Book Review: Shattered Mirror by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Book Review: Shattered Mirror by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Walking through a local used book store, my eye caught on the cover of a very thin book. I could tell by the look of the two handsome guys pictured on the cover and the length of the novel that it was a 90’s book, maybe early 2000’s.

Standing at the back of that store I wondered if I had enough cash to even bother with buying an old 90’s book, or if it would be worth the buck-fifty I would pay for it.

The cover intrigued me, with its broken glass and the two handsome faces, half cut off into nothing, but it was the back cover that really caught my attention. Unlike most books that have a description of what the book is about, or maybe an unhelpful excerpt from said, novel, this book only had the real life picture of a very young, very sweet looking girl.

“What’s this?” I remember thinking.
The girl it turned out was Miss Atwater-Rhodes, the author of the book. At 13, Amelia wrote her first novel, In The Forests of the Night. This book, Shattered Mirror, was written when she was just 15 years old.

I was hooked, a book written and published by a 15 year old? I had to try it. So without knowing ANYTHING about the book (remember the back cover was just her picture), I dug in my car for enough change to cover the charge and took the book home to give it a read.

Shattered Mirror
2001 227 Pages

Sarah Tigress Vida, is a vampire hunter. More than that, she is from the line of the world’s most powerful witches. The Vida family has been hunting the undead and protecting the lives of humans for hundreds of years.

Though the Vida family has many rules, the first rule is never to become too close to a vampire, but Sarah breaks that rule when she meets Christopher and his sister Nissa. Two teenage vampires that go to her school.

Christopher is charming and artistic and he quickly has Sarah smitten with him, but when another vampire begins marking the humans in town with graphic drawings of his own, Sarah is shocked to find out that this vampire is Christopher’s twin, Nikolas.

Now, she must stop Nikolas from hurting the humans but will it mean losing Christopher and Nissa’s friendship? She must run the risk to stop a monster, but is she strong enough to kill Nikolas on her own and will his siblings fight to save him?

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, has spun a tale of an underground society hidden from humanity. With shades of the movie, Underworld, this novel is well crafted and interesting.
Though some of the work does show Amelia’s age, it is still well written even for an adult, let alone a teenager.

I would suggest this book to lovers of vampire fiction and readers ages 13+. With little to no, harsh language and no sexual scenes, the book's only draw back is some fairly graphic violence.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and will read more of Miss Atwater-Rhodes books in the future. You can find out more about her at: http://www.nyeusigrube.com.