Blood Memories

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It's a bit on the short side (I finished it in one evening), but I got quite attached to the characters, and the style (the memories) worked very well, I thought. I was "on my toes" the whole time, intrigued and curious as to how things were going to go. I'd definitely read more of the series. ( )

Oh, thank God! A vampire story that's not a Harelquin romance with fangs. The plot unfolds organically from the point of a view of a vampire for whom life didn't change much by dying. Until suddenly new possibilities thrust themself into her mind and she discovers most of what she thought she knew wasn't true at all. I'm hoping there is another installment to her story. ( )

I've enjoyed reading Barb and J.C. Hendee's Noble Dead series and so I was pleased to hear that Barb Hendee was branching off on her own to write an urban fantasy about vampires.

In the Vampire Memories series, vampires all have a special gift. Eleisha Clevon, the protagonist of Blood Memories, is able to make herself seem helpless and make people want to take care of her. She uses this gift to hunt. Originally from Wales, she has settled in Portland, takes care of a senile vampire named William and socializes with her friend Edward, also a vampire, until the day that Edward commits suicide. With his death, Eleisha is forced to confront how lost he'd become, thanks to the bodies in his basement and the address book of vampires. Now that the police are looking for her, she has to flee.

This book is on par with the Noble Dead series in terms of quality. The characters are interesting and the plot is sound but I didn't find the book quite as compelling as some of the others I've read. This is not to say that it's a bad book; on the contrary, it's a good, solid read. It just didn't grab me the way that Patricia Briggs' or Kelley Armstrong's work does. The second book in the series, Hunting Memories, is out now so I may pick it up some time in the future.

Also published at http://ireadgood.wordpress.com ( )

I liked this one a lot. Inhaled. ( )

I read this book a few months ago and am now struggling to write a review. It just didn't make much of an impression. It was a mildly entertaining vampire book and not much else. ( )