Nov 7, 2011

Book Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Blood Rights by Kristen Painter
(House of Comarré, #1)
Release Date: October 1, 2011
Publisher: Orbit; 416 pages

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarré—a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world…and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.


I randomly came across this book called BLOOD RIGHTS and by the cover, I was interested. So I opened up goodreads and checked out the synopsis. Needless to say, I bought the book and dove right in. Now, keep in mind, for a long time I put off any book dealing with vampires. Ever since Twilight, I just couldn’t look at vampires the same and so I avoided them all together. Big mistake on my part. I have since read many series (The Drake Chronicles, Black Dagger Brotherhood, The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices) that are either all about vampires or have them in there often. The House of Comarré series is no different. I have found a new love for vampires thanks to these series…

I was drawn into this story not just because of vampires but because of these comarré and their use for the noble vampires. They are humans raised to serve the noble vampires. Their skin is covered with golden marks/symbols; their blood is rich, powerful and replenishes quickly. Noble vampires pay a lot of money to get their comarré (or comar if they are male). Which brings us to Chrysabelle, who is out in the ‘real world’ for the first time after her patron is found dead. Murdered. All fingers are pointing to Chrysabelle and she needs to do what she can to find out who framed her as the murderer and why they would do that.

It doesn’t take her long to find Malkolm and I can’t say their first meeting went . . . peacefully. As she continues searching for help she is lead back to Malkolm and they both realize they could help each other. A deal is struck and our journey begins. Mal is of noble blood but is a disgrace to all noble vampires everywhere. He is the only vampire to kill its sire, in which he had been cursed. But one curse wasn’t enough for Mal, he was branded with a second curse – one, in which, if ever feeds from a vein, he will kill that victim. Every victim he kills he’s haunted by. Their voices in his head, names tattooed on his body. It’s hell for Mal every day and his last victim, Fionna haunts him in the flesh; sort of. Her ghost actually follows him wherever he goes.

Mal’s only friend is Maddoc, or more commonly known as Doc, who is a varcoli – werepanther. Doc is one of my favorite characters. He keeps it real. Keeps Mal in line, struggles with his own curse and also manages to fall in love with Fionna.

I love reading novels to read the love stories mixed in with the action and drama. The love between Mal and Chrysabelle is probably one of my favorite relationships I’ve read. Though, calling it a relationship is a bit of a stretch. Mal owns Chrysabelle’s blood rights but he refuses to drink from her vein because he doesn’t want to kill her. Understandable. But there is a downside for comarré if their patron doesn’t drink from their vein – they age, and eventually, they’ll stop replenishing their blood at the rate they do. The vampires saliva helps give the comarré a long life and therefore, worth their money. This brings us to a big problem with a solution that makes me squeal with joy. You ask, what is the solution? A kiss.

One of the biggest things that made me love this book, besides the amazing story & characters, was how this story was written. How it’s told from different characters perspective, especially Mal’s. You get to see the inner struggle he has with his thoughts and those of ‘his voices’. It really makes you take pity on this guy, who is supposed to be a monster. You also get to see the struggle with Mal and Chrysabelle and their ‘feelings’ toward each other. I really enjoy Kristen’s writing and after reading BLOOD RIGHTS, I definitely want to check out her other work.

I recommend this to anyone who is interested in adult fiction, especially the supernatural kind, but don’t worry – its not erotica. You probably think adult vampire fiction and automatically think the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward? The romance is nowhere near that steamy – but somehow satisfying. If you’re a fan of BDB and want to sink your teeth into some more (but different) vampires, this is the series you want to check out. If you’re a fan of YA supernatural stories but don’t mind a little big more intimacy, if you will – you should check this series out, as well.



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