Thursday, April 22, 2010

Review: Blood Memories


Blood Memories is the first book in the Vampire Memories series by Barb Hendee and a ROC Fantasy.

Book Blurb:

For ages, they have lived among mortal man, surviving in the shadows, hiding their true selves from the eyes of humanity - until now.

Eleisha Clevon is irresistibly pretty - with a mane of golden locks surrounding innocent hazel eyes and the face of a teen angel. But she is no angel. And she's far older than she looks. Like most vampires, she has a special gift. In her case, it's the ability to make men want to care for her. A few even survive the experience. Eleisha doesn't like to kill, but self-preservation comes first.

So when an old friend destroys himself by walking into sunlight right in front of her, Eleisha is shocked. And what she finds afterward points to how very sick of life her friend had become - piling drained corpses in the basement and keeping records of other vampires' real names and addresses. That's a problem.

Because now there are policeman on the case: two very special humans with some gifts of their own. They know who Eleisha is and, even more dangerous, what she is. But Eleisha realizes that being known and understood may have its attractions - even if it puts her and all her kind at risk.

Blood Memories was not my cuppa tea - another case of the book not quite living up to the back blurb.

Eleisha Clevon is over 100 year old - and she still does not know all the ins and outs of being a vampire. That - to me, is silly. How can a being 'live' for over 100 years and still be in the dark - literally - about the why's and what for's of vampireville?

I also didn't connect with the type of vampire she is - no fangs. She must completely rip the throat out of her victim to get to the blood - and that kills them - and gets really messy as well. Also, no preternatural strength - she is only as strong as a mortal woman would be. And the ability she does have is kind of sad.

The policeman Eleisha meets is Wade and he is a psychic psychologist - he is accustomed to being inside people's minds. But he has never had anyone get inside his mind until Eleisha. He becomes fixated - almost stalkerish in his determination to find the woman who was able to get inside his mind.

His partner Dom, on the other hand - has reason's of his own for finding Eleisha - and nothing good comes out of that.

All said - I give Blood Memories 2 out of 5 stars.

M

7 comments:

VampFanGirl said...

Man, what a shame. Such a beautiful cover but a disappointment of story. Bummer too, cause I would have bought this book.

Thanks for the warning, Michelle!

:) VFG

Blodeuedd said...

Sounds cool like you said, but then when you give us more details, well not so cool anymore, too bad :(

Anna said...

Blood Memories was DNF for me. But I love the Hendee's Noble Dead series.

Michelle Greathouse said...

VFG,

I like the cover too. :) The book just was not my cuppa.

B,

I hate it when that happens. Looking forward to reading a book - based on the blurb - only to get the book and it just not be what was expected.

Anna,

Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have even ordered it. LOL Good thing I got it from pbs.

Have a great day ladies.

M

bittenbyromance said...

Great review! I agree with VPG the cover is nice, but thanks for the warning.

Anna said...

It was such a long time ago when I read it, kinda forgot about it until you posted your review. Sorry! Plus someones DNF is someone elses 5 Star baby.

But I'll make sure to give ya the heads up next time. ;)

Candace said...

Thanks for the honest review. It does sound rather ridiculous and one I'd better avoid. The blurb did sound good so I'm glad I read your review before I had to suffer through this one!