All in all, I enjoyed Forever Fifteen despite a few narrative rough spots. Kimberly Steele has a good ear for dialogue and a prose style that's surreal and almost dream-like. She writes teenagers almost too well; this is something that most adult writers seem to have trouble doing. Her style was perfectly suited for writing Lucy, who is essentially an adult stuck in the teenage world with all its drama.

There were several sentences that didn't read very well, and I thought that several of the chapters could have been reworked to sound more "together."

The new edition is breathtakingly beautiful, Kimberly. I'm a huge fan of your work and your free audio novel. I hope you don't think I'm copycatting you too badly with my new free erotic series about a medieval character called Lyret. I am very inspired by everything you do: your gorgeous book cover designs, your tight writing style. You are definitely a cut above in all the things you do.
The story of Forever Fifteen is awesome--no one I've met has ever been able to put it down. I think it is amazing that you have such a generous spirit, Kimberly. With all you've done for other independent authors on Lulu as far as cover designs and cross-promotions, including the beautiful cover and the proaudio work you did for me, I can't believe you even have time to write. Meeting you seems like one of the luckiest events of my life.

Yours Fondly,

M.P. Chase

I am doing the review after doing the preview. I am planning to pick up this book. If you are comparing Kimberly to Anne Rice, that would be an insult to Kimberly Steele because Kimberly is ten times better as an author. Her style of horror is more in common with Stephen King when it comes to the vampire character. She follows more in the style of J.M. Barlog when she writes horror, if anyone haven't heard of this author -- pick up Windows To The Soul. Her style is descriptive but brutal as hell. She also did the cover for my anthology for those of you who were asking, but as I said -- I will be definately picking up this book.
       Also I want to make note about the recording of the first chapter, having the author's voice reading the novel it adds to the dark tone of the book. Unlike so many authors out there these days whose hearts are not in the genre they are writing, Kimberly puts her heart into it. The characters in her work describe most of DuPage County to the T, namely around Wheaton and Naperville. Why I say this, I've actually walked the streets where she got inspired from. Those areas she was writing some for the inspiration for the setting were the same areas that also inspired my work too.
        I am on the sixth chapter -- takes me a long time to read books because I read more than one book at one time, but this one is a lot of fun to read. I read some about the black plague chapter and she does a nice reference to H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe in there. Her voice with the genre is easy the more classy of the authors seen out there with a bit of the Stephen King type fun -- especially when she described how her main character was born during a plague. If you want to see her work in a short fiction form, check out the rather nasty horror tale she contributed on TABLOID PURPOSES II. She returned twice as the designer of the front cover and as a contribing author. She was the silent contributer in one, now she proves she can scare like the rest of them.
       If you're looking for horror, she delivers. I would love to see her do a Reality TV inspired horror story as a follow up. Especially if they are following her character around 24-7, they would get a hell of a history lesson about it too. If you need help with the formatting let me know I got Open Office. This book needs a font like garamond, the chapters go too quick.

I started this book less than a week ago, and have already finished it. It was hard to put down. I especially loved the flashbacks, full of rich historical detail and an intriguing story of a passionate but doomed romance with Sebastianus. I want to give it three thumbs-up for the sake of the story. However, it needs a lot more proofreading and editing, maybe some minor cuts here and there, to get it up to industry standards of grammar, punctuation, etc. For that reason, I'll have to give it a reluctant two thumbs-up. I also would have liked to know what happened between Lucy and Sebastianus between chapters 33 and 34. But it's definitely worth buying and reading. And I love the beautiful picture on the cover.

Forever Fifteen, the debut novel from Kimberly Steele, is fun, sexy, interesting and...did I mention fun? Steele's heroine Lucy is not your typical vampire. We've seen child vampires before, but they're usually depicted as being adults trapped in childrens' bodies. Lucy, on the other hand, is delightfully young at heart and full of teenage angst, even after all the centuries she's been around. Sure, she's a little more experienced at life (especially in "certain" aspects of adult behavior), but she's still a kid deep down, and that's what makes her so lovable. The story presented in Forever Fifteen takes place in modern times, but much of the action is depicted in flashbacks to different periods of history. Steele handles these transitions flawlessly, and her portrayals of other times and places are comfortable and easy to swallow. I found Forever Fifteen to be an enjoyable read, a fun story with a heroine who will have you cheering for her all the way.

Your cover is so lovely! I want to read it just as soon as I look at it! Who did that lovely artwork?