Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Blood and Rain
SERIES: Blood #1
AUTHOR: Shira Anthony
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 280 pages
BLURB:
Adrien Gilbert has spent several lifetimes searching for the love he lost. Born in the 1800s into a clan of fabled vampire hunters, Adrien once wanted nothing more than to tend his family’s vineyard in southern France or read a good book. But Adrien’s peaceful existence ends abruptly when his older brother, François, is murdered. Bound by his hunter’s oath, Adrien sets out on a path that will forever change his life when he agrees to execute his brother’s killer, the vampire Charles Duvalier.
After months chasing the elusive Charles, Adrien reluctantly makes a bargain with Nicolas Lambert, an ancient vampire. Adrien will escort Nicolas to Paris for his marriage to a rival clanswoman, and Nicolas will help Adrien find Charles. Nicolas’s quiet strength and gentle heart soon convince Adrien that Nicolas is nothing like the vampires he has sworn to destroy. As the wedding date draws nearer, a force intent on destroying the fragile peace between the vampire clans threatens to tear apart both the vampire realm and the world of the hunters. To secure both past and future for those he loves, Adrien must find a way to stop the looming war between hunters and vampires. But first he’ll have to let Nicolas go.
REVIEW:
This book was kind of confusing to me, so I’m going to try to break the plot down a bit more than the blurb does, partly for myself and partly for this review. I found myself wanting to make notes as I went to try to keep track of it all!
In this world, there are vampires and hunters. The vampires are born or created, and there are older clans/families that have been around forever that are not the best of friends. The hunters are ruled by a council that was put in place years ago to monitor vampires and punish bad behavior. Not all vampires are bad, not all hunters are good. Hunters are born to their job, having special powers that make them stronger and able to fight vampires. The council sends warrants out to hunters, sending them out to kill vampires who have killed humans. Vampires drink blood but eat food as well, don’t seem to have an issue with daylight, and have some bad ass powers. The hunters seem to have some powers involving swords and magic too. There are also immortals, who are not really vampires, but are kind of like them, some drink blood, have even more bad ass powers. There are ancient vampires as well, who also have bad ass powers. All of these various people are all mixed up in this story, the big plot of which is vampires vs hunters vs other vampires, I think!
Caught up in the midst of this are four men, Francois and Adrien who are hunters and brothers, Charles a made vampires, and Nicholas an ancient vampire (although he’s not really old).
Charles is a lonely vampires traveling around France, who sees Francois near his family vineyard and flirts with him a bit. Francois is quite smitten with Charles, and would like to be with him, even though Charles is a vampire and Francois is a hunter. Charles know he’s bad for the sheltered Francois and tries to do the good thing and leave. Francois follows him, they talk a little, kiss a little, and Charles bites him going too far, and has to transform him in to a vampire. This somehow creates a second body for Francois (totally didn’t get how that happened!), the old human body dying and being found by his family, the new vampire body being taken by Charles.
Adrien, Francois’ younger brother, is hired by the hunter council to find and execute the vampire that killed his brother. Off he goes in search of Charles. He’s totally not prepared to do this, and spends some time wandering around trying to find Charles, who doesn’t seem to really be hiding…. Adrien is then told he’s to go escort Nicholas, the brother of one of the ancient vampire clan leaders, to his arranged marriage to the neice of another ancient vampire clan leaders, in exchange for help locating Charles. Adrien goes to pick up Nicholas and off they go to look for Charles. Of course some flirting happens between them and…
So we have Charles and Francois, and Adrien and Nicholas as the main couples of this story. There is a big cast here, the main four, but the heads of the two clans, the hunters, the council, there are some other family members, all thrown in the mix and I got lost a couple of times. There is a lot going on. A big struggle between the clans, some bad hunters trying to take over the council, vampires, hunters, immortals, ancients, it was all confusing honestly! There is a lot of history and information tossed about, I almost felt like I needed a glossary to keep track of who was who and what they could do, and why. They all have powers and fight with swords and magic, ice and fire. It was cool but overwhelming!
Basically I liked the book and the plot, but I wish it had been a little longer and we’d gotten all of the information slower. It was good but so much came at me so fast I couldn’t always remember what had happened. I liked the four main characters, but with the big plot and switching perspectives it was hard to get to know them. I would have liked a little more time with them. I don’t know how the history and information could have better been given to us, but it was fast and I lost track. There were a couple of times that I had to back up and reread something because I felt like I had missed some information. Especially at the beginning, it starts with Adrien and a guy he picks up in a bar, then jumps back a hundred and some odd years to Charles and Francois. I was expecting Adrien and Nicholas from the blurb and didn’t know who Charles was and why we were spending so much time with him. It eventually does all hook up, but it was confusing for a bit.
I am a fan of paranormal romance novels and vampires in particular, I like seeing different authors interpretations of the traditional aspects of vampire myths. There were some changes in this world, I liked that just fine. I mostly liked the writing, although I wish things had been a little slower so I could have had time to let it all sink in… but not too slow! I don’t know exactly what I wanted, it was just all so much so fast. I liked the characters, but there wasn’t a lot of sex and I think that creates a stonger bond between couples. I missed that physical connection. I liked the epic-ness of the plot, and the world Shira has created. Overall I think it was a good book, and I look forward to reading the next in the series!
RATING: 
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