Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Bloodline
SERIES: (The Memoirs of a Vampire Book 1)
AUTHOR: Joel Abernathy
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 58,000 words
RELEASE DATE: June 3rd , 2021
BLURB:
Fate made me an immortal. The thirst made me a monster.
But I never truly lost my soul until I lost him.
Enoch. My missing half. The only creature whose depravity could rival my own. He stole this wicked curse from my veins and left me broken in his quest for the power I swore I would never pass on to another.
I hate him. I love him. And I’m doomed to live the rest of my days apart from my wretched child, knowing every bit of chaos he brings into this world is my doing.
If I kill Enoch, I condemn us both.
If I let him live, I condemn the world.
I do not know whether this is my last confession, or the most blasphemous love story ever told, but either way, this account is the truth.
The memoirs of a vampire are not for the faint of heart, but I do not tell my story to commemorate a life well lived. I tell it because the beginning of my story is what marks the end of everything.
Bloodline is the first book in a series as told by the vampire Marcellus. This is a full-length MM romantic fantasy that contains violence, vampiric angst, and a hard, bloody road to the HEA. This series is a slow burn and heavy on the enemies-to-lovers trope. Highly recommended for fans of “Vampire: The Masquerade” and Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles.”
REVIEW:
Any fair review of this book must start with a warning: This is the first in a series. There’s no happily ever after in most vampire stories, but this one raises those stakes by having no ending at all. It just builds to a crescendo and then stops. Throughout the book, Marcellus mentions that he doesn’t know how to to end his sad life story. Apparently the author hasn’t figured it out yet, either.
In this new variation on the vampire mythos, Marcellus sort of creates himself after an accident of chance allows him to kill the vampire that planned to feed on him. Marcellus had been a beautiful lad who’d become little more than a sex slave in a Roman military camp. He never encounters any vampires better briefed than himself and quickly discovers two things: any (post conversion) injuries he sustains heal quickly, but the vampire responsible for his creation scarred his face and those wounds will never heal.
Marcellus is not your standard vampire in other ways as well, his heart still beats and he shares some other human traits not generally attributed to vampires.
This book falls somewhere between typical vampire tales and science fiction. It’s an engrossing read and the pages just flew by. I loved it when the story seemed to suggest that in this version of the mythos, that vampires become more vampire-like and less human by acting inhumanely. Since Marcellus refrains from feeding on humans as much as he does, he retains sparks of humanity that the vampires he encounters later do not. I found this to be a fascinating take on the genre (particularly the post-apocalyptic post 2nd millennial aspects) but at times Marcellus’s whining did remind me a lot of Louis in the Lestat tales.
I’m not sure how I’d classify this tale. It’s certainly engaging (I read most of it in a single night) It’s certainly not M/M erotica, as very little time is spent dwelling on the more carnal aspects of the story. It’s also not a typical M/M romance. Marcellus does have a few loves in his long existence. (I’m not sure he’d call it a life) But precious little time is spent dwelling on those aspects either. Unsurprisingly, given the genre, more prose is spent on blood-play than in any novel I’ve previously read.
Several times Marcellus describes a vampiric existence as a curse. The vampire enjoys the feeding, but is left with an unsatisfied, undiminished need for more. In that respect, given where this tale stops, this is a truly vampiric novel.
RATING: 
3½ Hearts (and at least 1 curse for leaving us hanging)
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