REVIEW: A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1) By Jayde Scott

Title: A Job From Hell
Author: Jayde Scott
Series: Ancient Legends #1
Publisher: Createspace
Date of Release: May 9th 2011
Pages: 369

In a world of love bonds, rituals, dark magic, ancient enemies and immortals, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.

Seventeen-year-old Amber enters the paranormal world by chance when her brother, Dallas, sets her up with a summer job in Scotland. Dallas has spied something in the woods he thinks could make them rick beyond their wildest dreams. But instead of finding ricks, Amber unknowingly enters a paranormal race - and promptly wins the first prize - a prize for which many would kill. Soon, she discovers her new boss, Aidan, didn't employ her for her astounding housekeeping skills and  he isn't who he claims to be either.

As the dark forces slowly conspire against Amber, her naivety and love for Aidan catapults her into a calamitous series of otherworldly events. With every immortal creature hunting for her, whom can she trust with her life?

The cover: This is my favourite out of the three different variations on Goodreads. It added an air of mystery to the book, the red reminded me a bit of Cass and her contact with hell and the blood gave a presence of demons and evilness. Plus… here it comes… VAMPIRES! (Wahooo)

Amber lives with her parents, about to go to college and has a womanising, overconfident dude of a boyfriend. All changes when her silly but always-has-an-'excellent'-plan older brother Dallas gets his sister into a race of the paranormals (he was thinking about her future and finance though… and threatened that he would take a higher percentage of the outcome because she was doing what any brother or sister would do, annoy the other sibling!) The race occurs every five hundred years, contestants are to solve a troublesome riddle to find a mass of shiny and sentimental (although they turn to dust in after a month of retreaval) jewels holding the power to provide you with a life-changing gift, (poor Dallas didn't know what he was getting her into) lets just say Amber was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Amber's gift was Sight, enabling her to see the dead (Now that is cool… well depending on if you consider it a curse or a gift) Dallas also scores Amber a job with a vampire, she is to clean his house and cook his dinner for him when he 'gets back' from work *cough* sleeping *cough* (sorry, I have a little tickle in my throat. Must be the cold travelling round, now i've jinxed myself!), and lets just say… some details on her application form weren't specifically true and poor Aiden was not forewarned about Ambers stir-fry. Oh well, Aiden doesn't seem to care as he isn't around during the day and doesn't even eat, except the once. Now, here comes the tricky bit. Aiden has been looking for his 'mate' for 500+ years now and eventually found her, however to his frustration she isn't exactly liking him as much as he had hoped and instead wants to go back home to her mummy and daddy… oh dear, tension in paradise! And so they must now, with Ambers new gift, a best friend who is the daughter of the devil and crushing on Dallas, Medusa, a mass of shadows (who knew shadows were something you should fear-for-your-life for) and vampires, they must try to locate an ancient book of which will enable a vampire to control their bloodlust and face the sun. Now, I can tell you, you are in for one memorable ride.

Amber's character surprised me a lot, I thought she was going to be your typical girl with a gift and so would whine and whine and whine… you know what I mean as we have all probably come across one in our reading worlds, not naming anyone. However she is straight to the point, level headed most of the time and very strong. She thinks most things through and always tries to the see the positive sides to any situation, meaning she uses a lot of sacrastic and quip comments on occasions, like when she was kidnapped by some shadows (strange, I know.) When she finds out about vampires and supernaturals, she is shocked (as you can expect any mortal to be) however she does not make too much of a meal of it (I love that saying, reminds me of a happy meal), she stays calm and considers a vampires world with maturity and precision.

Aiden was a very strange character, to be honest I couldn't decide whether I liked him or not. I liked him because he was kind, compassionate, was straight to the point and hates to waste time. However he seemed a little too controlling and his pick in women well, first he had a crazed blood drunk, evil witch of a lover then a Medusa, I mean, whats all that about. He was also a little awkward at times, however, he was always loving towards Amber, consistently looking out for her even when he didn't need to and showed a lot of affection through his words. One of my favourite characters was Cass. The child of the Devil, she has a short temper and a strange but unique sense of style. She loves to wind up Aidens younger brother Kieren and enjoys playing games with your mind, oh, and she can also read minds causing a few very funny scenes.

The style in which the book was written was very good and from the description I could easily create very vivid images and scenes. You got two different perspectives on the events, one of Aiden's and one of Amber's which allowed us to understand the different views and created a more realistic atmosphere. It was a very original and fun plot, there was also new ideas about the vampire and shadow species which made it even more exciting. I did enjoy this book and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

The next book in the series: Doomed.