Review by Shellie from Layers of Thought – RELEASE by Nicole Hadaway

• Genre: Historical Fiction/Horror
• Format: Ebook
• Publisher: EBooks Undead

Synopsis:

Set in war torn Europe during WWII where a group of otherworldly women – a vampire, a werewolf, and a demon - help the resistance move Jewish children to safety. They team up with an incognito Jewish doctor as they make their way across the countryside. The cast goes on to include a witch, fallen angels, a lesbian couple, and an interesting concept of the devil himself.  Throw in a male vampire and demon, a priest fallen to the dark side and you have a complex set of characters, where some feed on humans but are saving children too. Most of the protagonists exist in a “grey area” of morality. All this is set within a horrific time period where factions of Hitler’s legions are attempting to connect with total evil.

Love ensues within the intense drama of the story, however, in the end an important “soul” is lost possibly leaving the setup for another novel in her series.

My Thoughts:

This is a first novel for Nicole Hadaway and she has created a well thought out and mostly well explained paranormal world. She has taken one of the most horrific events in our collective consciousness and recent history, and coupled it up with the occult and religious mythology with some elements based in truth, thereby creating a very scary tale.

One interesting aspect within the story line is that the title is brought up on several different levels throughout the book. Which solidifies the concept and why it was used. It did take me some time to figure exactly why the title was  RELEASE which makes it multilayered and intriguing. (No spoilers here.)

My only minor grumble is that I would have liked to see definitions for some of the otherworldly and biblical connections, names, and symbols, perhaps at the end of the book. The references are numerous and I believe many readers will not know what they are – I did not. This aspect does however make the book interesting, intelligent, and challenging. All good things. And thanks to Google, I now know some of their creepy definitions.

Highly recommended if you like historical fiction – especially WWII, vampires, paranormal, otherworldly, religious, occult, and mythical connections. If so, then you will devour this book.

I give the book 4 Stars since I enjoyed it immensely!

This is only my second vampire novel ever… the first was Bram Stoker’s Dracula just finished at the end of November I believe.

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Nicole is currently working on her follow up book for this series. The sequel is called  RETURN and is planned to be published in Fall of this year. She is also working on several short stories related to the main character with RELEASE. One which is set in New Orleans in 1842 and the other in Egypt in 1906. Her third novel in the series, REDEEM is planned to be published in 2011.