“I’ve never looked at fire in the same way since that night, nor witches for that matter, or anybody else who’s apart. Perhaps apart is the wrong word, for I was apart even then, in that I was above the people and below God and the King, born into greatness.” (Loc. 10-16)
I love the idea of apart, not odd, weird, strange, or rude, but apart. What a great description of people who don’t “blend in” like the rest of us. Blood is about being apart, yet looking for a way to find a place where belonging brings completeness, closure, or satisfaction, not necessarily a happily ever after.

Blood is an unusual take on the vampire myth. Will doesn’t live the life of a mythical vampire. He prefers the term, undead, and has spent much of his “life” in hibernation. Now, 750 years after his “creation,” prophecies and portents are converging to give him answers to the questions he’s had for so long. Who created him? Why? Who prepared the chambers where he hides? Will doesn’t need to feed often, and uses the “life force” more than the actual blood to restore him after his periods of hibernation. His time asleep lasts longer than his time awake and he is amused by the stories we humans have told of his kind. Yet, the girl he likes is tempting to him and not in a good way. She is a part of the answers Will seeks, but the visions he has only confuse the issues for him. I am intrigued; I will look for the second one.
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"4 out of 5 stars!!! This is an EXCELLENT novel, that takes on a wonderful new twist to the YA vampire theme!! I love how..."

Check out my review & a TEASER here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2011/08/feasted-on-mercian-trilogy-boo... ( )

2.5/5
Egalley thanks to Egmont USA
I have to say despite the exciting synopsis this book left me severely disappointed. It's written in such way that it makes you feel detached from the very start.

The main character William is 800 years old vampire, and what did he do with most of his afterlife? Hibernation, hibernation, hibernation. He is forever sixteen, quite striking and very emo. I am undead, I want to die, but can't, see no point in my existence, woe is me. Let's skulk underneath my city walls for eternity.

Doesn't sound exiting straight away?

Enter some obscure prophecy from the lips of Will's dying victim who tells Will that the evil master of all evilness is waiting for him. Or he also needs to find the girl.

Enter Eloise, a spoiled emo from a good family playing a runaway because her uncle and aunt don't pay her enough attention and her friend didn't invite her to spend holidays together. Charming.

What a coincidence, - she is our girl.

Enter Chris and Rachel who inexplicably should be able to help and all they do is run a vegan coffee house.

"Dude," you say, "this doesn't make much sense."

But wait, you skim the pages trying to find an explanation, a more coherent picture and there isn't one.

The characters don't fill up, the motives feel absurd and the whole idea of obscure evil just isn't appealing. I'm sorry I tried to like this book, but failed. ( )

Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Strong exposition and a unique take on vampires come together in this novel to show us another side of the world we live in. The first in a new series, this novel is a build up to book two.

Opening Sentence: We burned the witches in 1256.

The Review:

A vampire wakes up from hibernation to discover ghosts stalking him and a human girl somehow connected to his destiny–whatever that is. Wignall has created vampires that are different from our classic Draculas. They don’t need blood for physical survival–it’s the vampires’ souls that calls for it. While their bodies are trapped at the age they died, vampires hair and teeth (which he files down [insert shudder here]) and fingernails continue to grow. I’m pretty sure the author was trying to use the urban legend that hair and fingernails continue to grow after death, but it’s not true (no corpses were exhumed to find this information). And they can hibernate for years–decades, if they drank enough before sleeping.

Will died at the age of sixteen as the heir to the Earldom of Mercia and awoke to find his father dead and his brother had inherited his title. Everyone thought Will was killed because of the witch burnings–because in hindsight Will knows those were innocent women his father sent to death. But the truth is turning out to be far more involved and complex than anything Will can imagine.

We’re introduced to a kind of villain hierarchy in this book. There are bad guys. Then the bosses of the bad guys. Then Lorcan Labraid, the evil of all evilness. Will’s never heard of him, but he’s certainly interested in Will. So is Wyndham, another unknown element hunting Will. All we know about Wyndham is that he’s scary enough even ghosts live in fear of his power. But Lorcan’s really our concern in this book, so he’s the villain I’ll focus on. Will and his readers are introduced to the fact he has a destiny almost from the get go: he wakes up, he needs blood, he finds someone he doesn’t think will be missed. But just before he can kill him, this squatter spews nonsense about Will and a girl–a girl he’s going to need. Now, if Will didn’t need this guys blood so much maybe he would have waited a second before sucking him dry. But he couldn’t and now the homeless guy is dead. All Will has to go on is nonsense scribbled inside his journal–a journal that also happens to have a sketch of a girl named Eloise.

Will’s been alone for hundreds of years, but it’s hard to be with a girl who tastes like dinner–no matter how pretty she might be. So Will is going to stay away from Eloise. He’s going to go back to his crypt and hibernate and forget all about the guy hunting him down. Except the ghosts that were haunting him are going after Eloise too. And when he listens, he can hear them. What they’re saying isn’t good.

I like the character building Wignall does here. Eloise is a smart heroine and there are a number of points in the story where she reacts in what I think is a perfectly reasonable manner. But there are moments with Will–particularly in the present, though sometimes in the flashbacks too–that take a long time to read. He spends a lot of time thinking. A lot of time brooding. And a lot more time wondering what’s going on. Rachel and Chris are classic stock characters at the moment, though I have high hopes for their development in the next book. In Blood they were just convenience characters. They helped move along the mystery a tinsy bit, but if their characters didn’t exist I think the story would have been just as well. There are hints at the end of Blood that there’s more to their place in the story than just being convenient.

This book can’t function as a stand-alone read. As the first in a series, some questions get answered but we’re left asking a whole lot more. Honestly, that was one of my main problems after finishing the book. I wasn’t satisfied with it at all, not because of the questions so much as the way they contributed to the let down at the end. Wignall does a great job of making sure his characters only know what they could realistically put together–he doesn’t take the easy way out as far as the mystery is concerned. Not only does this help build suspense, but it makes his characters more realistic. A good book, even if we do get a little bogged down in Will’s thought monologues. I definitely want to read the next one to find out who on earth all these villains are–as well as why Will is so important to them.

Notable Scene:

“Look in the mirrors–tell me what you see.”

He didn’t understand. “I told you, I cast a reflection.”

“No, I mean look in the mirrors.”

Out of the corner of his eye then he spotted something moving in the mirrors. He looked across the room, but there was nothing there. He drew closer and immediately saw that there were shadowy figures beyond the glass, as if they were windows looking on to some dulled room, just visible beyond the reflection of tiled walls.

They were hooded, wearing dark robes, so at first Will thought they were monks, but almost immediately he realized from their silhouettes that they were women. He tried to focus on their faces but couldn’t and every time one came close she seemed to keep her face hidden from him.

“They’re whispering,” he said because he could hear it now.

“I thought they were. Can you hear what they’re saying?”

“No,” he said, lying, not wanting to tell her what it was. “I can’t see their faces either.”

“I saw them,” she said, her voice sounding small. He turned to look at her and she said, “They don’t have any. They’re just blank, or almost blank.”

The Mercian Trilogy:

1. Blood

FTC Advisory: EgmontUSA provided me with a copy of Blood. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Isuppose this book does have its charm. But compared to other chick lit of the same genre, this book is missing something. The pull of it maybe. Sure there's lots of stuff happening, but its one of those stereotypical ancient vampire liking a girl kind of story usually goes. Then there's the villain, and how they try to find him, etc, etc.
Nothing really new. Their relationship is also not that believable if you ask me. But then again, I might be too hard on the book. ( )