Customer Reviews

Candle Bay

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow ... was an incredible disappointment. After reading the other reviewers' glowing comments I was excited to begin this 'riveting' novel. Too much dialogue, barely fleshed-out characters (especially Stephen) and not much personal investment in the heroine. There are SO many other vampire-based novels I found more entertaining (Laurell K. Hamilton series, Katie Macalester, and more). This definitely won't hit my "keeper" shelf.

This book provides a new view on vampires. In this book there is not only one type of vampire, but two; trueborns, and human vampires. Trueborns are the original vampires, born being a vampire. Human vampires are what we normally think of vampires being, born through an exchange of blood from a vampire to a human.

In the little town of Candle Bay, the Candle Bay resort is owned by a family of human vampires called the Darlings. When the new assistant concierge, Amanda Pearce, arrives at the hotel she feels as if she was drawn there, and maybe she was, but more importantly she was drawn into the middle of a blood war between the Darlings and there nemesises the Dantes. Other than the fact that the Darlings nearly destroyed the Dantes years ago, the Dantes also want a powerful and useful potion possessed by the Darling. A war begins, and Amanda is in the middle of it. Before she knows it she finds herself playing an important role in an age old trueblood story that, if it comes to be true, will kill her and all she loves.

Despite this interesting story plot I feel that the book was not very well written(much like my review!:)), it also tends to be a little dry at times, so while I would suggest reading this I would also say that it will not win any awards.

I picked up Candle Bay early one morning and didn't put it down, not once, until I had finished it about 9 hours later. It was wonderful! Candle Bay is the first book I have read by Tamara Thorne and now I'm itching to get my hands on more of her work!

This book has it all! A fresh and interesting social structure for the Vampires, and very surprising and unique origins!! A vivid, beautiful, yet haunting setting. Wonderful characters, both human and vampire ... dangerous, shocking, quirky, intriguing, sexy, and lovable. There's also action, betrayal, mystery, secrets, love, lust, humor, thrills, and even a surprising bit of good old magic!

The story grabs you from the first page and just gets better and better as you are sucked into the fued between the Darlings and the Dantes, the history of the Cadle Bay hotel, and the dangerous secrets that are hidden in the ancient catacombs beneath it. Definitely a page-turner! I highly recommend this book and am very grateful to the friend who recommended it, and gave it to me as a birthday gift!

My only quibble is that even though things were wrapped up in the end, it felt a little too abrubt. However, it leaves certain things wide open for a sequel, so maybe this was intentional. Candle Bay can be read as a stand-alone, but a continuation of the story would most certainly be icing on the cake! I'm not going to give anything away, but if you read this book you will understand what I mean and find yourself begging for more!

Amanda Pearce has heard the call of Candle Bay for many years. In fact, so ingrained is the old Californian coastal resort in her psyche, it almost feels as if she has lived a separate life there. But perhaps what she feels about Candle Bay is more than mere conjecture, for Candle Bay, amidst its shadowy shroud of mist, fantastical gardens and lurid history, also conceals a darker secret: it is home to the Darlings, a family of beautiful, passionate vampires.

Amanda has taken a job there as night concierge, a decision she is quite happy with. For unlike most people, Amanda likes the threatening presence of the old resort and surrounding graveyard. More to the point, she likes Stephen Darling, unaware that Stephen--like the other members of his clan: sister Natasha, Uncle "Ori" Orion, and the rambunctious twins Juicy Lucy and Poison Ivy--is a vampire trying to coexist with the human populace that frequents the old hotel, and who act as hosts to the midnight-munching bloodsuckers. But Amanda's timing may or may not be perfect. For in coming to Candle Bay, she has unwittingly (and unknowingly) set an ancient prophecy in motion.

Also among the undead is the disarming, melt-in-your-mouth [] Julian Valentyn, who has brought his infamous "bloodberry" juice with him and plans on unleashing it on the Darling Clan under the guise of a magical "elixir" while he goes about his own mysterious agenda. Julian is irrepressibly taken by Amanda, who, according to his personal beliefs, is the Woman of his legend--one piece of an ancient set of signs that signal the return of the Father, who created all vampires on earth. And in the midst of all this madness are the Dantes, an opposing Clan who desire nothing more than the total annihilation of the Darling Clan and ultimate possession of Julian's elixir. For the Dantes and the Darlings, a war is brewing, and the body count is about to go up, up, up--if, that is, Julian, through his machinations, does not destroy both Clans first.

Despite these very gothic affectations, Candle Bay is written with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Everything including the antisocial, evil-cheerleader-esque twins, the moblike workings of the Darling Clan, the rat-eating renfieldish Aardvark, and the use of ice cubes in shorts to tame down errant manhoods (!!!) is played for laughs as well as screams, a rare combination in horror--and particularly *vampire*--fiction. The end result is something very near to an old Hammer vampire film (on a Young Frankenstein fix)--blood, sex, intrigue, plus a bloody dash of humor to grease the wheels of the plot.

Tamara Thorne has scoped out a dark, deep niche for herself in the horror genre. She is a well-loved storyteller and her work continues to draw in more and more readers all the time. For most authors, walking the tightrope between horror and black comedy is a tough job; for Tamara it comes naturally. Candle Bay has all the stuff of a sexy horror comedy film and would be right at home on the big screen--a tale in the same "vein" of Once Bitten, Innocent Blood and Love at First Bite. Highly recommended!

Karen Koehler,
Author of Slayer, Slayer: Black Miracles and Scarabus

This novel succeeds on may levels. At heart it is a gothic romance for the twenty-first century. Candle Bay, having said that is also oh so much more. The plot and pacing are quick. The characters colourful, lively and intriquing.
It tells the story of an assisant coiincierge just beginning work at a beautifully restored resort/hotel and spa. Unbeknownst to her the proprietors are a family of vampires.
The suspense is well maintained throughout the story, and it is definitely a novel with positive possibilities of sequels. I also am impressed that Tamara Thorne makes obvious refernce to the vampiric works of Chelsea Quinn Yorbra(sp) even so far as making her trueblood impersonate Chelsea's vampire.
Overall a great read for those fans of Vampire stories or those just looking to read something a little different.

What a great read. The vivid pictures of the hotel, the foggy coast, the mobster Uncle, the vampire family and love in bloom. This is just a hint of what's inside this book. This is an excellent story, written well, fast-paced and leaves you hanging, just a bit, in the end. I'm hoping...sequel???...but no matter. I enjoyed the charm of Stephen and Amanda, the cast of crazy vampires and the setting for this haunt. Run out and pick this up, easily one of her best!

This is the pinnacle of Tamara Thorne's brilliant writing career. And that says a mouthful; because this dame can write a yarn. She writes a great vampire novel here and does so much better than Ms.Rice.

This book has it all; sex, violence, gore, romance. What else can a horror fan ask for? Plot synopsis? You got it!!

Amanda, an innocent little thing, goes to work at Candle Bay resort, owned by the Darlings, a vampire clan. Candle Bay is an exclusive resort outside of San Francisco. The Darlings have an on-going feud with The Dante's. And the fun begins.

Thorne outdoes herself with each effort and is quickly becoming one of the best female horror writers published today. Her pacing of a novel is smooth and effortless, her characters are fleshed out, the violence quick and painful to the jugular, and the sex...Well you need to read this novel.

I have yet to read Eternity but it looks fantastic. Her new novel, The Forgotten, to be released in November 2002, also looks awesome.

Tamara, please, please, keep 'em coming!!!

This story draws on so many disparate elements that it shouldn't work at all, but it does, and quite well.

Fresh-faced Amanda goes to work as San Francisco's Candle Bay hotel concierge, straight out of college. She's a lover of horror stories, but is completely oblivious to the fact that her employers, the Darling family, are an old vampire clan, and the Darlings do everything in their hypnotic power to keep her unaware. The Darlings have an ongoing gang-war with another vampire family, the Dantes, and are presently hosting one of the original trueborn vampire race - an extreme rarity, in the world - Julian Valentyne.

Julian comes bearing a gift: a precious, hitherto believed to be mythical elixir, that prolongs even vampire longevity and heals humans more quickly than usual, which is a valuable commodity to vampires whose hotel business is a front for a revolving food supply - the Darlings feed (lightly) on their sleeping guests, hypnotically erasing their memories of the nocturnal encounter, and being able to eliminate the wounds on their meals' throats before morning helps.

Julian is hardly an altruist, however. He has ulterior motives. He seeks a fabled treasure beneath the Darlings' hotel. Toward keeping his benefactor host family confused as to his true intentions, he turns them into drug addicts, exacerbates tensions between them and the Dantes, and works his charms on Amanda - who is the reincarnation of his sole human love, from Atlantis - to win her away from the attentions of Stephen Darling.

It may even be of importance for Julian to succeed in finding the treasure, despite his horrendous tactics - if he doesn't, both the human and vampire races may soon find themselves extinct.

This book succeeds on pure style and panache. It reads not like a horror novel, but like an epic black comedy - a good portion of the early part of the story is spent chasing the body of a murdered guest in a laundry cart, in true 1930s Hollywood comedy form. The dialogue is snappy, the characters credibly handled. Stephen and Amanda are the straightforward star-crossed lovers; sexy Barbara Steele-ish vamp Natasha is the hotel's CEO; Uncle Ori is obsessed with The Godfather, playing the soundtrack at family meetings; brother Ivor is a strong, silent brooder and thinker; and the psychopathic (but oddly charming) pre-teenage twins, Ivy and Lucy, are Wednesday and Pugsley Addams as serial killers.

This book is a lot of fun. It reads like a better-plotted Queen of the Damned, with more humorously likeable characters. Its only real flaws are a too-abrupt ending and a curious lack of developmental attention to human heroine Amanda. But the Darling family are delightfully demented and well-drawn, and the lengthy story moves at a pretty good clip.

Pass the AB-negative. Cheers!

I have heard many good things about Candle Bay, and everything I heard about it was right on the money. This is an outstanding book!

Amanda Pearce comes to work at a hotel. Little does she know that she's in the middle of a feud. Now, this is no normal fued, oh no. This is a feud between two families that are vampires. Someone plays "joke" on Amanda then she's sucked into the middle, with no way out. She has to figure who she can trust, and who she can't. This is a short summary of the books. If I say more, I'll be giving things away, and I don't want to do that to the read.

The characters that Tamara creates are incredible, just incredible. My two favorites are Costal Eddie (he has a pretty small part, but I loved him) and The Twins. I **loved** The Twins, they're a complete riot. If you love vampire fiction, you have got to love The Twins.

Tamara's writing styly will keep the reader glued to the page. She does this with wonderful plot twists, crisp dialouge, and characters that you just can't help to care about. The good guys, are good, and you have to love the bad guys.

If you like your fiction in the vampire relm, then you have to run, not walk to your nearest bookseller and get your hands on a copy of this book. I promise you won't be sorry.

Some of the reviews of Candle Bay I read compared it to work by Laurell K Hamilton. I agree that Thorne was influenced by Hamilton's style, and employs some similar horror/sex shock techniques. But Candle Bay reminded me more of some Ann Rice vampire tales. That's not necessarily a good thing.

I enjoyed Candle Bay overall and I think the plot is entertaining, if a bit convoluted at times (Julian is running so many schemes it's a bit amazing he can keep them all straight!). The main vampire characters - Julian and the Darling family vamps - are well-explained, well-defined and interesting throughout. The twins got on my nerves but I think they were supposed to.

Amanda -- the MAIN human character and unknowing catalyst for the brewing vampire war -- is the main thing about Candle Bay that really disappointed me. Amanda is a very thinly-based character; you have very little interaction with her beyong her reacting to the other characters (and Candle Bay itself). I never had a strong sense of who she was, or where she came from. There was nothing that convinced me she was special enough, interesting enough or dazzling enough for two vampires (and two generations of vamps!) to fight over. Anita Blake she is not.

The book ends with a cliffhanger, so I assume we will see more of the Darling clan and their potential new vamp member, Amanda. I hope she's a more interesting vampire than she was human in Candle Bay.