CB - Firstly let me say a massive welcome to my guest reviewer, SCD Goff. If you've sent me something and are still waiting for a response, please be patient with me! SCD is helping with the backlog of review requests so we can sample your stories with a bit more time and dedication. SCD specialising in reviewing self-published books, in fact she thrives on it, preferring it to more traditionally published novels. Her reviews are thorough, with good tips for debut authors on what worked well and what didn't, and overall I can guarantee your novels are in good hands. -SCD Goff's Blog Guest Reviewed by SCD Goff - 3 out of 5 stars Blood Curse by Tamara A. Lowery xSynopsis: Known as Bloody Vik Brandee, Viktor Brandewyne had a reputation as a bloodthirsty pirate. The world would soon learn just how bloodthirsty he had become. Thanks to the vengeful curse of a powerful witch, he had become a vampire. However, since he was cursed, rather than bitten, he was not vulnerable to daylight or holy items. As curses went, he didn't think it was all that bad, until Mother Celie, his foster mother and a witch in her own right, informed him that the curse would eventually destroy him. Now he finds himself in a race against time to find the seven Sisters of Power and gain some of their magic in order to survive the curse. He is aided in his quest by Hezekiah Grimm, his first mate; Belladonna, a siren and sea witch; and Lazarus, a creature that is sometimes a cat and sometimes a raven.Review:Tamara Lowery is a debut author and as such, there’s a lot to recommend her novel Blood Curse. The pace is non-stop, and the author throws together a huge variety of plot points (it’s a period piece, and involves a pirate-vampire, witches, sirens, the odd hint of a mermaid, there’s a quest to be undertaken, and various proclamations that our hero is ‘the One’). It’s debatable whether any of these ideas are truly original – do they really need to be? – but the gusto with which the author combines these points is enviable. The manuscript is complete at 85000+ words, making the price-tag fairly good value. If you’re looking for a basically light-hearted romp you could do far worse in the burgeoning eBook world than Ms Lowery’s Blood Curse. Besides all this, the author has allowed the first chunk to be freely available – so the reader will largely know what to expect, having read the first pages and encountered our anti-hero, named Viktor Brandewyne. Now for the drawbacks, and I’m afraid there are a few. The author’s writing style is sometimes stilted, and the dialogue is often wooden. The character’s voices are only distinguishable from one another by the most superficial means – for example, Carmella, the ‘mulatto’ girl (whether or not it is acceptable to say ‘mulatto’, even in a period piece is a question for a longer article) says ‘oui’ constantly to establish her provenance, but otherwise is happy to render long sentences with the correct terminology for a variety of ships.

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