Review: Taste

Title: Taste
Author: Kate Evangelista
Source: Purchased

I am also part of a blog tour and I'll have an excerpt, a giveaway, and more for you. So make sure to visit on the 15th for more goodies for Taste!

Goodreads Summary and Cover:

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans. When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn't realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

Thoughts:
Well, let me start off by saying that I really had no idea what this book was about. I bought it months ago after seeing it mentioned on Twitter quite a bit and it's been hanging around on a shelf since. I'm a slacker...I KNOW! Anyway, it's a beautiful cover, of course. Girl in a dress, dark, mysterious...

The synopsis on the back cover must have been an early, uncorrected version for my copy. It took me a while as I was reading to realize the name on the back cover for Luka was incorrect. His name on the back of the book is Yuri. His dad's name was Yuris, so maybe that changed at some point in earlier revisions. Anyway! Not a big deal! I moved on.

I assumed this book was about vampires due to the "night students" and no humans being allowed on campus after a certain time. LOL! I was wrooooong! Big time wrong.

The night students are called Zhamvy. Zhamvy are a type of zombie, but not the "blarghI'muglyandgonnaeatyourface" kind of zombie. These are sophisticated and beautiful people...errr...zombies. They live in a mountain range under the campus. Due to a ruling of their king, they are not allowed to eat flesh. They are supplemented with pig's flesh and a synthetic food, yusha.

Our main character, Phoenix, is used as a test subject. She is injected with the blood of the Zhamvy and taken underground with them. There, she learns more about the Zhamvy, Demitri and his family, and Luka and his family. She also learns that the race is slowly dying out. This is why Dray, Demetri's scientist brother, uses Phoenix.

When Phoenix wakes in her "Zhamvy" state, she bonds with Demitri. By biting him! Biting is how the Zhamvy mark each other as their partner. She, of course, didn't know this. It comes back to bite them later in the book. (haha! See what I did there?)

While Demitri is off doing his Prince duties, Luka entertains Phoenix. She is drawn to Luka, too. Even though there's a love triangle vibe going on, there's really no contest. Luka tries, though.

The (evil) Prime Minister tries to overthrow the royals and wants to allow the Zhamvy allowed to feed on humans again. There's a huge fight at a gathering and Phoenix is hauled away. She wakes up as a human and in a hospital. Demitri and the other Zhamvy have not been going to their classes and she's unable to get back to them. After several attempts, her headmaster gets her to agree to stop searching for them.

The ending of the book was great! There's closure, so have no fear!

Rating:

I really did like Taste. It was an interesting world and setting. The characters were great! Phoenix was a strong, female lead who had two very swoon-worthy gentlemen in her life.