A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer

“Another person has been reported missing in downtown D.C. in a string of disappearances that has police baffled. This brings the total number reported missing in the past six weeks to twelve. This last incident is believed to have occurred near George Washington University.”

And so it begins....

The Story:

Vampires live only for lust and pleasure in the eternal twilight of Vamp City. But the city's magic is dying. The only person who can restore it? A beautiful woman from the mortal world...one who knows nothing of the power she wields.

Washington, V.C. is the backdrop of Pamela Palmer’s latest series, Vamp City. It’s a world on a different plane than ours, a duplicate of Civil War era Washington, D.C., supposedly created as a place where vampires, werewolves, and other immortals, could live in their version of peace. No sunlight, no laws but their own, able to hunt, enslave, torture and kill humans without fear of retribution. A true Vampire Utopia.

But even utopias have a dark side, and Phineas Blackstone, the powerful wizard the vampires had paid to create their dark city, had engineered a brilliant one—a death trap finally sprung two years ago. The moment the magic began to fail, all vampires within the city’s boundaries had become instantly caught, unable to escape. Soon, the sunbeams from the real world had begun to break through—slowly, at first, then more and more frequently until it became clear that their world was dying. And with it, every soul trapped within—vampire, werewolf, and immortal human alike.

Only by renewing Vamp City’s magic would they be saved.

Quinn and her brother Zack accidentally land in Vamp City, and it doesn’t take long for the Vampires residing there to figure out that there's much more to Quinn than meets the eye. In fact, unbeknownst to her, she’s a powerful sorceress who might just be Vamp City’s final hope for survival. But as the days go on and Quinn, who's being held as a slave, sees the world for the barbaric place it is, she starts to wonder if maybe it wouldn’t be better if Vamp City died, after all. The only problem is that Zack is also being held prisoner, and Quinn knows if V.C. dies, so will he.

My Thoughts:

Pamela Palmer is a name I frequently see running through my friends’ feeds on Goodreads, and always with high praise and impressive ratings. I actually own several books in her Feral Warriors series, but haven’t gotten around to reading them, yet. Well, after reading A Blood Seduction  and getting a taste of her writing, that’s going to change, and change soon.

This world Ms. Palmer has created has a decidedly Urban Fantasy feel about it, but the actions of the characters living in there make it a dark paranormal story. It's brutal, edgy, barbaric, and there are scenes of sexual violence, so anyone sensitive to things of this nature should consider themselves forewarned.

Arturo, the so called "hero" in this book, is one nasty, backstabbing, unfeeling ass. He reminds me of Anne Stuart's Ice heroes in his uncaring, selfish machinations. Truth be told, I'm not sure he's redeemable, but only time will tell.

I truly enjoyed Quinn. She's strong, smart, independent, devoted, caring... she really is a great heroine. I'm excited to see how things with her play out in the next book, A Kiss of Blood.

Fans of dark fantasy and paranormal romance will definitely enjoy this series, but be aware - this has an unresolved HEA.

The Bottom Line:

I love Paranormal Romance, especially vampires and shifters, but let's be honest here - the genre has been done to death. It's not often I run across a world as unique and compelling as Ms. Palmer's Vamp City is, so you can bet this is a series I'll keep following. It's fast paced, gritty, sexy, and downright disturbing at times, and I am thrilled to have found these books!

Note: The descriptions and quotes I used are taken from both A Blood Seduction and A Kiss of Blood.

Books in the Vamp City series, so far:

Dark Predator by Christine Feehan

Dark Predator is the 22nd installment in the Carpathian series and I just not sure how I feel about the book. I can understand why some will be disappointed in it, and while I definitely enjoyed it, this wasn’t exactly the story I had anticipated. I’ll try to explain.

Zacarias was, in my opinion, perfect. He was true to what I would expect from a Carpathian who is as ancient as he is. He’s kept himself at a distance from his brothers and from modern civilization as a whole and he really is a loner, in every sense of the word. Physically, mentally, emotionally… he’s a man who embraces solitude. Because of that I can see how he would have no idea, whatsoever, what a modern woman would be like. How independent they are, how self sufficient. They’re no longer the shrinking violets in need of protection that they used to be and are more capable of taking care of themselves. Had he been around more, he’d know that they had to “evolve” in order to survive, and this is especially true of the Carpathian women.

For the most part, Marguarita seemed to have a foot in both worlds. She was thoroughly modern and self sufficient, and yet she seemed to know exactly what Zacarias needed and why, and had no problem accommodating him. She accepted him for the male he is, and while she tried to help him see things through her eyes, she didn’t resort to the kinds of ridicule that some of the females in the stories have when they met their lifemates, and I respected her for that. BUT, I never got the feeling that she was surprised, or honored, to be Zacarias’ lifemate, and that’s something I really had expected.

Regarding the story itself, there didn’t seem to be as much action, or overall plot resolution or progression as there has been in the last couple of books, and that surprised me. The first ½ of Dark Predator seemed entirely focused on Marguarita’s and Zacarias’ relationship. Normally that would be great, but the problem is that because Marguarita pretty much did whatever Zacarias wanted, there wasn’t a lot of page time devoted to the relationship building - that struggle for independence and acceptance that normally occurs in this series. I didn’t mind that Marguarita didn’t fight and argue, not at all, because she was true to her nature. True to the woman she’d been raised to be. She was still a strong female, but she was exactly the old fashioned kind of woman Zac needed for his Lifemate. But with that lacking in Dark Predator, the relationship building seemed uneventful to me.

And what happened to the celebration we always see when a male finds his lifemate!? There was nothing… just… nothing. This is Zacarias we’re talking about! Why didn’t we see his brothers celebrating life with him! And how very sad that, even though he has his lifemate, he’s still so alone. If there’s one thing I want out of the next book, it’s to see Zacarias and his brothers able to be together, to be a family again.

So, as I said, I really enjoyed the story, but I have to be honest and tell you that I didn’t love it, and that makes me very sad. Zacarias deserved a story with depth, passion and intensity, and in my opinion, he didn’t get it.