Blog Tour: Review & Character Interview: Keaton Drake

Author: T. Michelle Nelson
Format: eBook
Print Length: 392 pages
Publisher: Inkspell Publishing
Published: October 5, 2012

"Fans of Charlaine Harris and TRUE BLOOD will find much to enjoy in Michelle Nelson's cracking, sanguine debut. Dark, funny, audacious and written with a confidence that belies this as her first effort, LIFE AND DEATH OF LILY DRAKE dispenses with the idea that vampires are pasty, maudlin, emo-types and restores them to all their brutal bloodthirsty glory. And in terms of heroines to root for, I daresay Lily Drake gives poor 'ol Sookie a run for her money."

- Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of THE TURTLE BOY and KIN.

For Lily Drake, slaying vampires is easy...Dating them is the hard part.

Lily Drake is your everyday hard-working single mom…until a gorgeous vampire shows up on her front door who she mistakenly assumes is her blind date for the evening. As one crazy scenario after another unfolds, Lily finds herself falling in love with two vampires, slaying the evil ones, and being prophesied as the savior of the entire undead race.

Deciding between pizza and Chinese take-out will no longer be one of the hard decisions facing Lily Drake once she is emerged into vampire society. Humanity or immortality? That doesn't hold a candle against this question - which of the two handsome vampire cousins?

The Life and Death of Lily Drake is not your typical vampire love story. It’s a tale about the humorous mistakes a woman makes simply trying to survive not only life, but the dating scene. How will Lily manage working full-time, taking care of her young son and fighting the undead at every turn?
Lily will have to figure it out, but who better to save the world than a mom?

My Thoughts

Lily is a normal everyday soccer mom, who’s best friend sets her up on a date.  The date shows up hot as hades and apparently rich too.  She gets date-napped and taken the guy’s house.  It is here that she discovers that vampires are real and is offered immortality.  The Vamps believing that she is in danger.  She turns down the offer and they supposedly wipe her memory of them (but not too good as it comes back).

This is where she meets Mathias and his cousin Val.  Mathias is the uppity, Lord of the Manor type of vamp and Val is well not like that, you could call him laid back but he does have intensity about him.  By that description alone you can tell I have a soft spot for Val.

An enjoyable read, that literally is about the everyday life and death of Lily Drake. There are areas that I felt could have been left out, although I understand why they were included.  I was not a fan of Mathias and her relationship with him kinda made me mad.  He was too serious all of the time, and kinda ambitious.  I kept wondering does he really like her or is he only doing this because some vision told him he does.  Plus, he is just selfish, you will understand more when you read it.  On the other hand, her blossoming relationship with Val was more my style.  The fact that Keaton did not ask questions about the things that were changing in his life also left me wondering how close they really are.  This does get explained though, and WOW what a great way to solve that mystery.

The world of Lily Drake is a wonderful place to visit.  It allows you to escape for a few hours into the land of reality and vampires.  A place that as a human, I would probably not want to visit.  Which is why I am grateful for the visit into her world that this book offered.

My Rating 4 out of 5 stars

Other Characters

Rose- Lily’s great (by a lot) aunt, has visions that tell the future.
Burchard- muscle man vamp, hates the Vikings.
Luke- a vamp in the know that is a little jealous of Lily.
Keaton- Lily’s son.
Angie- Lily’s best friend, has no clue what is going on.

Keaton it is fabulous that your mom and step-dad agreed to let you talk to me.  Man, was security tight trying to get ahold of them though for them to agree. I am sure that the ice cream has nothing to do with your fast and ready yes when they asked.  Your step-dad said we have the amount of time it took you to eat the ice cream so I am going to go ahead and get started.

When did you realize that you were different from those around you?

I always heard voices, but for a long time I thought everybody else did too.

 

Why did you keep it a secret?

I knew things I probably shouldn't have known. Sometimes I mentioned the things I heard people think and they got mad, wanted to know who told me that stuff. That's when I figured out I should keep the things I heard people think and my secret to myself.

 

Was it difficult to keep your secret from your mom when you realized there were others in her life that she hadn't introduced you to?

No, not really. I know I could have asked her and she would have told me, but I knew she kept things secret to keep me safe. That's what she thinks of most of the time actually. She's always worrying about me. When I knew she was sad, it was hard for me to keep quiet though.

 

Can you read your Aunt's vision? Was it difficult to know about her and not mention her?

I don't have dreams like Aunt Rose does, and the only way I know what she's dreamed about is if she is thinking about her dreams. Most of the time Aunt Rose keeps her thoughts of business, it's not that much fun to get in her head. Before I met her I knew I would someday. I couldn't wait though!

 

When you were taken what went through your mind?

I was scared at first, but I knew my mom would figure something out. 

 

Your momma had two difficult decisions to make- to be turned and which guy to choose. Did you hope that she would stay human or get turned? Which guy did you want your momma to choose? 

 I love my stepdad and my uncle, that didn't matter so much to me, but I really wanted mom to be a vampire. I'm going to be one when I grow up for sure and I can't imagine her not being one too and living forever with me.

 

What do you think will happen next for your family? 

Well, as soon as I'm 18 I'm going to have mom and another vampire, my my stepdad or my uncle change me into one! I can't wait.

Yikes!  Burchard is giving me the evil vamp eye.  I think our time is up.  Thanks again for meeting me at the ice cream parlor.  Maybe giving Burchard this strawberry shake will ease his grumpiness out a little.  Bye, Keaton!

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