Monday, September 19, 2011

Blood Rights.

Title/Author: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter. 

Genre: PNF/UF. 

Publisher: Orbit.

Source: BEA.

Favorite character: Chrysabelle.

Favorite quote: n/a.

All in all: An interesting twist of vampire mythology.

SynopsisThe lacy gold mapped her entire body. A finely-wrought filigree of stars, vines, flowers, butterflies, ancient symbols and words ran from her feet, up her legs, over her narrow waist, spanned her chest and finished down her arms to the tips of her fingers.

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarrĂ©—a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world…and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.
Now Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.~Goodreads.com

My Thoughts: Blood Rights takes place in the not too distant future and jumps full force in a secret world of Vampires and their comarres (lifetime companions who provide them with blood). What I liked most about this book is the unique details within the story.  The reason the comarre exist and their role in the vampire world.  The gold thread sewn into comarre skin and the details behind it. The physical differences between a comarre and an ordinary human.

The book was a pretty fast read for me and I enjoyed the overall story, tone and the writing.  The concept of the book is interesting and contains several plot twists that I actually didn't see coming.  The author didn't need to re-build an entire world, but only sprinkle in some interesting nuances.  I wasn't lost as there were really only a few things mentioned that let the reader know the setting isn't exactly present day.  Some people may not like this, but I also thought that the different viewpoints within the chapters, made the story move. 

There were some scenes that felt a bit forced and a bit cliche for me.  But let's face it, there are several cliched scenes in a lot of books of this genre and fans still love them.  It only took a few chapters to realize that Blood Rights has heavy romance elements that, for me, reminded me more of that genre than a straight UF or PNF.

To be honest, I feel the story is stronger than the characters.  It's not that I disliked them, I just didn't love them. I personally felt that Chrysabelle had the strongest connection for me.  She is physically and emotionally strong.  She knows what she needs to do and takes steps to reach her goal.  Mal, the "tortured" male protagonist "with a past," is less convincing for me, but I still enjoyed him as a foil and love interest for Chrysabelle.  I thought that Tatiana could have really been an interesting character as the main female vampire antagonist.  However, the hints to her past where she shows vulnerability is glossed over.  I would have liked to have been able to delve deeper with her.

Also, there is a large plot point that either I totally missed or it just wasn't explained.  ***SPOILER ALERT: First of all Mal got Chrysabelle's Blood Rights, but I still don't understand how.  It was actually another vampire who did the transfusion and stuck the needle in.  So how did Mal end up with her rights?  Was it because they were in Mal's home when it happened?  :END SPOILER ALERT***  However, these misgivings weren't enough to not enjoy what I liked.

There is another book being published to continue this story and I think knowing that also helped me understand that not everything was going to be solved in this one.  I'm not totally against reading the next book, but at the same time I'm not in a rush to read it.  However, I do think that fans of PNF and UF will find this an entertaining and fun read.

Challenges:













4 comments:

Missie, The Unread Reader said...

Okay, what is a comarre and how do I become one. LOL

Yup, I'm gonna be adding this one to my TBR. I'm interested in finding out more about what you mentioned regarding the romance and the world-building.

Team Vampire! :)

Jenny said...

I actually really enjoyed this one, I loved the whole comarre situation and how they interacted with the vampires. Like you though, with regard to the spoiler section, I as a little confused about the rights but I'm hoping we get more explanation of how those are transferred in the next book. I had a blast reading your review!

Mina Burrows said...

This is the 2nd review I've seen of this book. Sounds soo good. It's going on my TBR pile!

Also wanted to let you know I gave you a blog award. http://minaburrows.blogspot.com/2011/09/versatile-blogger-award.html

Jen D. @ Not Now...I'm Reading! said...

Thanks for the review! I've been wanting to get my hands on this book.

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