Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Blood Rights (House of Comarre #1) by Kristen Painter
Published: 1st October 2011
Publisher: Orbit
Rating: 3.5/5


Goodreads description:


The 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 comarré—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.


My thoughts:


I love the description. I love the cover. I had high hopes for this book. Sadly, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The worldbuilding was as fascinating as I imagined it would be, but led to alot of exposition that pulled me out of the story a bit. I didn't really see why it needed to be at all futuristic and dystopian as this does not feature at all, and it seemed like more of a set up for the later novels when the humans would eventually feature. I loved the mythology, it was so well developed, so rich and thought out that I do wish I could have enjoyed this book more than I did. Plotwise, it was an interesting mix of mystery and paranormal and whilst I felt the story drag at times, ultimately the plot was a good one. 


I really liked the writing style, it was creative and enjoyable but I wasn't at all a fan of the narration. I felt it switched POV's too often, sometimes in the middle of chapters which I found irritating. It's hard to really bond with a character when you're constantly being shoved out of their head and into someone elses. I'm all for mixed POV's, but less is definitely more in this case. Sometimes I feel it's used for lazy writing, to avoid having to find other ways to explain events/emotions and that bugs me. 


Characterisation was actually my biggest bugbear with this book. The characters were all well developed, with their own stories and voices, but the problem was none of them were really likeable. I didn't bond with or care much about any of the characters which meant I had no vested interest in their welfare or the outcome of the plot. I really like it when I can associate with a character, or at the very least care about them, and this just didn't happen here. I especially didn't like Tatiana at all, I couldn't even like her as a villain, she just sorta bugged me. Mal bugged me a bit too, I kept wanting to tell him to get over himself, and the hints at his past annoyed me. I hate those constant, mysterious references to traumatic pasts, they absolutely do my head in. Then, when his story was eventually revealed, I was just confused by it. That part of the novel wasn't at all well written for me. 


The main thing I did enjoy about this book was the relationship between Mal and Chrysabelle. It was realistic and tension-filled and left plenty of room for development. It wasn't toooo Edward-like, in terms of his reaction to her, and there was absolutely no insta-love which is always a plus.


Looking back, this review seems really negative, but I did enjoy reading this, just not an insane amount. It was an okay read; I don't regret it but I'm not clamouring for book two either. 

Review: Deception by Lee Nichols

Deception (Haunting Emma #1) by Lee Nichols
Published: September 5th 2011 (UK)
Publisher: Bloomsbury


Goodreads description:


When Emma Vaile’s parents go missing while away on a mysterious business trip, she’s left all alone in her creepy old house. But her brother’s very cute best friend, Bennett Stern—Emma’s knight in J. Crew armor—arrives unexpectedly to whisk her away to New England. There, Emma settles into his family’s museum-like mansion and enrolls at an old-fashioned private school. She quickly finds friends in the popular legacy crowd at Thatcher and spends her free time crushing on Bennett.

But the eerie visions she’s been hiding from everyone have gotten worse. Emma has memories of Thatcher that she can’t explain—it’s as if she’s returning home to a place she’s never been. Finally, Emma confides in Bennett and learns she is a ghostkeeper, a person who can communicate with ghosts. Bennett brought Emma to Thatcher to protect her, but now he needs her help tracking an other-worldly murderer


My tho
ughts:


I loved this book!! So much gets squashed into its pages, it's so well paced and imaginative. Lee Nichols is not scared to create action and heartbreak. I loved the concept of the Ghostkeepers, it was original and really cool. Some of the plot elements were really intense and stuff I wouldn't expect to happen so early on  did happen. This book definitely does not suffer from first book syndrome, and any set up that was there felt more realistic because you were learning alongside Emma. I felt the action scenes were a little anti-climatic and lacklustre, but the rest was excellent. 


The writing was fairly standard for a YA book, enjoyable and it definitely pulled me into the story, but nothing stood out either positively or negatively.


 Onto the characters; Emma was what is now a typical YA heroine. Doesn't think much of herself but all the boys are in love with her, nothing special and yet the most special etc...which annoyed me a little. I just felt such a great book deserved more than a cookie-cutter heroine. I also wasn't a fan of Bennett, he felt personality-less and much older than his actual age and not a great love interest at all. Such a shame that the main characters weren't up to par, however the supporting cast was truly amazing. The resident ghosts were spectacular; I especially liked the Rake and Nicholas but all of them had distinct voices and personalities and I loved the way they interacted with each other and with Emma. My absolute favourite character was Harry for sure, he was so eccentric and hilarious. 


The plot as I mentioned earlier was jampacked, I did not feel bored for one second. I adored the main plotline of Emma growing into her ghostkeeping powers, but also the side stories of what happened at school, and the love stories there. I loved the theme of how important family and friends are, how Emma needs a support system and actually does miss and need her family. 


I have to give this 4/5 because I just wasn't feeling Emma or Bennett much but this book is truly spectacular, one of the best ghost based YA's I've read. 

Review: Halfway to the Grave

Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress #1) by Jeaniene Frost
Published: November 2007
Publisher: Avon
Star rating: 5/5


Goodreads Description:

Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father—the one responsible for ruining her mother's life. Then she's captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unholy partnership.

In exchange for finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She's amazed she doesn't end up as his dinner—are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn't have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her newfound status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side . . . and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat.

My thoughts:

I love YA. I do. It’s fun and entertaining and occasionally educational and heartbreaking. But there’s something so thrilling about reading an adult novel after weeks of pure YA.  God knows why I waited so long to read Halfway to the Grave, I genuinely don’t know why. I think part of it is that I sorta went off reading adult lit, and part of it was the mistrust of anything not written by a favourite author that I held for many years (and I’m still getting over).

Anyway, I eventually got round to reading this book because I took it out of the library (I’m trying to embrace my library, instead of slagging it off all the time) and can I just say…wow. I loved it, really really loved it. It’s the first book in a while that’s had me NEEDING the sequel. If I hadn’t already had it reserved from the library I would have downloaded it for my kindle that very instant.

I loved Cat, the life she’d chosen was really admirable and also sad. It was awful to see the effect her mother’s prejudice and hatred had upon her. I really liked it when she slowly managed to shed that prejudice, though it took a long time. But I thought she was spunky and determined (if a little prudish) and I was wholeheartedly on her side.

Bones….sigh. What can we say about Bones other than I wish I had him? Yeah, he is pretty Spike like, with the hair and the Englishness and the mannerisms and yeah some people have noted that as a criticism…all I can say is WHY? Spike is FIT and actually, I think Bones is well better. I love him, I actually love him. I love how he tricked Cat, I loved the scene with them in the club and I loved how caring he actually is despite his tough 'I’m a master vampire bounty hunter appearance'. His dialogue with Cat was hilarious, especially the scene in the truck.  Some scenes between them genuinely gave me the chills, I thought the love-hate chemistry was really well written.

Cat’s mum I actually hated. I wanted to kill her. I wish someone had killed her. She’s a whiny, evil cow. I don’t really care what happened to her, frankly I had no sympathy. I know that sounds terrible, but condemning a whole race as a result of the actions of one person IS racism and I just really disliked her. And her parents.

I thought the plot was fantastic, well paced, well thought out (heartbreaking at the end) and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I loved the slight adaptations to vampire lore, and I loved the partnership between Bones and Cat, and how it developed, I thought it was really realistic. There was definitely a slight mystery element to this and I really love that in a book, I love it when I'm kept guessing to the end, waiting for the resolution. Speaking of the end, can you say heartbreaking? I think I was like, screaming at the pages. I liked the offer Cat was given though, there was definitely no other way out of that mess. But OMG. The decision she made? 

This series is now definitely one of my favourites, and I give this book an easy 5/5. I would recommend it to fans of the sookie Stackhouse series, the Riley Jenson series, and generally anyone looking for a great paranormal adult read.