Publisher: Flux (May 1, 2009)
Paperback: 240 Pages
Genre: YA Fantasy (Vampires)
Series: Vamped #1
From Goodreads.
Gina Covello's Perks and Pitfalls of Vamp Life
1. Hello?! Eternal youth and beauty!
2. Free. Designer. Clothes.
3. My hot new boyfriend Bobby went from chess dud to vamp stud.
4. No reflection! First order of business: turn my own stylist to stop the downward spiral from chic to eek.
5. Vampire vixen Mellisande has taken an interest in my boyfriend, and is now transforming the entire high school into her own personal vampire army. If anyone's going to start their own undead entourage it should be me.
I guess I'll just have to save everyone from fashion disasters and other fates worse than death.
Publisher: Flux (September 1, 2010)
Paperback: 240 Pages
Genre: YA Fantasy (Vampires)
Series: Vamped #2
From Goodreads.
Gina's Rules for Surviving Super Spy Club Training
1. First, the dirt and sweat are just too horrible to contemplate.
2. Unless you enjoy cold showers, be the first one to the bathroom in the morning.
3. Cargo pants make you look hip-py.
4. Making out on missions, unless it's part of your cover, is totally grounds for extra push-ups.
5. When going goth, you've totally got to strike words like totally, awesome, and phat from your vocabulary.
6. Who's actually running the Super Spy Club, you ask? I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
Review by Kate
The first two books in the
Vamped series are fangtabulous (sorry I had to)!! Diver created some stellar characters and an even more awesome story. Gina Covello, teen fashionista, is now a vampire with a super hot and brainy boyfriend, Bobby (my new vamp crush!). These two find themselves in the center of the action because of a prophecy they are both involved in but are in the dark about what is to come.
In VAMPED, Gina woke up in her new vampire life. I loved her hilarious freak out moments about how she would be unable to see herself in a mirror. She definitely was not a mean girl but she had style, a bit of a 'tude, and she never let anyone put her down. And I loved the fact that the drama of the story wasn't created by a love triangle. There are so many books that use the romance as the main conflict, but this book was different. Bobby and Gina had a hot and heavy makeout session before she died and she woke up to her new life with a hottie boyfriend. They had legitimate feelings for each other, and explored them throughout the book.
Another different aspect of this book that I loved was that the main character, Gina, was not a focal point of the action. Bobby was the center of vampire prophecy and Gina started off just being another teenage vampire pawn in the grand scheme. I liked how Diver only revealed to the reader what Gina knew, which amped up the anticipation.
The end of the book was jammed packed with heart pumping action. Diver truly has talent for enabling the reading to fully visualize the action and at the end of this book I dug right in to
Revamped.
0 Comments on Book Reviews: Vamped & Revamped by Lucienne Diver as of 1/1/1900
This week the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit welcomes Lucienne Diver, fellow Fluxian, LJer (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
varkat ), and author of Vamped (Flux, May 1 2009).
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Rule #1: Do not get so loaded at the after prom party that you accidentally-on-purpose end up in the broom closet with the surprise hottie of the evening, say the class chess champ who’s somewhere lost his bottle-cap lenses and undergone an extreme makeover, especially if that makeover has anything to do with becoming one of the undead.
Gina Covello has a problem. Waking up a dead is just the beginning. There's very little she can't put up with for the sake of eternal youth and beauty. Blood-sucking and pointy stick phobias seem a small price to pay. But she draws the line when local vampire vixen Mellisande gets designs on her hot new boyfriend with his prophecied powers and hatches a plot to turn all of Gina’s fellow students into an undead army to be used to overthrow the vampire council.
Hey, if anyone's going to create an undead entourage, it should be Gina! Now she must unselfishly save her classmates from fashion disaster and her own fanged fate.
THE INTERVIEW:
Stacy: If you couldn't be a writer, what would your dream job be?
Lucienne: Taste tester for Lindt chocolate! Oh, you want a serious answer? I love being an agent. I work with over forty of the most brilliant, creative, fabulous authors I can imagine and adore every second of it.
Stacy: What's the most surprising thing to happen since publication of your book?
Lucienne: People actually like it! I know, I know, that's whats supposed to happen, but when you're on the six-millionth revision you lose all perspective. I hit a point where I was convinced that I was a fraud and just hoping no one would notice. But the publisher had already bought the book, invested in it. There was no going back.
Stacy: What are you working on now?
Lucienne: A middle grade idea came to me last year on a trip to New York while I was in the midst of writing something else and couldn't let myself get sidetracked. Now that I've turned in Revamped, the sequel to Vamped, I can finally answer the other voices in my head.
Stacy: Did you have a favorite teacher who encouraged your writing/reading habit?
Lucienne: Absolutely! My fifth grade teacher, Mr. Hart was the best. I think that English was his real passion. He had the entire class divided into writing groups and gave us regular free-writing assignments, sometimes with a first line or a topic to start with. For a certain time our pens were not allowed to stop moving, even if we couldn't think of anything to say and just had to settle for Nothing at all. Nothing at all. Then we'd read our assignments out loud or break into groups to read and critique them. I give him a lot of credit for my work ethic. I don't allow writers block. If I've set aside an hour to write, I sit with pen in hand. Boredom, which is what happens when the pen isn't moving, is a great motivator. He was the first person to really encourage my writing and to work with me to improve it.
Stacy: What's your favorite kind of chocolate?
Lucienne: Dark chocolate
or anything with toffee chips. Ooh, no, wait
a friend once gave me chili pepper chocolate. It was perfect because you could only eat a little bit because of the burn, but it was so satisfying you didn't actually need any more than that!THE REVIEWS:"VAMPED is a total delight! Diver delivers a delightful cast of undead characters and a fresh, fast take on the vampire mythos. Next installment, please!" — Rachel Caine, New York Times bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series.
"I really sunk my teeth into Lucienne Diver's VAMPED. A fun, frothy, teenage romp with lots of action, a little shopping, and a cute vampire guy. Who could ask for more?" — Marley Gibson, author of Ghost Huntress: The Awakening.
“This book rollicked along, full of humor, romance, and action. Gina is a smart-aleck heroine worth reading about, a sort of teenage Besty Taylor (Undead and Unwed) with a lot of Cher Horowitz (Clueless) thrown in. Fans of Katie Maxwell will devour VAMPED. — Rosemary Clement-Moore, author of the Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil series
"Move over Buffy! Lucienne Diver transfuses some fresh blood into the vampire genre. Feisty, fashionable and fun--VAMPED is a story readers will sink their teeth into and finish thirsty for more." —Mari Mancusi, author of The Blood Coven Vampires series.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Lucienne Diver is a long-time book addict who went to work for NYC’s Spectrum Literary Agency fifteen years ago to feed her habit. Recently, she traded in her high-rise for a lake view. She now lives in Florida and works for The Knight Agency (www.knightagency.net). Through various play-dates and in various coffee bars, on the backs of envelopes, carry-out bags and anything else within reach, including, sometimes, her checkbook, she's penned the serio-comic tale of what happens when a young fashionista goes from chic to eek. Now go! Read! Enjoy!
Today, Deidre Knight is the driver's seat on Lucienne Diver's blog, Varkat, for "Paranormal Romance Week." She shares more than a few pearls of wisdom on the realities of writing a novel in "This Crazy Little Thing Called (Writing) Love." Swing by and check her out!
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