Review: My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey

The Blakes are rather different to your usual neighbours. They are vampires and some of the members of the family date back to the twelfth century. One of the children, Solange, is the only born female vampire known and, as such, she poses a direct threat to the vampire queen. Her best friend Lucy is human, and when Solange is kidnapped Lucy and Solange's brother, Nicholas, set out to save her. Lucy soon discovers that she would like to be more than just friends with Nicholas. But how does one go about dating a vampire? Meanwhile, Solange finds an unlikely ally in Kieran, a vampire slayer on the hunt for his father's killer

---

Why I Read it: I received book four for review last week and haven't even started this series yet, so thought I'd better crack on.


Review: So I am not a big vampire book fan at all. I think i out vamped myself when I went through my Twilight phase and now I try to avoid vampy books. While this one didn't really change my mind about the genre, it's definitely one of the better vampire books that I've read recently.


I took a while trying to get into My love Lies Bleeding, mainly because there was a lot of info-dumping at the beginning which I totally hate in books. A few chapters in I really got into it and despite little periods of info-dumping throughout the book (which are inevitable in the involved Vampire politics that Harvey created) I really enjoyed the writing. Harvey had some great pacing and despite the book getting a little slow at times, the romance was always there to fall back on. The plot was pretty weak though, it was a bit all over and mostly did rely on romance to pull it through.


Ah yes, romance. I liked the development of Lucy and Nicholas's romance, there was teasing at the beginning and Nicholas is one of those sexy guys that every girl secretly wants to meet. Even more so, I enjoyed Solange and Kieran's developing relationship, I loved how despite them being enemies, they fall in love. It's totally sweet, almost like a less tragic Romeo and Juliet.


I had some issues with the voices. The story is told by two protagonists, Solange and Lucy and I didn't really find much difference in their voices, so I found myself flicking back a few pages to remind myself who was narrating. It annoys me when authors write from multiple points of view but doesn't make the voices unique. 


Whilst Lucy was the typical kick-ass protag, I found myself really liking her. i also loved Solange, her vulnerability, a little sheltered, overprotected. I loved how she broke out of her shell near the end.


Overall, My Love Lies Bleeding was a short and cute read with kick-ass character, good pacing and some cute romance. On the other hand, the narrative and plot were weak and there was a few issues with info dumping. I'd reccommend to people looking for something short and sweet. It isn't amazing, but it's good.


Overall Rating: B-

---

Stand Alone/ Series: First in the Drake Chronicles
UK Release Date: December 22nd 2009
UK Publisher: Bloomsbury
Book bought by myself