The Fire Of Dawn VBT by V.V Aku *Review/Guest Post/Excerpt*

The Fire of Dawn -- Excerpt 1

‘Something’s wrong!’ Max gasped, sitting up in bed so quickly that the unexpected movement sent me over the bed’s edge. I caught my balance before I smashed onto the walnut parquet. We had dozed off about an hour ago. Outside, the sun had risen.

Max was panting, his face filled with fear. ‘We’ve got to get out of here!’

‘What’s going on?’ I yawned, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

‘They’re near! Pietro can hear them.’

He had said ‘they’ with such abhorrence that it could only have meant one thing. He got to his feet, scrambling for his clothes that were scattered over the floor together with mine. I had never seen him this alarmed. The bedroom door flung open and Pietro and Sam barged into the room, both in the same frantic state as Max was.

‘How did they find us?’ Max shrieked.

‘I don’t know, but we must leave immediately!’ Pietro yelled.

We left the house and darted toward the city center. The streets were deserted. Livorno was still asleep. In the morning sunlight, our legs were heavy, moving tediously slow while Pietro broadcast the thoughts of the advancing Brotherhood as they tracked where we ran－his voice without emotion. ‘There are four: two males, two females… They have entered the boulevard. Stand by for confirmation... They have turned right on Via Grande.’

Then Pietro’s face twisted in horror. ‘Stop,’ he whispered, his voice shaking. ‘They’re here.’

Review/My Thoughts

The beginning really did it from me from that point I knew I was going to enjoy this book. It was the most intense beginning that's the reason why it drew you in. I love when a book does that, the storyline, and the characters were put together perfectly. And the names are extremely unique some of them I had not heard of before. V.V Aku did an exquisitley written book. You can tell that she is a creative author and her talent is going to keep getting her further into the writing career. There's nothing better than an author getting such a used subject and putting her own touch into it, before reading this book I felt like nobody could really add any more to the vampire world but V.V aku did an excellen job in creating another amazing story. The Fire Of Dawn blew me away by far its been the most interesting and creative.

Like others I really thought that it was like Twilight but truthfully it was so much better than that, even though I do enjoy rereading the twilight books I am going to start reading this one alot more. Leah was a great character really strong, she was basically the heroine of the story, and I really enjoyed her character more than I thought I would.

The author did a really amazing job in the description department, I really liked the way she described every smell, the feel of things, sounds, everything she got every single thing exactly right. And I love that about authors! I was really impressed I'm going to re-read this and I will definitely let my friends know about it so they can enjoy it as much as I did.

 

DISCLOSURE –
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*

Author Bio 

V.V Aku has always believed in the beautiful stories. She found the man of her dreams and her way in the complex of China, and wrote a fairytale of her own: The Fire Of Dawn- a scintillating tale about strength, self- discovery, and a girl who dared to follow her heart.

Born and raised in The Netherlands, V.V  Aku (Veerle Ackerstaff) soon discovered that the world was a place worth exploring, After graduating high school, she set out to travel the globe until she finally touched down in China. On the border of Tibet she met Anzi Aku, a wild Black-Yi man who lives at the foot of the Himalayas. She has joined his clan and tries to find her place among the tribe and its shamans, When she's not researching the clan's mythology on vampires, she shamelessly gives in to the compulsion to write about the countless characters that haunt her dreams.

V.V Aku is the author of The Fire Of Dawn and Black Dusk. She has been the creator of stories since the age of three, and has a post-graduate Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults from the University of Cambridge ESOL. After nearly a decade of working as an English Language Teacher and TEFL trainer in China Thailand, The Netherlands, and the U.K, she now devotes all her time to writing, her family, and practicing Kung Fu. The Fire of Dawn is her debut novel.

Guest Post 

5 Things You Didn't Know About Me

1.        Like most teens, I made my parents’ life a living hell. I hated the fact that I couldn’t be free. I saw school as prison and the years of mandatory education as unjustified jail time. Above all else, I yearned to spread my wings, turn eighteen, and explore the world. The first thing I did after graduation? I bought an open ticket to Asia and I haven’t lived in the Netherlands since.

2.      My life with a Himalayan tribe in China is no secret. But what most people don’t know about my marriage to wild, Black-Yi man Anzi Aku, is that I never said, ‘I do,’ or ‘Yes, I’ll be your wife.’ His family presented my parents with tokens of silver and expensive liquor. Normally, they would have offered my dad a dozen goats, a yak, and two horses, but realizing that these animals wouldn’t fit in their suitcase back to Holland, Anzi’s family kept it low scale.

3.       I absolutely adore animals of all kinds. I’m not a diehard vegetarian, but I never thought I would be able to endure seeing an animal suffer until I moved to China. It has been one of the biggest culture shocks I’ve had to deal with, but an important part of integration and acceptance into my husband’s Black-Yi clan. My first duty as his wife was to shave a freshly slaughtered pig (after I had nearly tore the ears off my head listening to the hog’s terrified squeals) after which the village shaman ceremoniously cut the poor animal into pieces and put me in charge of cleaning its intestines and stuffing them with blood, meat, and mushrooms.

4.      Another part of Black-Yi integration was looking like a true Black-Yi women. Soon after I started my life in the mountains of northwest Yunnan, Anzi’s family began insisting that I not only dressed like one of them, but also tried my best to be seen as one of them by their ancestors. In order to complete this trying endeavor I needed to sacrifice the virgin skin of my forearms. The shaman’s wife gathered herbs and ash then took a bunch of needles and began tattooing round dots on both of my arms. The dots represent coins which I will take with me to my afterlife.

5.      Four months ago, my husband and I found out that I was pregnant. Although we were both ecstatic, my pregnancy discomforts soon kicked into high gear. With a sudden supernatural sense of smell, life in China became unbearable. Everywhere I went, I wanted to gag on the foul blend of garlic, ginger, spices, stinky feet, unbrushed teeth, and days-old sweat. But this prenatal torment was trumped by one other. Chinese food became the most disgusting thing to eat in the world.