Hearts At Stake by Alyxandra Harvey

Summary:

On Solange’s sixteenth birthday, she is going to wake up dead. As if that’s not bad enough, she also has to outwit her seven overprotective older brothers, avoid the politics involved with being the only daughter born to an ancient vampire dynasty, and elude Kieran Black—agent of an anti-vampire league who is searching for his father’s killer and is intent on staking Solange and her entire family.



Luckily she has her own secret weapon—her human best friend Lucy—who is willing to defend Solange’s right to a normal life, whether she’s being smothered by her well-intentioned brothers or abducted by a power-hungry queen. Two unlikely alliances are formed in a race to save Solange’s eternal life—Lucy and Solange’s brother Nicholas, and Solange and Kieran Black—in a dual romance that is guaranteed to jump start any romance-lover’s heart.

Even fans of the genre who’ve seen it all will find a fresh read with kick-butt characters and family dynamics that ring true for all brothers and sisters—vampire or otherwise.
 
Review:
 
While I'm always kind of hesitant to read anything involving vampires (with the exception of Vampire Academy and Evernight series, of course), I still decided to give Hearts At Stake a try and I have to stay that I was mostly pleasantly surprised with this new addition to the Vampire YA genre.


Hearts At Stake was told equally in the voice of two best friends- Lucy- the sarcastic and funny one that I had an easy time liking from the beginning - and Solange-  the quiet one who would rather do pottery and hang out with with Lucy then be a vampire princess. While both were pretty much well developed, I personally would have preferred the tale be told just from one girl's perspective because at times it was kind of hard to distinguish one from the other. Plus, as I've stated before, I'm not the biggest fans of stories told in multiple perspectives. Though, it did work okay and didn't detract from the overall story much.

The plot was interesting and easy to get in to because of the simple writing that flowed well. I loved the action, the sibling squabbles, and the romances that sprouted up throughout. Plus, the government system was mostly fresh and new even with the slight similarities it had with the Vampire Academy series
 
In all, Hearts At Stake is a pretty decent debut. I look forward to reading the next in the series which is due out next year.

Grade: B

Hearts At Stake will be released December 22, 2009!

Source: Publisher. Thanks Walker books!