Blood On Silk (Awakened by Blood #1) by Marie Treanor
Paranormal Romance
September 7, 2010
Trade Paperback, 336 Pages
Berkley Trade
Reviewed by Tori
Scottish academic Elizabeth Silk is spending the summer in Romania researching historical superstitions for her PhD. While she is tracing local folktales, one subject in particular sparks her imagination. His name is Saloman, legend’s most powerful vampire, a seductive prince staked centuries ago. Now, in the ruins of a castle crypt, Elizabeth discovers the legends are real. Her blood has awakened him. Her innocence has aroused him. But Elizabeth unleashes more than Saloman’s hunger.
An army of vampire hunters has amassed to send Saloman back to hell. Sworn to help – yet fearing Saloman’s deadly blood lust – Elizabeth seeks to entrap him, offering her body as bait. But something stronger than dread, more powerful than revenge, is uniting Elizabeth to her prey. Caught between desire and rage, Elizabeth must decide where her loyalties lie…and what the limits are to a yearning she can no longer control.
Blood on Silk is a DNF (did not finish) for me. I was unable to connect with this story nor her characters.
The premise was promising. Elizabeth Silk is writing her doctoral thesis on vampires myths and travels Romania for research. When her blood awakens Salomen she is both frightened and attracted to him. A centuries old vampire, Salomen was slain by betrayal and buried for over 300 years. He now rises to re secure his kingdom and wants to rule world. Since she is a descendant of his lover and betrayer; she must die.
The beginning is slow and didn’t capture my attention. I didn’t feel any passion in the writing. Everything reads rather matter of fact. I found Saloman’s lack of humanity to be a huge turn off. I feel his character is trying to be this unbelievably handsome & passionate vampire who we will all love to hate. But I didn’t get that with him. The constant references to how much he can make Elizabeth love to die for him grated on my nerves. I didn’t feel like he loved her or even liked her. His whole attitude is, “I’m a vampire and this is what I do. Deal with it.” Elizabeth has potential but she is portrayed as being so torn between Salomen and her duty that it’s over kill. She is an emotional mess. We are led to believe that Elizabeth’s frantic switching between lust and rage is due to Salomen’s influence on her but honestly, I’m not sure what was going on. I did enjoy some of the other characters-maybe because we only see them occasionally and they are allowed to develop more naturally.
The sex scenes between Elizabeth and Salomen are hot and heavy but the chemistry’s not there. To much emotional angst; it smothers the characters and the scenes.
About halfway through I knew this was not the book for me and could not go on.
I give this a DNF
Recent Reviews:
Goodreads
awww..this one seems like it had potential! I love stories that revolve around people getting their PH.Ds. (I'm a dork!) I love the honest review…
Tori- I DNFed as well. No chemistry with the characters, at all. And after the cream cheese and wine sex scene, I was done.
Another case of a beautiful cover falling flat… Nice review Tori, even if you didn't feel for the book :(
This one really caught my attention, I was hoping it would be a good one. I still may check it out to see. Maybe. :)
Oh chucks. Too bad. But perhaps I would have felt the same thing
A Buckeye Girl Reads-TY. Ummm, you don't get much PH.D action either.
amyt865- Ummm yea, that kinda did it for me too.
Julie- Isn't the cover FAB?
Fiction Vixen-It didn't work for me but it may for you. I hope it does. :)
Blodeuedd-:)
Without chemistry its really hard to finish a romance book.
Smokinhotbooks- So true.
Thank you Tori – sorry this didn't work for you. Fingers crossed for the next book?
…Elizabeth seeks to entrap him [Saloman], offering her body as bait.
'cause obviously the vampire hunters can't think of a better way? Sadly I've realized that I'm completely over vampires (except for Qhuinn & Blay – thought I should point that out :)
Aww and it sounded so promising oh well… I have an award for you.
http://naughtymommyreviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/another-lovely-award.html
Bummer! I was reading the description at the top and was all "this sounds great!" so I was surprised by the DNF. I can see how Salomen would be irritating though, I think I'll leave this one at the bookstore. Thanks for the review Tori!
Orannia-lol I ditto team Quary ;)
Nanny-Thank you :)
Jenny-Even though it didn't work for me…it may work for you. :)
Bummerrrrrrr – I have too many awesome books you ladies have recommended to not add this to my TBR. Thanks for the review!
Sounded like such a good book too! Sad times.
As a new book blogger I was wondering what your take on DNF's actually was, do you review every book you don't finish? Or just if you've read a certain amount of pages?
I currently have two books sat on my shalf I've started and can't finish and wonder if I should review them!
Any help or advice you can give would be great!
Thanks Tori :)
SpazP-*smooches*
Ally-I emailed you
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.