Review 207: Endlessly by C.V. Hunt

Endlessly
by C.V. Hunt
CreateSpace
Copyright © February 2011
ISBN: 1456356534
202 Pages
$9.99 Paperback
$2.99 Kindle

C.V. Hunt should be proud.  I actually stopped reading Amanda Hocking’s Switched to read Hunt’s Endlessly, and in the end, Hunt’s book won me over. When Hunt first queried us with her book, I admit I rolled my eyes and thought to myself Oh yay!  Another vampire book! But after reading the preview, my hesitation went away and I decided to take a chance since the book was under 200 pages.  I was hooked after the first chapter.

I continued reading Hocking because it’s what everyone else is reading, and as I’ve stated before, that’s exactly why I shouldn’t read something.  (It’s why I still haven’t read Harry Potter to date!)  I much prefer the books no one has ever heard of, and I hope that after my review many more will be reading C.V. Hunt.

As I stated in my review of Hocking, I began to get bored once much of the mystery of Wendy’s dilemma rubbed off and more was revealed to both Wendy and the reader.  I also didn’t like the lack of detail.  Her narrative was good, but it reads too much like a movie script for me after awhile.  Its sort of like overhearing a conversation and at first, you are listening with full attention but you begin to drift off because you’re still the third party and are lacking certain details.

Endlessly gives us an equal balance of narrative and detail – enough to make me step away from Hocking to finish Endlessly first.  And you aren’t bogged down in detail either.  It’s just enough to keep you wanting more.  She gives it to you when needed, teasing you with just enough to keep you wanting more, and then pushes the story forward with just enough dialogue.

Endlessly is also a lot more graphic at times and more adult.  It leans more toward horror than supernatural, but has equal elements of both which I thought Hunt treated in a unique manner.  Endlessly is told from the POV of Verloren, a young vampire who runs a metaphysical-type store of books, crystals, and herbs.  He is spared by the Quatre, a group of four council type characters who we meet in the beginning.  They rule the supernatural community and Verloren is facing death for a reason we do not know.  The Quatre allow him to return to humanity if he agrees to stay out of trouble and to obey the rules.  He runs the store with some other supernaturals including a werewolf and a witch in order to stay under the Quatre’s radar.

Enter Ashley, who calls herself Ash.  Verloren is enamored by the young shy girl when she comes into his shop seeking books on reincarnation.  He feels an immediate connection to her, but he also feels she may not be human.  In an attempt to learn more about her and to help her, the two couple off and the foundation of our story really starts here.  Along the way, we meet trolls, fairies, werewolves, vampires, dragons, shamans, witches, angels, demons, aliens, and more – all ruled by the Quatre who attempt to keep their world hidden to human eye.  With such an array of characters introduced, Hunt has set herself up for writing some very nice series that could branch off from this one.

Now, Hunt’s vampires are different.  No shiny love here. Hers don’t have teeth and aren’t affected by sunlight except that it hurts their eyes.  They are pale, but more goth looking than dead. They are very strong, and what’s interesting about Verloren is that he can read auras.  That’s how he knows Ash is an “incarnate,”  those that have been reincarnated into something else but may not yet be aware of what they really are.  Here’s Verloren’s explanation:

They come from other planets, other realms, and sometimes they appear to pop up directly from human imagination. They are reborn into human bodies. Some are born remembering and can shape shift at will. Others forget. They always have the feeling that they belong to something bigger. Some figure it out immediately. Others never do. the latter are reborn again.

And here’s what he has to say about himself:

It takes a certain kind of personality to make it as a monster.  You have to be willing to take a human life without regret.  Basically, you have to have the personality traits of a sociopath or psychopath.

So, if you’ve weeded through the top shelf and what’s popular at the moment because everyone else is reading it, I highly recommend that you give Endlessly by C.V. Hunt a try.  It’s something new, different, and certainly refreshing to my old vampire fiction eyes.  I’d like to use the word “re-invented,” but the Twilight series pretty much did that for the genre which is why everyone is eager for vampires right now anyway, right?  Like a vampire, one author goes to sleep and another awakens later with a new perspective. From Rice to Meyer to Harris and now Hocking, the line of authors taking a stab at good vampire fiction has been long.  I look forward to seeing C.V. Hunt rise to the top.