ARC Review: A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1) by Pamela Palmer

My ratings: 3 out of 5 stars
Quinn has been weird lately. She thinks she can see fragments of scenes from the past. Old crumbling houses and dusty roads deserted by everything living. One day while trying to look for his brother Zack’s friend, they manage to get themselves into the world that Quinn keeps seeing. They land into his unknown world and are attacked by vampires. Quinn is saved by a mysterious Italian vampire named Arturo by her brother is kidnapped by these vampires. Then she is told that is in Washington V.C, the Vamp City and that she is Arturo, the vampire’s slave.


“From the first moment she’d stepped into Vamp City, her fate had been sealed.”

 
Quinn, I found, was boring and uninteresting. She was understandably weak as anyone would be if they were thrown into Vamp City.
However, no matter how much I tried I could not like her. Her only redeeming quality was her attachment towards her brother Zack. As to why she found Arturo attractive is beyond me as she didn’t seem a shallow type to go ‘Whoa, he is handsome and dangerous so I like him”. Maybe she was a victim of the Stockholm syndrome. Her name kept throwing me off as I half of the book I kept getting confused between Zack and Quinn.

Arturo was the handsome vampire who saves Quinn for the other vampires trying to drink her dry. He was written as smart and sexy who had a Mediterranean look about him. He was supposed to be untrustworthy and unpredictable but to me he just seemed evil and two faced. I know what the writer was trying to do with a sketchy hero who would be straddling the lines between good and bad which we have seen in many Urban Fantasy as being highly successfully, for example, Barrons and Dorian. However, to me he felt like a creep and a hypocrite. He was a called the Snake and in all intent and purposes, he well and truly was one. He had the ‘I am what I am’ attitude but the things that he did under that cover were despicable.

Everyone loves a moral less degenerate but as soon as the hero sees the heroine or at least where she is concerned he should be quit being one. He was nice, sweet and gentle but it was all a facade to get into Quinn pants. I can understand it but even after all that she had been through right in front of him; he was such a sick person that he kept throwing her in danger. Even if he did rescue her a few times it was at what price? I don’t know why Quinn was attracted to him as he was creepy and their ‘affair’ if it could be called so, seems sick and disturbing. At first I could have understood but even after the events I still don’t think Quinn should have been so quick to forgive him. She didn’t learn from her mistakes and kept trusting him again and again.

My favourite character out of them all would be Zack and Kassius. Zack was funny in the beginning and felt very real. Whereas, Kassius was someone who should have been the hero who was kind, brave with an agenda of his own. He was a vampire but he that the traits of being a better person than Arturo. I’m hoping we get to see him more in the next book.

The ending was good and not what I expected. Near the end, I was thinking about not reading the next book in the series but the ending blew it out of the window. So even if it was disturbing and sick at times I would give the second book a try.

The story had a good narration, slow at times but it kept me on my toes. The story-line was unpredictable and it was difficult to guess what would happen next. I still had hopes that Arturo will redeem himself but he plunged even deeper in my mind. I suppose I am sadistic after all.

Regardless of the awful things I have said above, the setting and the world was very unique and interesting. The Era recreated by the author took me back in time and the gritty story-line was right up my street. I disliked the main characters but I still have hopes from them. Quinn would probably have more power than she realises and kick Arturo’s ass and I am hoping Arturo will get better and turn out to be an okay hero or perhaps both.

In short, a new dark and gritty Urban - Fantasy, suspense and betrayal at every corner, with a great setting and a new world.

Releasing on 29th May, 2012.

Arc provided by Avon.