Monday, July 23, 2012

Book Review: Reign of Blood

Title - Reign of Blood
Author - Alexia Purdy
Genre - Young Adult Paranormal
Series - Book 1 in Reign of Blood Series
Publication - April 29th 2012

Synopsis
"Never tease anything that wants to eat you. My name is April Tate and my blood is the new gold. Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother.  The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I'm just hoping to make it to the next sunrise..."

In a post-apocalyptic world, a viral epidemic has wiped out most of the earth's population, leaving behind few humans but untold numbers of mutated vampires. April is a seventeen-year-old-girl who lives in the remains of Las Vegas one year after the outbreak. She has become a ferocious vampire killer and after her family is abducted, she goes searching for them. What she finds is a new breed of vampire, unlike any she has seen before. Unsure of whom she can trust, she discovers that her view of the world is not as black and white as she once thought, ans she's willing to bend the rules to rescue her family. But in trying to save them, she may only succeed in bringing her fragile world crashing down around her. 

Opening Sentence
Never tease anything that wants to eat you.

Review 
I received this book as part of The Nexus read and review program. A year ago a vampire outbreak wiped out most of the humans, leaving behind a savage vampire. Aprils family raced for the mountains before the outbreak got bad, while other's weren't so lucky. For the last year April has trained going from a carefree teenager to a vampire hunter. Life is simple, protect her family, train, gather supplies in Las Vegas during the day. 

Over the last year April has become a lethal fighter easily wiping out all vampires she's come across, but they aren't the vampires in books and movie. These vampires have lost the intelligence in their eyes, their humanity is gone all that is left is a savage shell that hunts humans. Having long ago killed almost all the humans, they wiped out most of the animals as well, not they are withered starving creatures. 

Suddenly a routine trip goes wrong, April finds herself alone, her family taken, something that the vampires she's been killing wouldn't do. Now she has to find them, before it's too late. With the setting sun she's forced back to the cabin in the woods, doomed to wait out the night before she can continue her search. April is intent on finding her family, as the last of the humans shes alone against the masses of feral vampires, but with some new friends, even a chance at love they will risk it all to save her family. 

I loved this book. I feel that the book is well written and did an excellent job of drawing me in with a prefect balance between action and emotions. I've always been a sucker for vampires, but that was before the sparkly twilight vampires too. This one book has a unique twist on the vampires their are three different mutations of the vampires virus. There is a good amount of  action it just draws you in right from the start, plus April is so likable that I found I wasn't reading I was thinking about April. As I read I feel like I was there too, with April and I love a book that can make me feel like I'm there, that's the best part. 

 I like April's character she's your girl next door who enjoys her trips to the sporting goods store in hopes of finding new weapons. She watches videos to learn new fighting styles, and trains with all her weapons, though the machetes are her preferred for vampires. Guns are out because they can draw unwanted attention from other vampires, so April is well skilled in hand to hand combat. 

 The book is full of descriptions giving you the feel like your almost there with April on her journey. I enjoyed reading about the characters in the book, even the new ones the hybrids held the mystery for me. April meets a Rye a vampire hybrid who she connects with along the way. I like the vampire bonding in the story it's unique, and I liked that April wasn't alone. I also want more. 

1 comment:

  1. Great review! This book is going to the top of my TBR list :D

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