through her voice with her feelings only grazed upon. She was impossible to connect with because whenever she narrated, it would be like she was talking to you in real life, simply describing what was going on but without giving you that personal connection. If there is no connection with the protagonist, the reader will likely end up not caring what would happen to the character in the end.
Also, you don't learn much about her past life and how she dealt with her blood family after she became a vampire. She constantly stated that she is half Japanese but what is the other half? European? African American? There were a lot of blanks in terms of her history and I think it is important to at least let the reader know more about Kira as a whole.
I didn't understand why there would be anything going with Kira and her suspects. There was absolutely no chemistry between Kira or any of the guys because their time spent together wasn't even worth enough to develop anything! The romance was practically non-existent!
When the ending came around, it was not as exciting as it was supposed to be. From start to finish, I was like, "Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay, done." I couldn't find this novel to be appealing as I hoped.
I guess you could call this novel a mystery but I just don't see the mystery factor in it. I found the plot was an excuse to have Kira hang out with three different cuties because that was pretty much what was happening throughout. I don't hate the book; I guess I just don't like how everything was put together. The premise is not mind-blowing but a potentially good story could have been created upon it. There were just too many flaws, from characters to plot to almost anything you could think of. As a reader, you wouldn't mind reading the novel but you would definitely be nit-picking it as you go through.
Never Bite a Boy on the First Date is your lighter vamp novel and is easy to breeze through, but something I would never recommend purchasing. You can take a peek of the novel here.
Review copy provided by HarperCollins.
6 comments:
Awww, it doesnt sound like the book I was so excited to read. It sounded like a good book. Thanks for the review.
Not really! I have read this bok & it is really interesting! I even made my class of 7th Graders read it. All of the responses came out the same: I love this book! so maybe if you don't like it, then you missed out on it.
Anonymous: I guess that really depends on one's taste. This one is just not for me because there were so many things I found wrong with it that I had a hard time liking it. But it is good that you like it.
love it.
To be honest, I don't agree with your review. I loved this book, I thought it was amazing. Your review only talks about the faults, which most of aren't true. You haven't onced mentioned any of the good qualities it has shown, such a humour, romance, murder, mystery.
Also, it's easy to relate to how Kira has fallen in love with the boys (Okay, only two, that is).
She only mentions the fact that she's half Japanese once or twice, so I don't understand why you're making such a big deal about it.
In addition, how was she supposed to deal with her Blood family when she's a vampire? Dead? And living in a different part of America? Kira herself doesn't know much about her history, she finds more about her history when she googles herself. That's when she has a go at Rowan, who was also her killer.
Furthermore, I'm wondering if you've ever liked someone, due to how you don't understand how Kira fell in love. She fell in love wih Milo at first sight, and after getting to know Daniel she had feelings for him so I'm wondering why you can't relate and why you think there was nothing there.
Moreover, if you don't think that this book was a mystery, does that mean you knew the killer was Zach all along? Did you know how Zach killed Tex? No. If you didn't know, it is a mystery. Therefor there's a good reason for the book to be labelled as mystery. The characters also had their own mystery to them, how Milo was a vampire hunter, and how that was revealed just befote the end, how Daniel was a vampire and how Rowan was Kira's killer. There's a reason that the characters act a certain way aswell, since it portrays their personality well.
I've recommened this book to tons of people who have different taste's compared to me, however, they loved it and they all purchased it.
That's perfectly fine if you enjoy it. I honestly barely remember this novel, considering I have read this about 3 years ago. This was my perspective at the time and what stood out to me (and hence why I picked out what I did to review).
If you love it, yes, do recommend it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. :)
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