Review: Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney

Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney
Publisher: Random House UK
Publication date: 27th September 2012
My rating: 4 stars

You can’t choose your family... living or dead.

Trapped between two very different worlds, newly made vampire Moth is struggling to find her place in either. Not only does she have to answer to her strict Irish-Catholic Dad, but her over-protective maker, Theo, is intent on making her the star attraction in his powerful Boston vampire clan. Moth will have to pull off the double-act of the century to please both of them...

Adding to her problems is the dangerously attractive Jason Murdoch, a trainee vampire hunter who loves to play cat and mouse in his spare time (Jace = cat; Moth = mouse). But when the teenagers of Boston’s wealthiest families start to disappear, it forces Moth and Jace into an uneasy truce. Will they be able to solve the mystery behind the disappearances—before someone winds up undead?

Falling to Ash restored that little bit faith that I had lost in my paranormal reads. I used to be a paranormal junkie, but in the last year I found them repetitive and tiresome. That explains why in the last year there’s only been one paranormal read which has completely moved me, but I’m happy to say Falling to Ash was another book which took me by surprise.

The typical stories that we seem to be finding in paranormal books; “who is the mysterious character; I know he’s hiding something but I can’t put my finger on it”, irksome love triangles and a heroine who puts her life on the line for the mysterious stranger who surely isn’t human is thankfully not in sight in Falling to Ash hooray! Instead we’re following the life on young snarky vampire Moth. She’d spent the night with Theo finally filling the big gaping hole left by her dead mother and non-existent father. But she didn’t expect after one of the best nights of her life; Theo would bite her and she would have to live through torturous weeks of getting turned into a vampire. She would rather have died for real instead of becoming an undead vampire. But there was nothing that could be done now; she had to live by her maker Theo’s rules.

In Falling to Ash the world isn’t aware of vampires, there’s a select few who do know and they’re vampire hunters; Thomas and his son Jason Murdoch. Thomas has been on a rampage forever in trying to bring Theo and his vampires down. But then unusual circumstances where teenagers that Moth knew from her human life ending up dead as if they were attacked by an animal, force Jason and Moth to work together as a team.

Jason and Moth’s situation was a hilarious one. There’s nothing more I enjoy more when two characters who hate each other’s guts are forced to work together. Despite their brief tense history, Jason and Moth become to realise they made a formidable team, not only were they able to bring more to the table by coming from two different backgrounds, they were able to delve deeper and become closer to discovering the killer than the police ever were. Jason and Moth were a great pair to be around, it was fun watching them to learn to trust one another, and their adventure was fun and full with much appreciated tension along the way.

Falling to Ash made me realise that I need more books with pov’s from female vampires, this is the second book I have read with this situation and I’ve discovered I’m much able to connect with the characters, thus resulting in a much more enjoyable reading experience.

I hugely recommend reading Falling to Ash if you’re in a paranormal funk and are looking for something fresh and funny. Mahoney does a great job in weaving great aspects of humour in to the book that you will find yourself sniggering to yourself when you least expect it.