Paranormal Romance Review: A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer

A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer (Vamp City #1)

bought

Synopsis from Goodreads
Take me down to Vampire City...

Vampires live only for lust and pleasure in the eternal twilight of Vamp City. But the city's magic is dying. The only person who can restore it? A beautiful woman from the mortal world...one who knows nothing of the power she wields.

Quinn Lennox is searching for a missing friend when she stumbles into a dark otherworld that only she can see—and finds herself at the mercy of Arturo Mazza, a dangerously handsome vampire whose wicked kiss will save her, enslave her, bewitch her, and betray her. What Arturo can't do is forget about her—any more than Quinn can control her own feelings for him. Neither one can let desire get in the way of their mission—his to save his people, hers to save herself. But there is no escape from desire in a city built for seduction, where passion flows hot and blood-red.

Welcome to Vamp City...

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1/10

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 I'm sorry, peeps, but I could see no redeeming properties in this book. In fact, it was such a trainwreck, I felt compelled to finish reading it despite being tempted to just DNF the whole thing.


The major downfall of A Blood Seduction lies in its characters. Quinn and Arturo do not know what the hell they're doing or feeling. You know WHY you would have trouble describing their characters? Because they blend in and accommodate whatever author decides to do next in the plot. They do not have distinctive personalities; their thoughts and feelings jump like yo-yos and do not reflect any sort of growth.

It was tiring and extremely frustrating. Quinn also manages to exhibit TSTL traits I so dislike in  a heroine. Example: she just managed to escape the vampire city, and what does she do next? Jumps right back with a harebrained scheme of saving her brother without any sort of preparation or equipment. Or course she gets caught and abused again. *facepalm*.

The world-building is wobbly and more or less okay, but it doesn't go into any depth. It's the characters which totally ruin this book, in my opinion. I wish the author took some points from Joss Whedon and created this heady torturous mix of charming evil vampire turning good because of love... but it wasn't meant to be.  

I also wish the authors in general would incorporate more popular mass culture into their books. It's always like their characters never watched Buffy or Supernatural and never know what to do when confronted with paranormal, while really the opposite would be a much more fascinating point to deliver.

Not recommended.

* * *

Совершенно не рекомендую эту книгу. Читать - будет полной потерей времени.

Причина? Слабый сюжет и отсутствующая характеризация главных героев. Куинн и Артуро меняют личностные харатеристики как перчатки, чтобы соответствовать тому или иному изменению в сюжете, поэтому кроме раздражения и накапливающегося желания забросить чтение к чёртовой матери, никакой симпатии к ним не испытываешь.

Куинн к тому же совершает омерзительно глупые ошибки пока Артуро потирает руки и ухмыляется. Мозгов у обоих как у тех куриц, - они только и бегают, кудахчат о своих чувствах и машут крыльями.

Ещё одна черта, что раздражает в большинстве паранормальных романов, это то, что их герои совершенно не отражают массовый поворот к популяризации паранормала в последние 20 лет. Они не знают о Баффи, Другом Мире и Supernatural, и меня всегда это приводит в недоумение. Акцентирование на мешанине знаний, на которой мы все выросли, наоборот сделает сюжет и конфликт между героями необычайно интересным, не правда ли?