Early Review: A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer

A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer
Vamp City #1 

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...
 

Quinn has always been different and strange things happen around her. She's tried all her life to hide her differences, but that no longer is an option when she's thrown into an alternate world, one where vampires rule and humans are slaves. She wouldn't have lasted five minutes if not for being rescued by an incredibly powerful vampire named Arturo. But can she really consider herself saved when he seeks to consume and ultimate possess her for himself? In a world that is terrifying to navigate as one wrong step will literally be her last, Quinn will have to decide quickly who to trust, for much more is at stake than just her life.

A Blood Seduction was incredibly dark, almost unbearably so. To be honest, I'm rather surprised that I enjoyed it so much, especially enough to give it a rating of five. As much as I love the paranormal genre, I'm not the biggest fan of very dark books. Well, that isn't precisely true, as it isn't so much the darkness that bothers me, but the lack of hope in dire circumstances. I am a very hope driven person, always looking to the future for the brighter side of things. In A Blood Seduction there is literally no realistic hope. I say realistic because Quinn has an iron will throughout and never once gives up, especially in her fight to find her brother. The problem is that it was blatantly obvious from almost the very start that no matter what she did, she had no real chance. Yet I still found myself holding on waiting for a miracle to happen, so perhaps I really had some hope after all.

The dynamic between Quinn and Arturo was compelling, seductive, infuriating, confusing, and many more contradicting emotions. I never knew which end was up, and to be honest I'm not sure either of them had much of a clue either. Although I will say that Arturo definitely seemed to have the upper hand throughout despite his obvious weakness towards her. His words were never once trustworthy, but his actions sometimes were. It amazed me how one second he could utterly betray Quinn, and then turn around and be so protective and start to seem trustworthy again. It was almost like they were a pair of magnets being pulled towards each other, and no matter how much either one tried to fight it as they knew no good would come of that draw, their resistance was futile. I'm both eager and wary to see what is in store for the two of them in the future, especially considering how things ended.

For as many vampire novels as I have read, it really is an accomplishment to come across one that feels completely unique. Of course there are similarities to other fiction vampires in A Blood Seduction, but at the core it was quite different, making for a refreshing and rather compelling read. This was my first Pamela Palmer novel, but based on what I've seen so far, I'll definitely be checking out her other works. With sexual tension that oozes off the pages and extremely high stakes, A Blood Seduction cannot possibly disappoint.

(Received a copy from the publisher via Edelweiss)

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• Fangs, Wands, and Fairy Dust