First Kill by Heather Brewer

Release Date: 20th September, 2011

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Pages: 309pgs

The Story

You've heard Vlad's side of the story . . . now, it's Joss's turn.

With over a million copies already in print, The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod is still sinking its fangs into new readers every day. Now, bestselling author Heather Brewer brings us the other side of the story, from the perspective of Vlad's former friend turned mortal enemy: vampire slayer Joss Macmillan. In five books that can be read alongside Vlad Tod or entirely on their own, Joss discovers his powers as the youngest, strongest slayer in history. And just in time, too: with all the vampires running rampant, he's going to need all the help he can get. This action-paced series will quench the thirst of even the hungriest veteran minions.

The Review

Like the saying goes . . . "There's are always two sides to every story" and in Heather Brewer's case of writing awesome books with awesome characters with each twists, readers should already know all about Vladimir Tod. A character we have grown to love over the number of years. But what about Joss - the mortal friend turned mortal enemy? Well lucky for us, in the first installment of the Slayer Chronicles series, FIRST KILL, readers will finally get the chance to see Josh's side of things in ways you would not expect to see them. But he's back better than ever!

Now I don't know about you minions out there, but while Vlad is a great character in the previous series, but I've always had a soft spot (well actually it was more like massive fangaling) for Joss and I was pretty giddy when I found out he was going to have his own spin-off series! It was a fangtastic idea on Heather Brewer's part to expand the world of Vlad's. Not only did the author do a great job in telling Joss's story - involving the trials and the several emotional struggles he'd endured in the past - but she also managed to write about the heart-breaking story behind Joss's character, where you got to see the glimpses of a more vulnerable Joss but also you get to see the reasoning behind why he's doing what he's doing . . . what he does best . . . and that is killing vampires.

Just like any other determined teenage kid, willing and wanting to prove themselves to others of a higher power, Joss is the kind of strong character you need in a series like this one. When he quickly learns about the world of vampire slaying and going through the strenuously emotional and physical trials - ones that seem nearly impossible for him to accomplish - in order to become one of the strongest and youngest slayers, it was so great in getting to know Joss and having him on the spotlight for a change. And Joss went for some pretty grueling stuff that made me admire him a little more than I did in the Vlad series . . . though I do warn you there was a certain "scene" that made me wonder if I was reading an adult novel cause it was . . . well, you'll see what I mean when you read the book for yourselves.

Overall I thought Heather Brewer (our author Auntie who has been a big inspiration to me and to many readers out there in the world) did a wonderful job in setting up Joss's story. While I enjoyed Vlad's stories and found their supporting characters more interesting than I did with FIRST KILL - which is always the case since it's the first series you'll always love before a spin-off series - but with so many questions left unanswered, twisty turns and with another four books to go in this potential spin-off series . . . it definitely has my curiosity going and I can't wait to see what Brewer writes up next!

The Rating

3/5 stars