Freakin Friday #16 – So you want to be a Vampire – Still Life by Michael Montoure

Posted on February 7, 2014 by fundinmental

Freakin Friday!

Freakin Fridays is a meme brought to you by fuonlyknew. We will be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.

Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!

Tune in Friday and get your scare on!

Let’s have some fun!

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Still Life by Michael Montoure

Nikki Velvet was bereft after the suicide of Gabe.

She could not get past it. It haunted her and pissed her off.

Nothing glamorous about it. “You just looked like a fucking idiot.”

“I found a way out, a way to beat the game.” – Nikki said to herself.

She had no idea the price to be paid for her decision.

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The cover captured me immediately. Nice work, Michael. The blurb did not prepare me for the story. Michael did an excellent job of writing from a woman’s perspective. The story contained between the pages is not your run of the mill bite and run vampire party. It is a psychological journey of Nikki Velvet’s descent into hell, that had my skin crawling.

If you want to know why someone may want to become a vampire and the process they go through to make it happen, meet Nikki Velvet.

The description of her change from human to vampire was graphic and detailed. Her attempts to grab a breath of air, not realizing breathing was no longer necessary, had me holding my breath. Her mind was foggy, her limbs unwilling to move to her commands, she was unable to speak. Finally she stops struggling, letting go and drifting away.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she looks at the toilet and realizes she would never need that again. And books – no limitations. She has forever to read.

“I gave you what you wanted. It might not be everything you hoped it would be, but its just what you asked for all the same.”

The physical, emotional and psychological torments Nikki goes through had me shivering with the creepiness, as I TRIED to walk in her shoes. She had never anticipated the toll that turning into a vampire would take on her and the torture Sylvan (a human) would put her through. Creepy Paul was always lingering around the edges of her life.

Michael describes Nikki’s experience after she jumps off the bridge and I wanted to be there – floating in the water, drifting, letting it take me wherever the current flowed, no need to breathe. Is that what it is like to be a mermaid? Is it like flying?

Michael Montoure’s Still Life is all about Nikki – being free of life, being maimed and tortured, used and abused. As she navigates the way through her madness to a new life, I cringe and cower, while I question how it will end.

This was hard for me to rate. I can’t pinpoint what was missing, but Still Life didn’t get me to the level of WOW. But, I had not read anything quite like this,.Kudos to Michael for giving me a fresh and unique insight into human and vampire interaction. His characters are well defined, making me hate most of them. And Nikki – what can I say about someone so lost that they would die to become immortal?

4 Stars – Would Highly Recommend To Others

I received this book from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review. I enjoyed the journey and I look forward to reading more of his work.

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To get your copy of Still Life, or learn more about Michael Montoure, click on the cover below.

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Friday 56 #5 – Be careful what you wish for -Still Life by Michael Montoure

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look below or on the right sidebar at Home and let’s talk.

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Friday 56 #5 – Be careful what you wish for -Still Life by Michael Montoure

Posted on January 31, 2014 by fundinmental

The Friday 56 hosted by Freda’s Voice.

The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find any sentence, or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

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Still Life by Michael Montoure

I love this cover. Simple, yet there is so much going on. The cartoon-like swirls in the corners and the blurred background make the hand pop off the page. Sufficiently creepy for me, how about you?

I thought of the pictures that he’d been taking of me more recently and hoped to God those weren’t for sale.

“Doesn’t it just kill you?” I asked Jonas. “

“What?”

I leaned in close. I spoke in a soft velvet voice.

“Knowing that all you’re ever going to get of me is pictures?”

(56% on Kindle)

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BLURB

With the suicide of her best friend, burned-out rock star Nikki Velvet came face-to-face with death, and she’d do anything not to face it again. When a mysterious stranger offers her immortality, she believes she’s found what she’s been searching for, but it’s nothing like she’s imagined ….

Sylvan, the beautiful stranger who’d promised to make her a vampire, turned out to be all too human. He keeps his promise – but only to leave her weak, helpless, and addicted to his blood.

Now, trapped in her new life with him – and with Paul, the vampire she’s replaced as Sylvan’s favorite – Nikki struggles to rise above Sylvan’s control and Paul’s jealousy, and to find a way out with the help from the ghosts of her past.

But it might not be so simple. When Sylvan risks the retribution of the enigmatic Shadow Market, Nikki has to find her own fate, before time runs out for all of them ….

STILL LIFE is a story of loss, isolation, the things we mistake for love, and the way back out of the dark.

(56% on Kindle)

To get your copy of Still Life, or learn more about Michael Montoure, click on the cover below.

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To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look below or on the right sidebar at Home and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Release – Still Life by Michael Montoure

Posted on July 19, 2013 by fundinmental

I am very happy to bring to your attention Michael Montoure’s new release Still Life. As you will see from his selection of books at the end of this post, he is a prolific writer. His covers are eye catching and I felt compelled to include most of them. Take a minute to check them out and his stories are……well, if you like creepy, read on.

Sylvan, the beautiful stranger who’d promised to make her a vampire, turned out to be all too human. He keeps his promise — but only to leave her weak, helpless, and addicted to his blood.

Now, trapped in her new life with him — and with Paul, the vampire she’s replaced as Sylvan’s favorite — Nikki struggles to rise above Sylvan’s control and Paul’s jealousy, and to find a way out with the help from the ghosts of her past.

But it might not be so simple. When Sylvan risks the retribution of the enigmatic Shadow Market, Nikki has to find her own fate, before time runs out for all of them ….

STILL LIFE is a story of loss, isolation, the things we mistake for love, and the way back out of the dark.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An unreliable narrator, Michael Montoure is an indie writer of horror and dark urban fantasy. His obsessions include hidden truths, secret dealings, and the changing and fragile nature of our own pasts. He is known as much for his spoken-word performances of his fiction at Seattle coffeehouses and conventions as for the stories themselves. He lives alone with a gray cat by the edge of Echo Lake, Washington.