Well if this wasn't a wild ride! This book follows Oraya before and through a five-trial ordeal. Oraya, who is human, grew up living among a vampire king, raised as his daughter. Quickly, during the trial, Oraya meets Rainh, and their storyline begins.

The trials themselves were fantastic! If you enjoyed the hunger games, this will be something you will enjoy! The way that Carissa twists the story plot between each of the trials so that the reader gets to know the main characters was fantastic.

Once you hit those last two trials though... Golden. I was hooked! Those pages just kept on turning! The twists that kept coming! I hoped for some, but did not see what the cost would be of getting those hopes.

Carissa did a wonderful job of putting little easter eggs throughout the book. I was able to pick up on a few things that I found odd that they were briefly explained. Like why put this in here if it doesn't play a part in the story as a whole. And the part they played did not disappoint!

I do not know how to feel about the ending, but I do know that I am intrigued enough to see how this progresses that I cannot wait to grab the next book! ( )

The title alone had me sold. I just think it sets the mood before you even open the book. I love it! This book was hunger games meets vampires. It’s told from Oraya’s POV. She’s the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king. She’s a human living among vampires. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari, a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself. Oraya has spent her entire life being scared and not trusting anyone but she reluctantly becomes allies with a fellow Kejari participant(who is a vampire), Raihn. It’s her best chance to win and winning is all that matters. This whole book is the trials of Kejari. It’s so good. I knew about 15% in that I was going to absolutely love it and I did! It’s action packed and I loved every minute of it. I also liked that she was 23 and not a teenager! ( )

First, I was surprised by the disclaimer at the start of the book. I'm not used to seeing warnings about violence and sexuality, etc. at the beginning of the book. I have since seen it in another book, so maybe this is a new trend. I have noticed a lot of fantasy stories getting more and more violent. While I haven't seen a reference to the young adult genre, if this is geared to that audience, that may be the reason for the disclaimer. However, I did not experience this story as more violent than others I have read. I was not expecting the romance genre, and am not interested in that aspect of the story, so that is a detractor for me. Generally, this story is interesting, and it references situations which are mysterious to the main characters, which they then make assumptions about, and are not believable*. This story feels like it has aspects of The Hunger Games, and maybe Twilight. Conclusion: I generally enjoyed reading this book, except for the sex scenes (well done, just not interesting to me), and after starting the second book, decided to not continue this series.

* Spoiler alert: I am referring to the main character, Oraya, thinking that she would have relatives that are survivors that she could find, which is her motivation to pursue the contest. Also, she is glad / does not want to be a vampire, and yet her goal is the win the games so she can be a vampire to find her relatives. This does not make sense to me.
— Rebecca ( )

HELLO??? I am so utterly obsessed with this book and I am so excited to start the second one immediately!!! ( )

OMG that ending ! Great read I finished it in three days, action, mystery, great world building, fantasticly complicated characters, a fun tense read ! Beware the last 10% will gray your hair ( )