Review of ‘All Together Stranger’ by Lara Hayes
Bring on the Vampires! If you read my reviews you will know that I’m a huge paranormal fan, especially for Vamps. I could not be more excited when I saw that Bella was publishing a lesbian vampire book series. After reading the first book, I was happy to see that these were dark and gritty vamps and not the sparkly kind.
Lara Hayes is a professional writer so while the first book ‘Terrible Praise’ was her debut novel, her writing was top quality. I even thought the writing was better than my actual enjoyment of that book. What was great about this second book is that my enjoyment was much higher and I really liked this.
This book picks up right where ‘Terrible Praise’ ended. I would highly suggest reading that one first. This is a connected series and you would miss out on how the two mains fell in love. And it wasn’t just love, it was this powerful connection and maybe even obsession. It was like they were under each other’s skin it was so close and intense. And that connection drives how the two characters act in this book so not getting to witness it would probably affect your enjoyment of this book.
Like in the first book, the writing was again on point. Hayes takes you to a world where you could actually believe that vamps are roaming the Earth. These are graceful killing machines that you don’t want to meet around a dark corner. Like in this first book, this is a pretty dark story. Not only do vampires hunt without mercy, but they are forced to do their maker’s bidding. And with Stela now more in love with Elizabeth, than she is her maker, you know the uneasy truce could not last long.
It’s funny that while this is a slower-paced read, half the time I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next. If I didn’t love how good my quarantine nails were looking right now, I would have chewed them off in anticipation. This is a long book but I had to finish it in one night since I could not put it down.
With all the good points there is a reason why I could not give this a full 5 stars. The main reason was that the beginning is a little too slow. It takes a while for the book to get moving. Once it does move you can’t put the book down but the beginning is slow. I don’t know if certain things I learned will come into play later in the next book, but for now, it felt like too much filler.
There is also one last thing I was not happy about. I did not take off anything in my rating for this, but I was annoyed. This book ends on a cliffy. I am much more understanding of cliffhangers when it comes to spec-fic books, but in this case, the book was too long for a cliffhanger. This book is double some of the lesfic books I have read this year. I just think if you have all that length then you have plenty of time to not need a cliffy.
If you are looking for a well-written vampire story that is dark and gritty, give this series a try. This was a really good read and I want more. I just hope we don’t have to wait another two years in between books. I don’t think I can make it that long waiting for book three. If you are interested in this series I highly recommend reading ‘Terrible Praise’ first. 4.50 stars.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
