Bloodlust by Michelle Rowen (Nightshade #2)
Urban Fantasy
July 5, 2011
Paperback
Berkley
Reviewed by Mandi
I read the first book in this series, Nightshade earlier this year and really enjoyed it. Michelle Rowen set up a very engaging, action-packed vampire world. Bloodlust starts right where Nightshade leaves off. Declan has been injected with a serum to control his dhampyr abilities. This leaves him unable to love, or feel any emotion. This is a problem since Jill thinks she is in love with Declan, but he can’t return this sentiment. Jill is still struggling with the poisonous Nightshade running through her veins. Although it is useful to kill vampires (one drink from Jill’s vein and the vampire poofs into ashes) it is also slowly killing her. Jill is desperate to find a cure.
To make things even more complicated, Matthias, the Vampire King has fathered an infant dhampyr who is in grave danger now. Centuries ago, Matthias and his twin brother Kristoff killed a dhampyr infant in a ritual, giving them true immortality. Kristoff is super evil, and to save the lives of many, Matthias has had Kristoff imprisoned for over 30 years, but as is the game of vampires, someone betrays Matthias and steals the key to free Kristoff, putting Matthias’s infant in danger.
But wait! I’m not done with the complications! Matthias, once thought to be really evil by Jill, has proven himself..not so evil. There is definitely a grey area, and Jill starts to put some of her trust in Matthias, especially when Declan starts to go into sporadic dhampyr rages – Matthias may be the only one that can help him.
I know the set-up makes it sound like there are a hundred different things going on in this book. And well – there are. But it will make much more sense if you read the first book (which I highly recommend!!). The name of the game in this book is betrayal. There are so many twists and turns that it was hard to put this book down. Did I like all of them? I’m not sure. I was very excited to get to the end to see how it all turned out, but looking back, I don’t know if I am 100% satisfied.
I love that Matthias starts as the evil, bad ass vampire king in book one, but in this book, you see another side of him. I started to root for him. I felt, dare I say – a little pity maybe bit of compassion. While I loved Declan in book one, Matthias steals the show in this one. He becomes a much more interesting character than Declan. A love triangle is kind of set up. I’m not sure if all of the corners actually meet at a point but the three sides are there. I very much felt Matthias’s fondness for Jill. But this is also where Jill started to annoy me. She loves Declan – she states it and you know it as the reader. She knows Declan is struggling with his dhampyr side (dhampyrs get more violent the older they get) which makes him very violent. And after one argument, after Declan leaves, she kind of throws herself at Matthias. It just felt very rash. One minutes she loves Declan, the next she is lusting after Matthias, the next, she is back with Declan. I didn’t love that aspect of the triangle. Especially when she has thoughts like these:
I grimaced at what Declan had said to me just before he left. He’d seen that I had feelings for Matthias, even when I was trying to ignore them. And I would have ignored them forever if only he’d stayed with me.
Meanwhile, Declan had left so he wouldn’t attack her in his violent rage. This selfish behavior doesn’t sit well with me.
There is another time later in the book where she doesn’t trust Declan again. She has to be a smart girl to survive this far into the book – yet sometimes she acts really dense and her actions don’t make sense. She is too quick to doubt.
Not to keep dumping on Jill. Although there are a few times where I wanted to bop her over the head, I still like her. She is tough, and funny, and I like that she makes hard choices, to stay alive – and to keep those alive that she cares for. As I said earlier, Matthias really steals this book. Declan is still sexy in his eye patch with his stoic attitude, but Matthias is the one that stands out.
So do I recommend this book? Yes – although be prepared for crazy twists and never knowing what is coming next. But that is fun. And definitely read Nightshade first.
Rating: C+
Recent Reviews:
Love to Read for Fun – D-
Wicked Little Pixie – 4.5/5
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Hmm I think the first book sounds really good but the whole love triangle and Jill’s behavior in this book has me a little hesitant to go out and buy this series.
Hmm. Mathias? Well then, ok. :) I haven’t read the first book, yet. Looks like I definitely need to start there.
I really liked Matthias in the end. I love a good baddie that turns out not to be so bad ;)
Confused..did my comment go missing?
Ok if so then I said, wohoo Matthias, I want more! ;)
Great review Mandi. The love triangle and Jill’s flip flopping makes me cringe and I haven’t even read it. I’ll have to think about this one.
I’ve been eyeing Nightshade, but love triangles tend to make me back away slowly…thinking I’ll put these on the wait-for-library-to-get them list and see how it goes.
Agreed on all counts. Matthais definitely interested me more in this book than the last, but I’m still firmly Camp Declan. (I kind of fell a little bit in love with him in the last book.) I felt like A LOT happened in this book; it almost felt like this should have been about two or three books, at the rate the plot progressed.
Jill does make some very stupid decisions in this book, but it didn’t bother me as much as it did some other reviewers. One of the things I like about her character is that she’s reacting much the way a normal woman probably would after finding out there are vampires in the world, being injected with a vampire death serum that’s also killing her, and being kidnapped by an often-emotionless dhampyr who she also happens to be crazy attracted to. She’s overwhelmed. And there’s only a couple of weeks between Nightshade and Bloodlust. Honestly, sometimes it’s nice to see an UF heroine who *doesn’t* have it all together.
Beth – sooo much happens – in a way I liked that we had so many twists. I would have liked to see the build of attraction to Matthias take a little longer – Maybe a third book because you are right – the timeframe of when all of this happens is very short. I didn’t love Jill’s feelings for Matthias but overall, I do like her. She has a nice amount of sarcasm, fear, and strength.
Plus hello sexy Declan with his eyepatch ;)