Tour Stop & Giveaway: The Fire of Dawn by V. V. Aku

Name of book: The Fire Of Dawn
Author: V. V. Aku
Publication: April 1st 2012
Genre: YA Paranormal
Source: Provided by author

It’s the last day of the summer holiday in The Hague when Leah Koopmans’s carefree life as a teen is brutally flipped upside down. Her pale skin turns a dazzling gold, her senses heighten, and her muscles possess an uncanny strength. But with these exhilarating new powers comes a thirst that can only be quenched by one thing: human blood.

While her body craves for fresh victims and her heart drowns in guilt, she meets inhumanly handsome Max Machiavelli, who claims that Leah is an immortal like him. Infatuation ignites into blistering passion when Leah joins his coven in Amsterdam. But as the mysteries shrouding her sudden change to immortality unravel, she quickly learns that her aversion to taking life isn’t the only thing that sets her apart from this group of herculean strangers.

From the picturesque canals of Amsterdam to Corsica’s limestone cliffs and the untamed Siberian wilderness; from first loves to fierce battles, The Fire of Dawn is an extraordinary tale packed with romance, betrayal, and bloodsucking suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat till the very last page.

-- My Rating --

-- My Thoughts --

     I don't actually know hot to start my review of this book, it's just that it was a wonderful addition to my reading list. This book can be described as Twilight-like with a new twists and turns.

     Leah barely survives a huge explosion that killed her friends and everyone in the bar, where she went to celebrate her 18th birthday. After gaining back her consciousness, Leah realizes she has a hugely-improved eye vision, hearing ability, and that she is hungry. She is craving for food, but not the food she normally eats, she is craving for human blood...

     Trying to cope with her new senses, Leah encounters a pack of people who claim to be immortal like her. They try to make Leah understand her importance in finally bringing peace to their world and stopping bloodshed between the immortals and the Brotherhood, a group pf humans who want to kill all the immortals.

     But the Brotherhood take Leah as a prisoner, and leave her mate, gorgeous protective Max in a wreck. Will Leah be able to escape her abductors? Will she be able to save the immortal world and bring peace to the land? And will she ever be with her beloved Max? Find out much more when you read this exhilarating and captivating book, The Fire Of Dawn.

     I liked many aspects of this book. I liked the story-line, the author has a really good story going on. The voice of the author is simple and delicate, she describes exactly what the characters should feel, no mysteries. But the one thing I hated, is the insta-love between Leah and Max. Love grows on people, it doesn't just pop out of nowhere.

     The end was pretty predictable. Except a few minor flaws, this book was an enjoyable, captivating read, that will appeal to every paranormal fan, specially Twilight and Vampire Academy fans.

-- Guest Post --

5 Things You Didn't know About Me

1.        Like most teens, I made my parents’ life a living hell. I hated the fact that I couldn’t be free. I saw school as prison and the years of mandatory education as unjustified jail time. Above all else, I yearned to spread my wings, turn eighteen, and explore the world. The first thing I did after graduation? I bought an open ticket to Asia and I haven’t lived in the Netherlands since.

2.      My life with a Himalayan tribe in China is no secret. But what most people don’t know about my marriage to wild, Black-Yi man Anzi Aku, is that I never said, ‘I do,’ or ‘Yes, I’ll be your wife.’ His family presented my parents with tokens of silver and expensive liquor. Normally, they would have offered my dad a dozen goats, a yak, and two horses, but realizing that these animals wouldn’t fit in their suitcase back to Holland, Anzi’s family kept it low scale.

3.       I absolutely adore animals of all kinds. I’m not a diehard vegetarian, but I never thought I would be able to endure seeing an animal suffer until I moved to China. It has been one of the biggest culture shocks I’ve had to deal with, but an important part of integration and acceptance into my husband’s Black-Yi clan. My first duty as his wife was to shave a freshly slaughtered pig (after I had nearly tore the ears off my head listening to the hog’s terrified squeals) after which the village shaman ceremoniously cut the poor animal into pieces and put me in charge of cleaning its intestines and stuffing them with blood, meat, and mushrooms.

4.      Another part of Black-Yi integration was looking like a true Black-Yi women. Soon after I started my life in the mountains of northwest Yunnan, Anzi’s family began insisting that I not only dressed like one of them, but also tried my best to be seen as one of them by their ancestors. In order to complete this trying endeavor I needed to sacrifice the virgin skin of my forearms. The shaman’s wife gathered herbs and ash then took a bunch of needles and began tattooing round dots on both of my arms. The dots represent coins which I will take with me to my afterlife.

5.      Four months ago, my husband and I found out that I was pregnant. Although we were both ecstatic, my pregnancy discomforts soon kicked into high gear. With a sudden supernatural sense of smell, life in China became unbearable. Everywhere I went, I wanted to gag on the foul blend of garlic, ginger, spices, stinky feet, unbrushed teeth, and days-old sweat. But this prenatal torment was trumped by one other. Chinese food became the most disgusting thing to eat in the world.

Want to find out more silly facts about me and my life in China. Join me on Facebook.com/VVAKU or read my blog on www.fireofdawn.com/1/feed

-- Giveaway --

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-- About The Author --

     V.V. Aku has always believed in beautiful stories. She found the man of her dreams and her way in complex China, and wrote a fairytale of her own: The Fire of Dawn－a scintillating tale about strength, self-discovery, and a girl who dared to follow her heart.

     Born and raised in The Netherlands, V.V. Aku (Veerle Ackerstaff) soon discovered that the world was a place worth exploring. After graduating high school, she set out to travel the globe until she finally touched down in China. On the border of Tibet she met Anzi Aku, a wild Black-Yi man who lives at the foot of the Himalayas. She has joined his clan and tries to find her place among the tribe and its shamans. When she’s not researching the clan’s mythology on vampires, she shamelessly gives in to the compulsion to write about the countless characters that haunt her dreams.

     V.V. Aku is the author of The Fire of Dawn and Black Dusk. She has been the creator of stories since the age of three, and has a Post-Graduate Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults from The University of Cambridge ESOL. After nearly a decade of working as an English language teacher and TEFL trainer in China, Thailand, The Netherlands, and the UK, she now devotes all her time to writing, her family, and practicing Kung Fu. The Fire of Dawn is her debut novel.

Facebook
Twitter: @VeerleAku
Blog:
Website

Links to Buy 

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007J2K7Z0
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B007J2K7Z0
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007J2K7Z0
http://www.amazon.es/dp/B007J2K7Z0
http://www.amazon.it/dp/B007J2K7Z0
http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B007J2K7Z0

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/169564

Create Space:
https://www.createspace.com/3791105