I received the book Ourselves as part of a giveaway through Cannonball and agreed to do a review. Unfortunately, I probably wasn’t the right person to read this book. I wanted to try something else but it was a bit too outside of my norm.
The Nahan are a secret race of people who resemble vampires, they are actually responsible for the myth of vampires to ward of suspicion of themselves. Tomas was born into a family of Nahan who are well positioned in the Council (which reminded me of the Authority in True Blood) who meets a girl, Stell, who is part of a cult called the True Family. There is a brief Romeo & Juliet subplot and some cross country finding yourself adventuring before launching into the bulk of the story.
After his cross country journey, Tomas decides to become a Storyteller which is the most elite class of Nahan. Stell follows him and becomes an assassin, because she has to have something to do, where she meets Adlai. Adlai had a friend who also went into Storyteller training but disappeared after an unsuccessful mediation session that he enlists Stell and Tomas into helping him find.
The plot just seemed a little all over the place, it appeared to be set up as a series but then rushed through so much and ended with such finality that I don’t know what could come next. There is also a lot of graphic sex, the Nahan are apparently very sexual although the back cover didn’t suggest there would be so many hard phallus references.
All in all, if you like romance and vampires this is a book for you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend.