Customer Reviews

Blood Song

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found this a difficult review to write because there were many things I really loved about this book. Deciding between 3 or 4 was tough. In the end I've gone with three, because while the bones are great the flesh just isn't there.

Celia Graves is a bodyguard in a world where magic parallels technology and the history of magic is taught in college courses. The book gets off to an achingly slow start but quickly gathers steam. If you can get past the first chapter it really does get better. By the second chapter Celia is demonstrating her mixed competence as a bodyguard and getting set up to die. Instead of an untimely demise, she's turned into an "abomination."

Celia spends the majority of the book bouncing from one hostile encounter to the next. People want to kill her because she looks like a vampire, or because she's involved in international political markets, or because she just really frosts every female out there.

Blood Song suffers from a plot that at times is nearly incoherent. There's just too much that the authors tried to cram in - on occasion with a crowbar. It's nice that they don't feel it necessary to force feed you the plot, but very little is actually explained and everything is a mystery. Even by the end, there remain more loose ends then woven threads. You never do discover how the bad guys killed her best friend or even if they did for certain. There are some romantic threads that are picked up but nothing really happens with them. There's an ex-fiance that Celia can't move out of will-she-or-won't-she.

There are too many characters with loosely defined traits and it makes it things a confusing muddle to try and remember whose who. Why do we care about her defense attorney who is in all of six paragraphs or so and has no crucial role in the plot?

Celia herself is an example of the issues that plague the novel. She's all over the place. She's a woman who worries about being too girly and feminine, yet she drives a Miata. She doesn't have one major childhood trauma. She has a bucketful: the queen of pathetic mothers, a murdered sister, an implied sexual assault, and a dead-beat dad - just to get started. She's a bodyguard, but couldn't care less about probing into the lives around her. She knows almost nothing about her own supposed best friends. It makes her seem more then a little self-centered, but her actions don't support this. Celia goes out of her way to save people she's just met like the kid at the pharmacy. She has no idea how to fight, even though it's how she makes her living.

The last could be an author/editor snafu. Bad guys are able to draw delicate weapons from beneath coats even though they are in the midst of a brawl. A home gas line that has been broken seconds before is somehow in danger of exploding - even worse the broken line is outdoors where the gas would dissipate faster then it could escape. These are easily explained by authorial mistakes or a lack of research.

On the other hand the authors do some things exceptionally well. The human condition side of the story is very well done and much of the supporting cast shines (when you know which person has that name). There is a lot going on in the book and something for everyone to love. Once the story gets going it rolls right along to the climactic finish. Sadly, the ending is rushed. It's like the word count had hit its max and any and all connecting fibers of the story needed to be cut to save space.

Only one time earlier this year (out of hundreds of books) have I ever been impressed enough to write a review......Until this book. This is my second review ever, and it was because I was so surprised and impressed with it. I won't go into detail about the book but I will tell everyone that this book is one of my new favorites. I would very much put this book / story / style next to ones like Mercy Thompson, Sookie, Illona Andrews's series, Friday Night Bites, Jane Yellowrock, and Shelly Laurenston. It was a perfect style, possible romance, fast paced, and felt like a light and easy read but at the same time intense with many twists and changes. It tugged just right. I have already put the next book on my pre-order and have added this author to my list. P.S. The ending does not leave you hanging but it does give you a peek into the next one:)!

This book made me think of early Anita Blake at first, maybe better. The focus was squarely on the monster hunting. There was sexual tension, but it wasn't a big part of the book. When our heroine gets turned into an abomination, partly vampire and partly human, sure she gets super strength, but she also gets many weaknesses of a vampire, at least to some degree. In general her transformation causes far more problems than it gives her the power to solve. Maybe there are occasionally too many details about what people are wearing, how they smell, and what the decor is like, but all in all it was decent brain candy, if not at the level of Jim Butcher or Kelley Armstrong.

In the second half, things started to fall apart a bit. A major plot thread was resolved unceremoniously "off screen" without our heroine being involved. Then I got to the part that makes me fear for future books in the series. There's really no way to talk about this without spoilers for events near the very end of the book, so stop reading now if you aren't ok with that.

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It turns out that our heroine was not a regular human before she was an abomination: she is actually a siren, also. Subconsciously, she has been using her power to call men to do her will. Ultimately, this is how she saves herself- not with her super strength or her habit of carrying a virtual arsenal. By calling on all the men she knows who can help. If it were just a psychic connection to her friends it could be ignored if the ones whom she called happened to be male, but since the power is sexually specific it makes it impossible to ignore the sexist implications of her still needing the men in spite of everything. On the other hand, she inadvertantly antagonizes women unless they are lesbians or infertile for one reason or another. First of all, do we really need another series that suggests women can't really be friends? This book started off well in that regard; our heroine even feels sorry for her best friend's mother because she has never had a close female friend. But then it turns out that she can only have female firiends if they are biologically immune. And what's the logic behind the immunity? Her power doesn't seem to affect lesbians, because although her best friend was one, her lover couldn't stand her. So if she doesn't have power over lesbians, are they immune because they aren't attracted to the men she does have power over? But post-menopausal and otherwise infertile heterosexual women can still be attracted to, love or lust after those men, so why aren't they affected? Something very weird happens to the sexual politics of this book once the siren twist is revealed, and I don't think I'm comfortable with it.

Blood Song, by Cat Adams

"Blood Song," featuring tough bodyguard Celia Graves, is the first in a new urban fantasy/paranormal series. Celia is at first a "vanilla" human - no magical abilities - but quickly becomes an abomination when a bodyguard gig goes horribly wrong.

Celia has to quickly learn to deal with her new existence as a cross between a vampire (bat) and a human; she has supernatural abilities such as quicker healing, but also weaknesses such as craving blood. If that wasn't enough, she's in danger from her sire, the vampire who turned her into an abom, and also under fire from a deadly demon. While Celia's willing to accept some help from her friends, she's also immensely stubborn and determined to do all she can on her own, especially when one of her friends supposedly commits suicide. Add in a world full of magic, vampires, werewolves, clairvoyants, militant priests, and an ex boyfriend, and you've got quite a mix.

I didn't quite like "Blood Song." The story was good enough, but I never fully identified with or liked Celia. She reminded me of plenty of other urban fantasy female main characters, with the same sort of wit and attitude. Maybe it was the first person narration that bothered me - I'm not sure. Or it could've been the large cast of characters; by the end of the book I'd forgotten a few names, and had to look them up to remember who everyone was. Or it could've been the plot itself - I thought "Blood Song" dragged on a little too long. I don't regret reading the book, I just think it could've been a little better.

3/5.

Just reading the flap, the story seems to be really interesting. But when you try to read the story you find out...there is no story and there is no goal. It's very erratic and disorganized. Toward the middle of the book you can't remember half the characters and you have no idea why some were introduced, because the author(s) never take them anywhere. For example, near the beginning a character named "Johnson" is brought in. There seems to be some connection, maybe a little attraction? And then he disappears (literally) and you never see him again. He's mentioned very briefly later, but he is no longer a part of the story, it's like he was forgotten. But then the author(s) will spend an inordinate amount of time describing a room, a bedroom, a bathroom. This was a hard book to read, I sincerely did not like it and was happy when it was over.

It is easy to see that this is the start of a series, and yet I felt there should have been more answers as well as the feeling of much left unsaid. That left me with an empty feeling in my reader's chest. I like tough female characters but this one is abit too hard for me. I also found that she is not the kind of person to have such close female friends. At the begining of the book she is supposed to be so close to several female friends, later we find she does not make female friends easily. I have trouble having one dear friend, and several more female aquaintances. I also felt she did not have a significiant other, although several are introduced in the book. Generally, she just did not appeal to me.

Celia is a bodyguard. She takes a job guarding a Prince and it goes to fubar. She wakes up and she has been partly changed to vampire. She is now an abomination. The rest of the book leads you on the journey to find out what has happened, introduce many and varied characters. Some are introduced some are not. The story is choppy and doesn't flow well. I had to go back and reread several parts to try to clarify what had happened. Even then I am left with many questions. Celia is left many times with her big fat mouth open. She needs to be brought down abit. I am amazed she has lived this long and that she has any friends.

The premise is good and these are good authors so maybe the next one will be more appealing to me. However, I would wait for the next one to start this series. If it is good you could always go back and get this one, but usually there is an attempt by the authors to tell you what has already happened. Anyway I would wait, this one costs $15.00, unless you buy it on Amazon.

Blood Song is the first in the new Blood Singer series by a new pen name, Cat Adams. This is my first novel by writing duo C.T.Adams and Cathy Clamp and I've been wanting to read this book ever since I heard about it last year.

The plot is supposed to be a simple one - personal bodyguard and plain "vanilla" human, Celia Graves, gets attacked while protecting a foreign prince and ultimately changed into an "abomination" (or partially changed vampire) Celia has three days to find her maker before he finds her. However, the blurb lies. That's only half the story and with so much going on in Blood Song, it's hard to tell you what the story really is. And while I'm usually all for fast pace reads that throw you straight into the action, this time around, it made me feel lost. I actually had to read back several times thinking that I must have missed something. Another thing that bothered me were the words "did I forget to mention I can...?" At the beginning of a book, I wouldn't find this phrase that strange, but when it's delivered half-way through, it leaves me with the impression of an impulse out-of-the-blue decision. Especially when the a fore mentioned is quickly followed by a need to use said ability.

Celia Graves herself was far to cocky, a trait we normally see in our uf heroines, but this one has no delivery. She's suppose to be this kick-ass chick - and in her field, I'm quite positive she probably is - but we don't actually get to see this at anytime. Now, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt here. So much is thrown at her in such a short amount of time, I can see her needing time to adjust, but I grew tired of hearing about her awesomeness. As for her background, I get reminded of the saying "you talk a lot but don't say anything" Situations from her past are mentioned a lot, but it's like pulling teeth on finding out any real information. Her best friend, Vicky, is one of these instances and someone I was looking forward to learning more about, but we're never given the opportunity.

The secondary characters are marginally better and a little more in depth, but I found it hard to figure them out in relation to Celia. First we have Emma, Celia tells us that the two don't get along and are somewhat enemies, but they're found later laughing and talking it up like best friends. Emma's brother and were-wolf, Kevin, has his own story and might have been a part of the reason for Celia's attack, but it's hard to decipher. And with the way Kevin and Celia interact with one another, you get the since of major feelings between the two, but... Kevin has a girlfriend. Bruno, mage and Celia's ex, has come back into her life with the idea of protecting Celia. There's a lot of flirtation between them and what are supposed to be old, raw hurt feelings from the past, but the only emotion that seems to be elicited is horniness.

All in all, I actually did like Blood Song despite my not so positive review. I think I just expected so much more than I was given. The ending has a mild cliff hanger that I'm curious enough about to read the second in the Blood Singer series, Siren Song. And if your looking for quick urban fantasy read with traditional vampire lore, I would recommend borrowing Blood Song from a friend or library.

Celia Graves is a bodyguard and she is on a job protecting a Prince. It is whilst on this particular job that Celia is attacked by vampires. She wakes to find herself strapped down on a table in a lab where she is told that she is a half vampire after nearly being turned. Celia must now find out wo tried to turn her all vampy and who attacked the Prince.

Now this book sounded right up my street and I must admit I loved the cover too but I was disappointed with it. The beginning started out great so much so that I have pre-ordered the next two books but it went down hill. I haven't decided yet if I like Celia even after finishing the book and the other characters didn't really grab me either. It must be traumatic being half vamp but Celia cried a lot and I mean a lot. The vamps were meant to be very old and tough but it seemed very easy to dispose of them no real big fights scenes. I didn't take to the dream sequences where we learn about Celia's past and there were parts of the story that should have taken at least a chapter to write but were covered in two pages. I would like to give this book 3 stars.

In theory this seems like the kind of book I would like. Bodyguard Celia Graves takes a lucrative but ill-starred assignment to protect the prince of a small East European kingdom, and when job falls apart ends up half transformed into a vampire. She still has her soul, and most of her memories and can take daylight in small doses with sunscreen, but she has fangs, superstrength and bloodlust.

Known as an "abomination" she must now...

Well, there's the rub. It's never entirely clear what she must now do. Maybe it's find and kill her "sire" before he either completes her transformation or kills her. Maybe it's find out who killed her best friend. Maybe it's untangle the her onetime employer's homeland politics. Maybe it's deal with her layers of psychological trauma and keep from being put down by the "good guys". Or maybe not, as she doesn't really seem to spend much time on any of these goals.

Helping and hindering Celia as she tries to do whatever it is she's bent on is a large cast of poorly introduced and ill defined characters. It starts when we meet an old mentor of Celia's who is characterized in several largely incompatible ways within a few pages and then killed to absolutely no effect at all on the overall plot. Many other unnecessary characters are shoe-horned-in in the same fashion including some that I was never sure who they were ("El Jeffe"? Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions?).

BEYOND THIS POINT BE SPOILERS

As I intimated above, the plot jumps all over the place. For instance, the notion of Celia's sire is introduced, she meets him in dreams several times and we get a detailed description of how he looks and then instead of Celia tracking him down and confronting him, a minor character kills him offscreen. Similarly, a confrontation with an ancient female vampire is given a huge buildup and then she is dispatched in an almost offhand manner. There is also a big deal made of missed phone messages to a friend that seems to have no payoff. When Celia's best friend is killed, unique circumstances keep her from being notified until the next day, but then we also find out that the friend's lover (who had no such cirumstances) also did not find out.

Now, I must admit I read some of this book in a hospital waiting room, and that always makes a book worse, but most of it I didn't, and I considered it pretty mediocre before that point. A final revelation about Celia's heritage sets up the next book in the series, but I don't think I'll bother to seek it out.

Beautiful and incredibly tough, bodyguard Celia Graves lives in a world much like ours, except it is filled with supernatural creatures who are living openly among humans, some of whom have magical powers, too, including innate psychic powers and powers granted by being a witch or "mage." Other creatures making an appearance include ghosts, demons, werewolves, and vampires.

Celia has always seen herself as a "plain vanilla human," but as a highly paid bodyguard, she compensates for that by great training, a whole lot of advanced planning, and arming herself with expensive magically-enhanced clothing, equipment and weapons. Unfortunately, though all her skill and preparation helps keep her from getting killed outright, it doesn't entirely save her when an assignment guarding a Eastern European prince goes badly wrong. Her co-bodyguard is massacred and Celia is bitten but not killed by a vampire. As a result, she becomes part-vampire and part-human, a rarity called an "Abomination" by her society.

Celia is horrified by her situation, but even more concerned that it will ultimately get her locked up by human authorities--a fate in some ways worse than death for her due to an experience in her childhood of being kidnapped and tortured. If she ends up imprisoned by the human authorities keeping a watch on her, she will probably never get out, if they don't outright execute her due to her new super strength and lust for human blood causing her to kill someone. But that isn't her only problem. She is also being tracked by shadowy connections of her former prince client as well as multiple powerful vampires, including her maker.

Celia needs quiet and time to adjust to her new condition, but she doesn't have that luxury. It will be a miracle if she manages to even survive.

This is a compelling start to a new series. Celia is a strong protagonist and her situation is unique and enthralling. The story's take on vampires is particularly interesting, with an approach to their lore that is a solid combination of several main trends in handling vampires of the past 10 years or so. There are also multiple potential love interests in the story, including a gorgeous werewolf and Celia's ex-fiancé, a powerful mage, but no actual on-stage romance in this particular book. The action is constant and the book is so well written, it is a "couldn't put it down" read.

I highly recommend Blood Song to anyone who loves urban fantasy, particularly with vampires and werewolves in it.