Review and Giveaway *ENDED* of My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

Amanda Hocking is the incredible author behind this book.  She is aware that I do honest reviews and is open to criticism.  Luckily I don't have too much!  I'm going to be honest and say I don't accept self published books often.  I have this idea in my head that they are self published for a reason- no one would take them.  But my sister in law and I had this discussion and she opened my eyes a bit.  Maybe they want to be self published because the book stays theirs.  They aren't selling their rights, they don't have to answer to anyone or have anyone else design the cover.  It's all  theirs.  They can do what they want.  I have no idea why Amanda Hocking is self published though.  That's just my thoughts on the matter.  And even before my sister in law helped open my eyes I had already agreed to do a review of the book.  It sounded like a book I'd like and I was determined to give a self published author a chance.  Also it already had some good reviews on amazon that I only skimmed (didn't want to be jaded ;).
Before I tell you my thoughts on the book you may want to know what it's about!  


Description:
Seventeen-year-old Alice Bonham's life feels out of control after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave hits aside, Jack's unlike anyone she's ever met. He does things shouldn't even be humanly possible, but she can't help but feel safe with him.Then she meets his brother, Peter. His emerald eyes pierce through her, and she can barely breathe when he's around. Even though he can't seem to stand the sight of her, she feels drawn to him. But falling for two very different guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack's family holds a secret, one that threatens to Alice with mortal danger.


My Thoughts:


Now before you skim to the bottom and see the moons I have to tell you I liked this book.  I enjoyed the storyline and the characters and although not completely unique in every way the author managed to bring the story to some new and unique places.  


Before I got the book Amanda was awesome.  She told me that she wouldn't promise that it would be mistake free.  And it wasn't.  But most of it wasn't that obvious to me.  There were a few errors grammatically wise that I wouldn't have noticed much if I hadn't been aware that there would be some.  The main things that bothered me were parts that I felt didn't quite flow or didn't match up.  Sometimes I felt like maybe I had missed some details somewhere.  But it wasn't often and for the most part it didn't bug me too much.    


I did feel like smacking the main character several times.  Alice just seemed a little too stupid at times.  Like she knew something was up supernaturally with them but didn't figure it could possibly be that they were vampires. That bugged me a bit.  But teenagers just are stupid (sorry guys, it's true.  I was stupid too!).   So once again although it bugged me a bit it certainly didn't make me hate the book or anything.


Most of the characters were pretty good but I really liked Alice's brother, Milo.  He seemed the most real to me and the one I could visualize the best.  I also liked Jack and thought that his personality was pretty great.  


With the love interest... hmmm... I just didn't know where it was going until pretty far into the book.  No, I take that back.  We still don't know where it's going!  But that's where the second, third and fourth(?) book come in.  But I guess what I'm saying is that I didn't really 'feel' the connection right away.  She had to actually come out and say it.  But I got the feeling that that's just how Alice and Jack were.  Personality wise.  


I get sick of people always comparing books to Twilight.  I pretty much think that is wrong, wrong, wrong.  But here I'm going to do it.  I admit I got a Twilight vibe from this.  The setting is different.  The vampires are different.  There aren't werewolves (as far as we know so far).  And the characters are different.  This is no Twilight rip off.  But the way Alice interacts with Jacks family gave me the Twilight vibe.  And the way Alice handles everything reminded me of Bella and how she handled everything.   I think that that might not really be a bad thing though... and Twilight fans might like this more because of that.  There were other small things that reminded me of Twilight but I could be here all night if I really started nit picking everything to pieces.  


Overall I enjoyed the story and things that may be considered 'mistakes' or 'poor editing' didn't take away from the overall feel of the book.  I didn't have a hard time getting into it and I actually had a hard time putting the book down.  I read it mostly all in one day.  I'm actually quite anxious to read the next book!  I skimmed the snippet in the back and now I really want to read it!  


The second book is called Fate and the third, just released May 29th is Flutter.

So I have to give this book 3/5 moons.  

You can find Amanda Hocking on her blog.  You can purchase at amazon (among other places).  It's only .99 cents on kindle! 
The author sent me this book for review.  The opinions expressed are only my own!  Thanks Amanda for the book!
And now because I'm awesome, and Amanda is awesome for sending me the book, I'm going to pass it on to one of you!  This one is easy.  If your interested in the book leave a comment with a way to contact you!   *Giveaway ENDED*
RULES:
Must be 13 or older
Must have a US address to ship to
Must leave a comment with a way to contact you!
Ends July 5th


I always welcome follow'age, tweets, and blog posts (and side bar posts) but none are required or will get you extra entries.  I just have TOO many contests going and am sick of tallying!