Author: Laura Daleo
Genre: Fantasy, Vampires
Personal Rating: ⭐⭐ / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (2 out of 5 stars)
DISCLAIMER: I received a free copy of this book from the author for an honest review.
I picked this book up for review since it’s been a while since I read about vampires and I can still remember my fondness (and shame to admit it at that time, ahem) for the Morganville Vampire series when I read them back in high school. I barely remember the plot of the books now but reading the description for this book triggered those emotions and I thought I’d love to jump back into the vampire-human world again and see what’s up.
Description
In this book, we follow 20-year-old Claire Matthews as she returns home to find her parents murdered in their beds drained of blood. With her initial conversation with Detective Reynolds, they surmise that it must’ve been a vampire; meaning, a vampire broke The Vow between vampires and humans to stop the bloodbath between the two species. Her younger brother nowhere to be found, she embarks on a quest to infiltrate the vampires by volunteering in the Vampire Centers that supply the vampires blood to sniff for clues. There she meets another vampire, Connor, who seems determined to help her see her mission through.
A series of questionable vampire characters would lead her through clues and adventure from there.
Review
The book started out with the inscription of The Vow – the agreement that allowed humans and vampires to peacefully coexist. When it ended with “Defiance of the vow by either race will render such truce null and void. If such a time should ever come, God help us all,” I felt tiny goosebumps as I was excited to see how the characters’ lives or their world will ripple with that warning in mind. Unfortunately, I found the material lacking in substance.
First off, the characters had no development or dimensions. The protagonist, Claire, had no defining character aside from being impulsive and childish. She immediately suspects the first shady vampire she interacts with. For some reason, every vampire finds her alluring because she’s beautiful. I waited for a reasonable explanation why vampires had such weakness with blondes with blue eyes to justify their magnetism to her… but nope, apparently she was just special and THAT beautiful without a deeper explanation why. I guess that moved the plot along so she can get any information and help she wants without question? I don’t know.
All of the other characters fell flat too. Connor was so taken with her the first time they laid eyes on each other that he sang… he sang in the waiting room in front of other vampires acting like a teenager despite being hundreds of years old. Of course, the other vampires cheered and whistled. He literally said “I-I can’t explain it. I feel linked to you, like our souls are connected somehow” and that doesn’t have any deeper lore at all in the book; it’s just an instant romance.
The rest of the side characters were just succumbing to her whims so there weren’t even side characters I can gush about. Detective Reynolds felt the need to be responsible for her and let her off the hook for law violations for some unknown reason. God knows it wasn’t because Claire was kind to him because she was anything but that to him in their limited interactions. Gabriel, the ancient vampire who owns the club was supposed to be this scary, selfish vampire, surprisingly offered to stay behind in a cabin just to wait for Claire’s brother even though he doesn’t care and lets Claire continue to have the upper hand in their exchanges despite being powerful and claims has no respect for The Vow. The girls in the Vampire Centers were straight-up catty for no reason and one girl threatened her right away to stay away from Connor because “he’s mine” and literally serves no other purpose than to let the reader know how desirable Connor was. I just found myself asking “why?” every time a character does something out of the ordinary, especially when they declare support to Claire. Their motivation to help her wasn’t really established that deep and she didn’t really earn them either. Even the revelation of the The Priest’s reason on why he gave her the map fell so flat. Why was the map even considered the Priest’s most prized possession? If it was because of Victoria’s location, it was pointless because she left right after her interaction with Claire. Why was her location important to the Priest and why a map if she Victoria can just relocate at any time?
Second, the flow of the plot just felt off. The things I thought were going to be significant – volunteering in the vampire centers, and the Vow itself – didn’t pan out to be as important as they could’ve been. I would’ve liked it better if Claire also befriends the girls in the vampire centers so she had both humans and vampires working together. It would’ve felt more symbolic even if the human friends had tiny parts in the schemes. The plot twist regarding Claire’s family could’ve also been relished more. It could’ve been this big revelation that affected the Vow itself; like an underground society of vampire hunters and vampire hunters waging this civil war against each other. But no, it was just some valid reason to deliver the biggest plot twist of the book – who killed them.
Third, the romance itself was a little bizarre. All of a sudden Connor’s in love with Claire. There were attempts to build deeper connections in some of their conversations about their past but the tension just wasn’t there. There were also attempts to banter to establish a playful relationship but it was just… off. They had this whole fight that served no other purpose than to let Claire jump into danger without him and get hospitalized so they can … have that conversation about how important they are to each other??? I’m not sure.
Conclusion
There were some elements of this I really like, the story just didn’t go as deep as I expected it to be. The plot twists were actually really clever, they could’ve just been executed better to create a lasting imprint. Perhaps if I read this when I was younger I would’ve liked it. With the right age group, this can be an entertaining read.
The Stray Reader 
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