Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Blood Rights

(House of Comarré)

Author: Kristen Painter

Publisher: Orbit, 2011

Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Goodreads

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

My Review:

      Chrysabelle has been accused of murder and like the guilty she has run away. But she didn’t do it! Now she’ll need the help of an outcast, a vampire cursed with killing anyone he drinks from. After an unwanted bond is created, they’ll have to work together to clear Chrysabelle’s name and saver her aunt. Along the way they’ll stumble onto a bigger plot, one that threatens to destroy the covenant that keeps the otherworld creatures from revealing themselves to the world. This fast pace thrilling story leaves no doubt that The House of Comarré trilogy has set off with a bang.

      At first I didn’t know what to make of Chrysabelle because the story sets off a bit slow, but as it progressed I was amazed by her. She just kept surprising me by how she was (personality wise), and by the extent of the skills she possessed. Even at the end she had a couple of aces up her sleeve that weren’t fully explained. Makes you wonder just what else cormarré can do.

Mal is just my type of book boyfriend—tormented, messed up, heart encased in ice, but still redeemable and worthy of love. In Mal’s case he really is tormented by the voices inside his head, part of a curse that attaches him to the spirits of his past victims. All the time he has to have a tight leash on the monster inside of him, and Chrysabelle’s presence just shatters that. I absolutely loved the relationship that built between them, one part hate, three parts yummy tension and restrained desire.

      There were many other characters as interesting as the main ones, but the villain wasn’t one of them. I kept skipping her chapters. However the different races of otherworld creatures were pretty amazing. There were some very unusual fae, and some pretty scary ones. And if they weren’t scary looking what they could do was sure scary. The ending was like a roller coaster ride, all thrilling twists and turns, and a bitter end only because the fun was over. I will tell you know, don’t be surprised to find yourself ordering Flesh and Bone (House of Cormarré 2 seconds after you’ve finished Blood Rights. This is what I did too ;)

Favorite Quotes:

A moment longer and he would go.

A whispery moan opened his eyes. She shifted half an inch, then lay still. He froze. Her palm flexed against his cheek, molding to the ridges of his face. Her fingers twined in his hair. He leaned into her carress, not caring what dream made her touch him like this. Pretending not to care she might be dreaming of her lost patron.

~

He turned.

Holy Hades.

The cormarré strolled toward him in nothing but two slips of white silk and a spacey smile. More white bundled her blonde hair in a messy knot. Somewhere inside him, buried under his black heart, the miniscule piece of him that remembered being a man woke up.

“I’ve been looking for you,” she said.

“I…” Forget it. He had nothing.