Book 29 of 2008: Night Life by Ray Garton

Book Description:

Davey Owen is a man with a death sentence. Nearly twenty years and a lifetime ago, Davey battled a circle of vampires and survived... forever changed. Many of the vampires were destroyed, but the ones who escaped have been hunting Davey ever since. Now they've found him. The passing years have only intensified their thirst for revenge, and at last their prey is within sight. They will make sure that this time he does not escape. They will not rest until Davey pays for what he did to them. With his last drop of blood.

My Opinion:

This was the sequel to the last book I read, LIVE GIRLS, and I liked the way the story continued on. I also liked how this sequel pretty much forced the reader to have read the prequel in order to fully get the background instead of doing a bunch of flashbacks within the story taking up the word count of what should be a completely new novel. (thank you Ray!) I will say that I agree with Garton in that this wasn't his strongest novel, but I still enjoyed the story. I just felt that his writing style wasn't as strong as it had been in the other books I had read by him. Considering the stuff he was going through during the time he was writing it though, I completely understand. I enjoyed how the characterization progressed with Davey and Benedek in this story and hope to learn more about the futures of all the remaining character's of NIGHT LIFE in a future novel.

Book 28 of 2008: Live Girls by Ray Garton

Book Description:

The garish neon lights of New York City's Times Square can be very seductive. And so can the promises of dark pleasures on the seedier side streets. To Davey Owen, the lure of a glowing sign advertising "Live Girls" was too hard to resist. He was looking for a little entertainment. He found instead a nightmare in the form of a beautiful but strangely pale woman. A woman who offers him passion, ecstasy - and eternal life - but takes in exchange his lifeblood and his very soul.

My Opinion:

After having recently read RAVENOUS by Garton I wanted to check out more by him so moved on to his vampire series. I found myself loving LIVE GIRLS even more than RAVENOUS (most likely because I prefer vampires to werewolves plus... who can top a book about vampire chicks stealing blood from a guy's erection... ha ha!!!) I found LIVE GIRLS to be a refreshing take on the vampire stories out there as a lot of the myths were left behind. As with RAVENOUS I found myself growing attatched to many of the characters and am looking forward to continuing the saga of some of them in NIGHT LIFE (which I've already started reading).

For those horror fans out there who've yet to give Ray Garton a shot... what are you waiting for?!?!?!? Check him out!

Book 26 of 2008: Ravenous by Ray Garton

Book Description:

A corpse gets up and walks out of the hospital morgue. Minutes later, a policeman is killed outside the same hospital…and partially eaten. Something deadly has come to the coastal California town of Big Rock—something that's leaving mangled and devoured bodies in its wake.

Sheriff Arlin Hurley refused to believe the wild talk of werewolves. Then a tuft of wolf's fur was found on one of the victims. But there's more than one werewolf on the prowl. It's quickly becoming an epidemic, the curse passed on not through blood but through sex. As the sheriff and his men set out to stop the spreading terror, they'll learn that many of the old werewolf legends are just myths. The reality is far worse.

My Opinion:

So I'm in Waldenbooks and RAVENOUS catches my eye on the shelf so I scoop it up and start reading the back as I'm trying to talk myself out of it since I have so many books at home as it is and really can't afford to buy new books, but then I get to the part in the description about how the "virus" is spread via sex rather than biting and I can't say no to a book like that, so... well... obviously I bought it.

Ironically, 2 days later, Ray Garton friends me here on MySpace. I thought the timing was ironic and pretty darn cool as well. I ended up putting RAVENOUS up next on Mt. TBR in order to get to it and let him know what I thought of it, which is what I'm trying to do now within all this rambling! hee hee!

Anyway, I devoured RAVENOUS within just a few days. I haven't read a lot of werewolf horror books, but I can almost guarantee that even if I had this would be one of my favorites! Garton's writing style is new to me as his other books (I'm ashamed to say) have been waiting on Mt. TBR for quite some time, (though they are definitely getting bumped up now!) but I truly enjoy the way he writes. RAVENOUS was filled with scares, lust, sadness (I really didn't want some of the people that died to die!!!), and tons of suspense. I am truly looking forward to reading more from this author and hopefully a sequel to RAVENOUS one day.