The Blood that Bonds

I have no idea how long this book took me to read!  Hubby's been on vacation this week and I think I started it last week but am not sure.  This book was not all that short, but I have a feeling I just kind of flew through it.  The book that I'm talking about is called The Blood that Bonds by Christopher Buecheler.

This is the first book for a series from this writer and I have to say that I am really impressed with the quality of the writing and the story.  You have fantasy fiction and a pretty good story along with interesting character names; the main character being named Two (yes, like the number).  :-)  :-)  I can see how this kind of book may have more of a female reader following because of the romance aspect, but I actually like the way it was written.  I don't remember reading any of the super uber cheezy cliche phrases that so many writers overuse, and though still a bit explicit with the beedroom parts, not as bad as some other books that I've read.

Of course, I have to complain about something, right?  The book probably could have had a better editor or had a final editing before publishing.  In many areas the wrong word was used or it looked like the writer started to say something but changed it - forgetting to delete some of the original phrase.  There was also the part that kept getting on my nerves... Two's lover, Theroen, how old was this guy?  Sometimes the numbers just didn't add up.  Half a millennium? or century?  Both were used at one point.  But considering that one of his "sisters" was 140 years old, I think the half a century was a typo.  Come on, I'm a former accountant, counting and adding is second nature to me so give me a break!  :-)  :-)  Also, one word that I think was misused (and that gets on my nerves too) was the use of millennium.  The writer used the phrase "half a millennia" - but the word millennia is plural for millennium - so how can you say that Theroen's age was half of multiple millenniums?  So, maybe emphasising his age was not the best idea?  Okay, enough of the English lesson, I'll shut up for now.  :-)

I was able to get past all of these little things, though, and can truly say that I enjoyed this book.  This story is not your typical vampire romance story and it looks like it will continue with another book that should be coming out soon.  I'm looking forward to seeing it out and possibly downloading it to continue reading about Two's adventures. 

Two has a lot of potential here.  She was turned into a vampire but reverted back to human because the vampire that made her was killed only a few days after she was turned.  Now, it was either tremendous amounts of luck or some kind of skill that she didn't know she had in her, but Two was able to defeat the evil vampire that considered himself a god, Abraham.  This was supposed to be the same vampire that killed Theroen, who was supposedly very strong himself at about 500 years old.

So, either Two's mother was Anita Blake and her kick-vampire-ass is a genetic thing, or Two is not who she seems.  I think our writer is trying to save this kind of surprise for us later in the series.  :-)  :-)  I can be wrong, but I can usually smell this kind of stuff in books.  It would be dumb if he didn't come up with an explanation like that.  There is no way that a new vampire who is reverting back to human again can actually kill such a strong vampire with a bit of heroine and a machete.  I guess we'll just have to see.

The writer himself has so much potential.  Like I said before, the story is really good and I like flow and where he's trying to take this series.  Of course, I can only guess as to where he's taking it, but the build up is still very impressive.  From what I read of him on Amazon, he seems to still be very young himself so he has lots of time to improve his already impressive writing skills (if he can find someone to do the editing).  I would almost like to compare him to another writer that I knew a long time ago that went by the pen name of Gustav Benjava.  I was fortunate enough to read both of his books before publishing and the writing style seems so similar.  It was funny how I thought of Gus while reading this book, but I'm pretty sure that it was the writing style that brought back those memories.  :-)  Unfortunately Gus didn't continue his writing and we lost contact, but I hope that Chrisopher Buecheler finds success with his writing.  :-)