Friday 7 October 2011

Review: Blood Rights - Kristen Painter

Series: House of Comarré #1
Genre: Help! What is it really... UF/PNR hybrid? Gothic/ mystery
Pages: 416
Published: October 1, 2011
Publisher: Orbit
Review by Lis


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.

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B. sent this book over because the library was evil and not lending her an e-reader. While the blurb makes this book sound pretty cool, me, myself and I had several head shaking, growling, sighing and even hair pulling moments. At some point I just wanted to step into this book and shake some sense into the main characters and scream: can we get our priorities straight here? In theory this book is not all that bad. In practice, this book is just not my eye of newt in the witches ‘cauldron. Guess, now you want to know why that is ey?

Blood Rights is the story of Chrysabelle – a falsely accused of murder comarré (she feeds vampires) – and Malkolm – an outcast who’s cursed. They are the main character along with an unbelievable evil villainess Tatiana in this lengthy story that lacks momentum. 

Chrysabelle is a comarré, a special breed that feeds the vampire nobility. All is fine and dandy is this world of lies and secrets until the vampire she feeds ends up permanently dead. Now she’s on the run in the world of humans where she meets Malkolm, who is burdened with his own secrets and very much cursed. The first half of this story is made up of their endless arguing on whether or not Mal should help and whether or not Chrys should leave and be a big girl and find out on her own. 

While the story itself is not entirely bad, it lacks a bit of pacing and momentum. It focuses too much one thing and not too much on the other. Fortunately once Twit and Twat make their minds up, things go better and the story picks up. This makes the story a lot easier to read. 

I know, I know, I’m always criticizing how some story should have been expanded more and how there is not enough story. This is actually the other way around. While not bad, this story would have benefitted if it was a little more compact. 

In itself the world of the comarré and the vampires is not entirely badly written. There is a lot of world building and background. A fact I very much enjoyed reading. 

Just like the world building is not bad, the characters itself are not bad either. They are well written, just not likable. In fact, it would be better if they kept their mouth shut. Once they team up in the second half, they are a lot more likeable. There is a not quite romance between them. I kept wondering if there would be more, but the story focuses more on the mystery than the romance. 

All in all, not a bad story, just not my thing. However, if you like a mystery, bickering character, a bad villain and an intriguing world, this story might just be your thing. 



---On a not review related side note, I wanted to thank you for all your comments! I always read them, but lately I haven’t had time to reply to them as faithfully as B. always does. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate your comments :-) ---



23 comments:

  1. That cover is kinda creepy.

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  2. Thank you Lis for saving me :D
    And yes evil library, or should I say evil people in this town. Cos now you can borrow ebooks too and suddenly there is a waiting list *mutters*

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  3. Evil library should be destroyed!

    The review made me thinking whether I did the right thing adding this novel to my TBR list. I am not sure I would enjoy it. We'll see.

    Love your reviews, Lis!

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  4. Funny that I read the blurb and I was like, "yes! I want this" and then I read the first paragraph of the review and I'm like "oh.." haha... still feeling a bit curious about this book though. Awesome review :)

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  5. Awww, sorry this one wasn't quite for you! I absolutely loved it, but I agree there was a lot of world building to deal with.

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  6. Hi Lis, thanks for the review. I've been looking forward to reading this book myself, but when you complain about the characters, and lack of pace, well, I'll have to reconsider. Still it does sound original, and I love that in a book.

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  7. Oh, Lis, if I wasn’t ready to swear my bloggy devotion to you before – this phrase “this book is just not my eye of newt in the witches ‘cauldron” just about did it for me!

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  8. I have to admit I bought this on the basis of the gorgeous cover and the fact that the story sounds like one of my UF reads... interesting that you weren't a fan! :-)

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  9. Chris
    I like it :)


    Ana
    I know right. Arghhh, evil library. Hm, read it and tell me what you think :)


    Hilda
    Yay at seeing you again. Will you start blogging again too?


    Jenny
    I do like world building so I wonder...

    Aurian
    I hope you read and review so I have more to think about :)


    Steph
    Lis is a goddess of words, now you know why I force her to work for me ;)

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  10. Huh. Well, thanks for your honest thoughts, Lis. I think I've read too many glowing reviews and this helps to bring down my expectations, though I'm still really excited to read it.

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  11. NOOoooooo! Blodeuedd, you SO need a ereader!

    I loved this one, sorry you didn't. I can see what you meant about the pacing at the beginning, but it seemed to flow well after about the 3rd chapter for me. I think if you are more into fantasy, you will like it more. Just a guess anyway. :)

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  12. Wow! Kind of disappointed, I've been eyeing this book for awhile.

    The synopsis sounds so exciting but the reviews I've been reading are anything less than stellar!

    Still not sure but leaning towards, De Nada on this one, now.

    Fab review!

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  13. I've heard pretty good things about this book and am looking forward to reading it. Sorry it didn't work for you...

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  14. haha I've heard great things about this one, but I'm always interested to read another viewpoint - keeps my expectations in check :)

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  15. Linda, that's the plan. I'm still thinking of how to go about the comeback. Any ideas? :)

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  16. Hahahahaha. How can there be a waiting list on e-books? really? lol. Anyways.......I think I may just want to read this...hummmm. I'll put it on my maybe list. I kind of like the cover.

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  17. I know what you mean, sometimes I want to jump into a story and shake some sense into the characters too :)

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  18. It's a shame you didn't like the book - I really like the cover/description. I hope I can find more reviews about this one soon :)

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  19. Melissa
    *sobs*
    I know I know. I must get one soon cos giving up books cos I do not have time to read them since I can't get a hold of the library e-reader sucks!

    *hides*
    I am sorry

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  20. I am really looking forward to this one but glad to hear that it doesn't work for everyone! I know that sounds weird but it takes the pressure off to love it LOL

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  21. Lis great review! Hmm...so I bought this at the store as a spur of the moment buy just because I loved the cover art. Then I found out the author is going to be at AAD so I'm going to read the book to spot-light that author but now I'm getting nervous to read it...

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