SERIES REVIEW TOUR
BOOK 1
Book Title: Nasu (Blood Sealed Book 1)
Author: Jet Lupin
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre/s: M/M Paranormal Romance
Length: 83 000 words/ 156 pages
Release Date: November 25, 2017
This story can technically be read alone, though there are unsolved things that are further explored in the next book
Blurb
Go to work. Come home. Repeat. Phil’s life is boring and he loves every second of it. No excitement, no boyfriends breaking up with him over cereal in his underwear. When everything’s predictable, nothing bad happens. But nothing good does, either.
One night, when his best friend forces him to step outside of his comfort zone, he meets Shige who’s too enigmatic to really be interested in him. He’s trouble, but Phil can’t help ignoring his own advice.
Decades have gone by while Shige’s kept himself locked away. He’s tired of the world, of humans and vampires. He was happy collecting dust until one day he wasn’t. On a whim, he ventures out and meets Phil, setting them on a path that’ll change them both.
Whatever this is between them, it won’t come easy. Plagued by distrust and danger from within and without, but if they survive, it just might be worth it
Buy Links - Available on Kindle Unlimited
Excerpt
From Chapter 1
Phil Torres sat in Mercer General’s basement level breakroom for the first time that shift. With a sports drink in one hand and a protein bar in the other, he worked to cram both things into his mouth. He couldn’t remember what he’d eaten last or when. Even so, he had no appetite. Other nurses came and went through the breakroom offering looks of sympathy and pity. He was on the ass end of a 16-hour shift no sane person would envy.
It had been a trial of will. He’d seen some terrible things in the three years he’d been a fully licensed nurse but during this one shift, he’d beheld some of the worst things he’d ever seen, things that would haunt his dreams and hang on during his waking hours. A savage gunshot wound, a leg so badly broken the bone slashed through the skin, a pair of asthma attacks that left the patients blue in the face, gasping, and a stomach bug so virulent, puke covered the floors of two of their closet sized exam rooms. The cleaning staff was going to love this evening’s cleaning detail, but it was just another night at Mercer General.
“What’re you still doing here?” Yolanda came into the breakroom, looking every bit as tired as Phil felt. Her sneakers, damp from the storm she’d weathered out on the floor squelched with every step as she made her way to the lockers. “Didn’t your vacation start an hour ago?”
Phil took a swallow of sports drink to help keep his meager meal down. “Jackie was running late, so I filled in for her, then Shelly needed help tapping a vein… I got trapped.”
Yolanda rolled her eyes as she shut the door to her locker. “More like you let yourself get trapped.”
She was right, of course.
During his time here, the older nurse had taken him under her wing, brought him into the fold. They’d become as close as cousins. It helped Phil feel at home out here on the West Coast where he had no family and few friends, but as a side effect, lying to her was now next to impossible.
Yolanda perched on the plastic chair next him. She bumped him with her shoulder. “I’ll never understand why you always drag your feet when it comes time to get out of here. You’ve got an OK place—by yourself—in a decent neighborhood. You know how many people would kill for that set up? What’s the issue?”
Yolanda couldn’t understand it. She had a home waiting for her. A husband and kids who kept her busy. She might not admit it but they filled her life with joy. All Phil had waiting in at home was a dog bent on systematically destroying anything he could get his mouth on.
“I like keeping busy,” he said. “It’s not a crime.”
“Neither is taking time off once in a while.” Yolanda quickly wiped her sneakers down with a paper towel and threw it into the trash. “Since you got here, you’ve never taken more than three days off at a time. You need this break. You’re gonna burn out if you don’t take it easy.”
There was truth to Yolanda’s words, but to hear her tell it, Phil was a workaholic, little more than a care dispensing robot. He knew how to relax. He just didn’t enjoy it.
Work kept him too busy to worry about the lacking areas of his life. He liked helping people and Mercer’s shortage of staff guaranteed any offers to come in on his days off were never turned down. Without work, as rough as it could be on a good day, he’d be left alone. He didn’t know what to do with alone.
“Why can’t it be a week? Or two! I’d gladly do that much!”
Yolanda clucked her tongue in disgust. “I wish they’d let your ungrateful ass give me the two months since you so obviously don’t want it. I don’t see how you let it rack up.”
“Same,” Phil said. “Same.”
Yolanda stood, ready to go back out onto the floor, but she stopped in the doorway. She rested a small hand on Phil’s shoulder. “Your body remembers how to relax, even if you don’t. But you’ve got to get out of here first.”
Read more here: https://jetlupin.me/nasu-excerpt/
REVIEW
First let me tell you that Nasu is a place. A place where Vampires come to schmooze their elder(s) and "be themselves". Kind of like a vampire bar for vampire court.
The first half of this book had me hooked. Phil is deeply immersed into his job after he finds out his BF was cheating on him. His friend gets him to go out on his first night of his forced vacation, Phil meets a mysterious stranger AND encounters his ex. It was actually kind of comical how his drunken friend is more upset about than Phil is. Even started a fight in the bar, which kind of ruins Phil's chances for the night with said stranger. It also allows Phil and Shige to have a first date. Again, things don't go as planned and Phil is attacked in his own home.
Once Phil is taken to Shige's place ("for hi safety"), things start to become uninteresting to me. It's the same struggles for these 2 over and over again and it got quite boring. It took me a WEEK to finish 273 (?) pages. It should have only taken a few hours. Shige is a dick and I don't really like him. Phil is sweet and confused and really just wants to go home. I don't understand what Phil sees in Shige..at. all.
I found there to be a lot of editing errors in this book, almost as if it were translated from another language? Maybe that had something to do with the lack of flow in the book? Not sure, but that being said, this leaves a lot of growing for the author and I can't wait to dive into book 2. I want to know (while i believe i know anyways) why Phil's blood is poisonous to some and not others. Hopefully Shige will get his head out of his arse while he's at it too.
2.5*
BOOK 2
Book Title: Enrai (Blood Sealed Book 2)
Author: Jet Lupin
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre/s: M/M Paranormal Romance
Length: 54 000 words/ 111 pages
Release Date: February 8, 2019
Is it a standalone story? No
Blurb
Phil has a problem.
It’s not his job or the fact that his maybe boyfriend, Shige, is a vampire. He’s a sensitive– an ability he’s had since he was small that lets him peek into people’s minds— and it’s gotten out of control. He can’t turn it on and off like he used to. He needs help, and he has to fly to the other side of the world to get it. The catch? Shige’s the only one who can take him there, but things with him haven’t been great. Their relationship is in tatters, and he doesn’t know how to fix it or if it’s even up to him. This is so not what he needs right now.
But Phil’s not the only one with issues. Shige’s got a territory to maintain and a mystery to solve all while worrying about Phil. He takes all this in stride, but when things take a turn for the worst, can he get them both home in one piece?
Buy Links - Available on Kindle Unlimited
Excerpt
From Chapter 1
PHIL
“Earth to Phil!”
Phil blinked at the sudden snap inches from his nose. He shook himself as the world rushed up to meet him. He’d been adrift in a sea of consciousness surrounding them. There were 30 other people in this restaurant, and at any given time, Phil heard the thoughts of the closest 15 or so, everything from the mundane to the raunchy. None of it was his business, but his instinct was to latch onto every granule of information as he noticed it. Giving in was very easy and verysatisfying.
Sorry. I’m here.” But he hadn’t been. Thoughts continued to float in and out of his mind, not all of them his own. Today was particularly bad. It kept getting harder to focus on the things he needed to live his life.
Before, he needed to concentrate to hear other people’s minds, like eavesdropping. Now it was like everyone spontaneously broke into fits of reciting their inner monologues. There was no way to tell when it would start, but nine times out of ten, it was when he needed all his mental faculties.
He’d taken more breaks at work than what his job owed him, just to get away from the noise. People had started to notice. He’d been lucky enough not to hurt anyone yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“You sure?” Jerome said with no small amount of skepticism threading through his words. “You’re a little spacey.”
“I got distracted by a work thing, but I heard every word.”
Jerome cut his eyes at him. “What’s the last thing I said?” He smirked.
“You asked how things are with Shige.”
Jerome sucked his teeth. “Lucky guess.”
The question from his brain reached Phil before Jerome put it into words. It got mixed in the deluge of their fellow diners’ minds, but he remembered because it concerned him directly and hadn’t been about the food. He focused on Jerome, and the feedback lowered to a dull hum, blending with the audible background noise of the restaurant.
“So you got an answer for me? Hurry up, while it’s just us.”
“We’re good. Why would I go on this trip with him if we weren’t getting along?”
The short answer was what Phil told him; things between him and Shige were fine. The truth, as always, was more complex. He didn’t know what they were or where they stood.
Read more here https://jetlupin.me/enrai-excerpt/
REVIEW
Remember that room for growth i mentioned above? It's happening and i couldn't be more glad. Only a few editing errors, but nothing like book one. The flow seems a bit more polished as well, which is great to see. I can see the stories only getting better from here. My biggest peeve is I wish there was a glossary for some of the words. There's quite a bit of Japanese thrown around, and I'm not fully sure what they mean. You get the gist of it through the conversation and context of what's going on, but more clarification would be nice. Phil and Shige have a rocky start to their relationship and things are still shaky in the beginning of this story. As it progresses and Phil learns more control over his abilities and a bit more interesting information about how he came to be a "sensitive", their relationship gets a little more solidified. In book one I actually didn't like Shige, but the tables have been turning in this one. By the end of the story they're more on the same page, but it ends on a cliffhanger. Shige's past is coming back and Phil still needs to learn about his ancestors. I'm super intrigued by this and will definitely be reading on. 3.5* |
About the Author
Stories longing to have words put to them were in Jet’s heart from an early age. Jet enjoys exploring the connections and similarities between people whether they be shifters, vampires, or aliens, rendering the unknowable very knowable indeed.
Jet’s days are spent toiling away at a keyboard, slumped over a pen and paper hunting for those words, or playing around on twitter with a partner, and two rambunctious cats for company in the temperamental North Eastern US.
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