Blurb from pamelapalmer.com
Vampires live only for lust and pleasure in the eternal twilight of Vamp City. But the city's magic is dying. The only person who can restore it? A beautiful woman from the mortal world...one who knows nothing of the power she wields.
Quinn Lennox is searching for a missing friend when she stumbles into a dark otherworld that only she can see--and finds herself at the mercy of Arturo Mazza, a dangerously handsome vampire whose wicked kiss will save her, enslave her, bewitch her, and betray her. What Arturo can't do is forget about her--any more than Quinn can control her own feelings for him. Neither one can let desire get in the way of their mission--his to save his people, hers to save herself. But there is no escape from desire in a city built for seduction, where passion flows hot and blood-red. Welcome to Vamp City...
There's a nice book trailer for the book here
There's a nice book trailer for the book here
So I'm also going to give you a brief synopsis as well, if you don't want spoilers, do NOT
read any further.
Well let me first state this, A Blood Seduction is not a
PNR, there is no "happily ever after". In fact this story is brutal, full
of betrayals and leaves you hanging. So if you're looking for PNR or a quick
Vamp story, this is not it. With that being said, what it is, is an UF that is
the first in a series. The premise is, that a long time ago, a Sorcerer,
decided to make a parallel plane of existence to the then modern world of 1870
Washington, D.C. where the Vampire, Werewolves and other such creatures could
live apart from the human race. Well that was all said and good until the Sorcerer
realized he didn't have the power to finish it. Over the years the town
(approx. 6 miles in each direction) has started to degrade, not only physically
by not being kept up over time but also bursts of sunlight from the human realm
have been poking through and with them they have been depositing humans as well
whom get caught in the sunbeams or step into them accidentally while the beam
is bridging the dimensions. Now as the story progresses, we find out that the
sunbeam depository/bridge have been going on since the beginning and humans
whom are stranded in the Vamp City are treated worse than slaves. They are not
only food sources for whatever the Vamp's fancy (blood and most are emotion
feeders as well) but also used as entertainment, manual labor, security and so
on but if they survive long enough, which only a lucky few do, they will eventually
stop aging and become immortal also, therefore subjected to even more torture
because the Vamps can just wipe their memory of any atrocities and heal right
up. You see what I meant by the story being brutal. Pamela Palmer does a nice
job of really describing quite a few scenes in detail about some of the abuse,
torture and rape of a lot of the humans which was totally disturbing but needed
to get the harsh reality of the world she was building. So back to the story,
enter our heroine, Quinn, she and her brother fall through a sunbeam while
looking for a missing friend and immediately get separated. Her brother Zack
ends up becoming manual labor in a very brutal household but locates their
friend. Quinn on the other hand, ends up with a Vamp named Arturo, whom I'm
guessing is supposed to be the hero? Quinn (being the heroine) is not one to be
subjugated and keeps escaping but not after seeing all the horrible aspects of
this world. She also finds out that she can pass back through the sunbeam to
the human world while no one else can. Eventually we discover she is a descendant
of the original Sorcerer and she has enormous untapped power but even though
she has all this power, she can't seem to help her brother and no one is going
to help her.
So that's the synopsis, now as you can tell, I was totally
expecting a PNR but that's my fault, I should have researched the book better.
I kept expecting a turning point where the story would get on the HEA path but
nope, it never does but don't get me wrong, there are points where you follow
along with Quinn and really believe Arturo is being genuine but alas, this
story is totally full of twists and turns, betrayals and brutality. No one is
what they seem and Arturo along with numerous other characters tell that to
Quinn over and over but you as the reader, along with her still play by human
rules. We want to find the small glimmer of hope and humanity that someone
might have and play upon it. Find that goodness that we feel should be there
but alas, remember, you're not playing with humans. Palmer does a fabulous job
at misdirection in this book. Even though this is the first book in the series
basically it was pretty much world building and establishing the main
characters. I did feel the pacing of the overall story was a bit sporadic though
and I had a hard time bonding with Quinn as a character. I understood her need
to rescue her brother and I understood her needing to find an ally in Arturo
but ultimately she was a stupid heroine who never learned from her mistakes.
Hopefully as the series continues, Quinn will grow into a stronger character
but based off of the first book, she's fairly flat. I totally would recommend
waiting for the series to progress more or realize that this book is world
building with no real conclusion. It's kind of like just reading the first
chapter. A stand alone book, it is not!
3 out of 5 books
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