Chapter by Chapter

Crossroads by J.J. Bonds was a read that took me by surprise. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find when I started reading this book. With the vampire genre beaten to death, and with the stories sounding all too familiar, Crossroads was an intriguing and refreshing read. Fans of Vampire Academy by Richelle Meade will really enjoy this series by J.J. Bonds.Katia finds herself being shipped off to an elite school for vampires called Crossroads Academy. After enjoying a life with her Uncle Aldo in Romania, Katia finds it a totally different scene when she arrives at the school. Even with her powerful name and connections, Katia still finds herself as a stranger looking in.Luckily for her, she finds a few friends that have made her life at Crossroads Academy more enjoyable and not so torturous. But with dreams that haunt her day and night, and a dark secret that she and her uncle have hidden from everyone, will Katia ever find some sort of normalcy in her crazy world?With a disturbing violent trend that has hit the neighbouring human town, it now seems that Katia’s past has come back to haunt her…or rather hunt her! Will her secrets be revealed? Will she loose the only people that she has come to trust at Crossroads Academy? Kill or be killed takes on a whole new role as Katia comes face to face with her nightmare.If you’re looking for a kick ass chick who can pretty much take care of herself, Katia is your girl. Aside from the fact that she seems to be constantly angry and veers far, far away from forming any friendships, Katia is a pretty awesome character. Bu when she starts to let her guard down a little, and we see the softer side of her, what’s there not to love about this character? Throw in a shady past that we don’t find out about until near the end, she is pretty fascinating.And let’s not forget about Nik. Nik who is obviously crushing on Katia. Nik who is so skilled at fighting that Katia has one on one lessons to hone in on her skills. Which, by the way, reminded me a little bit of the gym scene in Vampire Academy where Rose and Dmitri are training in the gym, which I loved! Nik, who is described to be so gorgeous and full of heart.What did I really enjoy about this book? The fact that author, J.J. Bonds, does a pretty amazing job describing scenes involving fighting and/or violence. The training that both Katia and Nik do are described to the tees. I can easily picture the images in my head. The stances, the kicks, the punches, the rolls, the target training…everything! And not only were the training montages vivid, but the actual fight scenes were amazingly described. I could almost smell the sweat and blood as I was reading. I could easily imagine hearing the crushing of the leaves and picture Katia holding her crossbow awaiting for her prey to emerge out of the trees.The twists and turns found in the book were well done, and done in a way in which J.J. Bonds incorporates Katia’s past into her present is done seamlessly. I mean, come on! Who doesn’t enjoy delving in to a characters past to see where and what she came from? How things came to be? Gotta love the story within the story.I recommend Crossroads by J.J. Bonds to fans of Richelle Meade’s Vampire Academy, and for fans of vampire reads in general. You will not be sorry that you picked this one up. It has some of the typical vampire clichés but also has different elements that readers will come to enjoy.