Tuesday 13 September 2011

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: House of Comarre 1: Blood Rights - Kristen Painter

Release Date: 15/09/11

SYNOPSIS:

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle's body bears the telltale marks of a comarre - a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility and control their hungers. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the darkness of the mortal world ...and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks. Chrysabelle's secrets, though, are about to put her life - and those around her - in even greater jeopardy. She possesses a powerful ring, the key to unlocking an ancient prophecy destined to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. A chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen threatens to reign unless she and Malkolm can stop the noble vampire behind the merciless plot.


REVIEW:

Whilst Kirsten is perhaps better known for her Romance titles from various E-Publishers, I get the feeling that this series, acquired by Orbit in the UK, is going to be the one to launch her to the reader market as a whole. It has decent pace, a dark world setting and when added to the authors own clever prose as well as dialogue makes this the start of a very interesting series.

As with other books in the genre it has vampires, ghosts, her own equivalent of a Were as well as developing other aspects but for me, it’s the characters that are key to driving the title forward as this gang of racial misfits fight their own battles to come out stronger as a whole. It’s clever, it has plenty of twists and when added to a bigger picture hinted under the subtext, it’s a series that I think will surprise more than a few readers. Watch out for books two and three in the coming months.


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