Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Pity the Living, Not the Dead
AUTHOR: TL Travis
PUBLISHER: Sapphire Publishing
LENGTH: 157 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2021
BLURB:
Pity the living, not the dead they say.
Trust is earned, not given.
Clichés meant to make one feel better in a time of sorrow. How do these apply when the one you trust most isn’t among the living? Beware of things that go bump in the night when what you really need to fear is life itself. The one thing you will never get out of alive…
Elijah Walker has done his best to blend in amongst humans for centuries, drinking his fill and doing his best not to kill. Humans. Witnessing their digression firsthand, reverting to their caveman beginnings makes it hard to contain the beast lurking inside.
Liam Aldrich has spent his life in his family’s shadow. Never allowed to step out of line and forced into a life made for him rather than one he would have chosen for himself. Now the one time he has a choice that only he can make could end it all.
With Liam’s life and Elijah’s heart on the line, the pair are left at a crossroad forced to determine a path in which they could find may not align.
A portion of this book was previously available in the Virgin Shifters anthology.
REVIEW:
This was a totally different kind of TL Travis book.
Liam has to get away from all the oppression and demands his family place on him. They have dictated every moment of his life. From what he wears to how his room is decorated to where and what he studies in college, he has been told. When his 21st birthday shows how his future adult life will be he runs away to “his spot” down by the water’s edge. There he encounters a man that may be the light to a different life. But can this man and the darkness surrounding him be the right way?
I will say, Liam’s story broke my heart. From the moment he was born he has physically and mentally struggled with only his dear sister Olivia making his life bearable. The rest of their family were such a piece of work. They were bullies. There is no other word for them. “Do as I say and be still”. Not once in his entire life had he been asked what he wanted, just told. Yes, life was easy in that he had the riches from the family business, but money isn’t everything and love and sincere caring are much more important.
I will also say, how sad that choosing to be with a vampire than being with your own family is more favorable is truly depressing. Again Olivia was the only difference and being deathly sick didn’t even open their greedy eyes and hearts. He had lived a lonely existence until Elijah transformed everything in his life.
And I felt so much for Elijah. From the circumstances that changed his life forever to the centuries of loneliness that he lived. And then having to be the bearer of such bad news to his one and only true love would have been heart aching.
Having come back to the Pacific Northwest recently to visit it wasn’t hard to see Seattle in the way it was described in the future. Seeing what my beloved downtown Portland has become it would take much of a stretch to see it crumble that way.
I’m not usually a huge vampire story fan but this was a great story depicting human life and it’s fragility and unfairness. And it comes out just in time for a great Halloween read.
RATING: 
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