Blood Books Volume 2 was an anthology of two Tanya Huff novels; Blood Lines and Blood Pact. The volume could have been subtitled “Night of the Living Dead” since they both had similar themes.

In Blood Lines, we have an ancient Egyptian wizard that was magically bound as a mummy. He’s accidentally released and starts taking over Toronto by enchanting all of the high ranking officials. The regular cast of characters- Vicki Nelson, a female detective that left the force because of failing eyesight, her ex-partner and current lover Mike Celluci and Henry Fitzroy, a romance writing vampire- work together to save the city. The tale was entertaining, but there wasn’t much character development.

Huff, however, really moves her characters along in Blood Pact. During the course of a medical study run by insane college students where bacteria is being used to reanimate dead tissue, a main character that recently passed away is turned into a zombie. To save the life of another character, Henry needs to “make them” into a vampire. This will obviously impact the story lines in the series from this book forward. Of the first four, this novel was the most entertaining and fundamentally “creepy.” It will be interesting to see where Huff takes her characters next. ( )

In the second installment of these 2-book omnibuses Toronto-based PI Vicki Nelson, and her sidekicks Henry Fitzroy, a 450-year-old vampire who's also the bastard son of king Henry VIII, and Toronto detective Mike Celluci take on a mummy released from an ancient curse, and a pack of zombies, at times led by Vicki's recently deceased mother

I really enjoyed reading this entire series, but I have to say that as I read it, I found the character of Vicki less and less appealing. She seemed to be somewhat amoral - she didn't appear to be very conflicted over sleeping with both male characters throughout the books and that made her a much less sympathetic character to me. Also, her personality was abrasive and hostile to both Henry and Mike at times, and I just couldn't see one man being so ga-ga over her, let alone two.

Henry, the vamp, was a somewhat jaded, very experienced lover who seemed to have more gay tendencies than heterosexual, so why he was interested in this annoyingly one-note woman, who at times bordered on incivility to him was beyond me.

But I still say, read these books. They are fun. ( )

I only discovered the books after the series Blood Ties (which are based on Tanya Huff's books) was cancelled. If you enjoyed the series, you'll enjoy the books.

Visit me at my book blog: Booklorn. ( )

Good, sexy vamp stories! ( )

Blood Lines - very intense, somewhat depressing. This is the mummy one - and Henry comes away with some changes in perception...
Blood Pact - Wow. _Major_ changes for Vicki - both in perception and physically! This is the one with her mother as zombie/Frankenstein's monster. Not cheerful, but very powerful. ( )