Blood Memories (Vampire Memories) (Paperback)

by Barb Hendee (Author)
Key Phrases: Barb Hendee, Lord William, Lady Katherine (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Eleisha Clevon is a fragile-looking teen with an angelic face. Actually, she is a 200-year-old vampire; her face, a lure for prey. She is also caretaker of the senile vampire William. When police find dead bodies in the home of an old vampire who commits suicide, Eleisha and William, seen in the vicinity, must flee. Seeking refuge in Seattle, Eleisha gets into the hunt for a vampire murderer. Flashbacks to Eleisha’s youth and her development as a vampire salt the search sequences in this mixture of solid action, high-quality characters, and plausible settings that launches the Vampire Memories series. --Frieda Murray

Product Description
A bold new series from the USA Today bestselling co-author of the Noble Dead saga.

Eleisha Clevon has the face of a teen angel, but she is no angel. Unlike most vampires, she doesn’t like to kill, but self-preservation comes first.

When an old friend destroys himself by walking into sunlight right in front of her, Eleisha is shocked. And what she finds afterwards points to how very sick of his existence her friend had become—piling drained corpses in the basement and keeping records of other vampires’ real names and addresses. That’s a problem.

Because now, there are policemen on the case: two very special humans with some gifts of their own. They know who Eleisha is, and, even more dangerous, what she is.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Roc Trade (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451462297
• ISBN-13: 978-0451462299
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #227,436 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpless, helpless..., August 7, 2004

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Blood Memories (Paperback)

For Eleisha life as a vampire has always been perplexing. She was made by a British lordling to care for William, who was turned in advanced senility and is now condemned to an eternity as a vampire with Alzheimer's. She and William are bundled of to America with little or no explanation, and only the good fortune of coming under the wing of Edward, another vampire enables them to survive. And then time passes...

Blood Memories opens 100 years later, when Edward, worn down by countless years of darkness, commits suicide. Suddenly Eleisha and William are cut loose again, and the spectacular death of Edward has drawn unwelcome attention. They are being hunted by humans, and wherever they flee, death follows. And in England, Julian, Eleisha's fearsome sire, becomes aware that all is not as it should be.

What makes this story is Eleisha's progress. Starting out as a vampire whose greatest power is the ability to appear helpless, she gradually comes into her own. In many ways, Barb Hendee cuts Eleisha free from the many ties that bind her, as she confronts each problem and learns from it. Blood Memories isn't a horror story; it is a vampire coming-of-age tale, if you can imagine such a thing. As such, there is as much focus on the personalities of the characters as there is on the action of the story.

As she does in the story itself, Eleisha at first attracts only sympathy from the reader. But gradually, as she develops, one becomes aware of her charm. Hendee, is the co-author of several other, more mainstream, vampire tales, starring a young dhampir. She has a knack for quickly building a character's presence, and so each of the cast stay in mind more than one would expect from a 'vampire tale.'

In the end I was caught up in the Eleisha's tragedies, mishaps, and mysteries, and elated by her victories. Coming from a small, independent publisher, and cursed with a rather lurid cover, this book exceeded my expectations in every way. If you are looking for a vampire story with more than one unusual twist, try this one out.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glittering Tapestry Tale, April 2, 2003

By	Kathleen Loughlin (oceanside, ca USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blood Memories (Paperback)

I started with 'Dhampir' and then had to get anything else Barb Hendee wrote. Im only sorry that there are only two books so far. A bit different then your average vampire tale. These are neither the good vampires, nor the naughty vampires. Perhaps the lost vampire might become a new genre. In Dhampire we play the human side, mostly. Or at least, mostly human. But a glimpse of the undead there reveals a great variation in vampires and the sides are drawn not between good and evil but simply for survival. In this book we go full scale on the vampire side, through the eyes of vampires who are yet ignorant of themselves and what they are. While in some books one becomes somewhat emeshed with the characters, Barb Hendee has the ability to bring you totally codenpendent on them. As with some authors, BH can use detail and description to bring the characters and their emotions alive without distracting the reader. In this case I was not just disapointed when the book ended, but actually rather annoyed. It's only in the hope of more books that I can recommend these

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More like 3.5 stars, June 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Blood Memories (Paperback)

Barb Hendee said that this was her 'first novel and it shows' and well... it shows.

While this book handled some great, and scarcely used, things like vampire suicide and senile vampires it didnt work in other areas.

The main villain, Julian, was never really talked about throughout the novel and then in the last 20 pages we are given the reason why he is evil. It seemed overly rushed and i never got the feeling of 'wow, he is one mean guy.' Plus the name Julian? Come on, i have read 6 different vampire authors use that name. Find some other names for bad vampires!
Also, i didnt quite care for the telepathic and psychometry (huh?) humans. Vampires make it fantasy enough but all the 'special' humans made it seem sci-fi too.

There are also some pretty obvious and bad grammatical errors for a book of this size. And the cover and back make this book look like a comic graphic novel when it is surprisingly mature with some minor sexual scenes and graphic violence. Dont let the comic book cover and back fool you into thinking this is a childrens romp...

But in the end i read this book in one day and enjoyed it pretty well. It has a decent storyline and keeps you interested. And i loved that comment on vampires not using elevators, in case it gets stuck and theyre trapped until the sun rises. Very witty!

I also recommend Dhampir by the Hendee's as it is a wonderful read. But i must admit that Barb plucked many names and instances from Blood Memories for use in that book...