Review: Sanguine Mountain by Jennifer Foxcroft

Sanguine Mountain

Jennifer Foxcroft

(Camazotz Trilogy #1)

Publication Date: February, 2015

Paperback, 279 pages

Genres: YA, Paranormal

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Connie Phillips has never told a lie—until now.

An anonymous letter shatters the world Connie thought she knew and trusted. The news that her parents aren’t really her own leaves her angry, devastated and alone. The search for the truth leads her down a dark, desolate forest road where she meets a boy in the shadows who has secrets of his own.

Rockland’s life has been ruled by an ancient curse since the day he was born. Forever labeled a misfit and a rebel, he is desperate to convince his leaders that integration with the modern world will be the salvation of their kind—not their demise.

After their worlds collide in the middle of a dark forest, Connie and Rocks strike a deal to help each other find the answers they both need—away from her lying parents and the judgmental sneers of his colony. But, can they find love on their journey to discover who they are and where they belong in the world?

My Review

Connie Phillips is in way over her head. Her parents aren’t her real parents, her best friend wants her to work at a wiener stand, and let’s not forget her new friend who just so happens to shift from a six-foot-four hunky man-boy to a much smaller vampire bat. What’s a girl to do with all of this going on?

There’s only one word that comes to mind when I think about the happenings in this book—awkward. But the awkward wasn’t all bad types of awkward. There was funny awkward, sad awkward, weird awkward, and just a lot of different emotional ranges of awkward. I mean there’s a boy flipping into a little, itty bitty bat! And he’s not a vampire! Just a vampire bat.

Connie is a typical teenage girl main character. She’s just found out something devastating about her past and now she doesn’t know what to do. She’s a good character, but I think what made her character better was the interaction between her and Rocks. Rocks is the vampire bat. He’s also a moody, hilarious, and you guessed it, an awkward person? Shifter? Bat-boy? I’m not sure what to call him… I really enjoyed his character. He was the one who brought the interesting stuff to the scenes. Otherwise the story would have just revolved around Connie angst-ing over her parents.

Oh, and btw, the paranormal element here was so weird to read about at first. A boy that turns into a little bat? How sexy could that be? But once you keep reading you’ll see just how unsexy and hilarious being a boy-bat can really be. (*giggles* bat nipples *giggles some more*)

I guess I should explain the awkward stuff a little more, right? Well, for the first third of the book, I wasn’t too sure what the heck was going on. I felt like I missed some conversation between Rocks and Connie that was vitally important to the book. Suddenly the two just became really good friends and I couldn’t see the leap in Connie’s head from “OMG! He’s a boy who can turn into a bat!” to “He’s so nice and not a serial killer at all. Let’s be BFFs.” But once I allowed myself to get past that issue, I actually found myself enjoying what was happening in the story. Connie and Rocks had such weird and LOL-worthy conversations. And while there wasn’t a whole lot of action in the story until closer to the end, those conversation managed to keep the book from dropping off. Although, some of the conversations were a little hard to follow at times. Once again, I found that I was missing some short piece of a conversation or some piece of logic in their arguments.

I also have to say that the ending for this book made me very unhappy. Cliffhanger endings are the worst! Ugh! And this cliffhanger was so mean! Things were just getting good. I had to actually reopen the book and make sure I wasn’t skipping the last few pages or something. #ReaderProblems. Grr…

All in all, Sanguine Mountain is a good start to what could be a promising new series. It has a fresh take on the paranormal, as well as some awkward and interesting dialog to keep you laughing and cringing and doing all manner of –ing things.

*Note: I received a copy of this book from the author for review. This in no way altered my review/opinion.