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Feb212011
BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Turning’ by Jennifer Armintrout
by Carolyn • Posted in 3 Star Reviews, Authors A-D, Book Reviews, Jennifer Armintrout, Mira UK, Reviews by Carolyn, Urban Fantasy
Title: The Turning (Blood Ties #1)
Author: Jennifer Armintrout
Publisher: Mira (UK|US)
Publication Date: Feb 2010 (UK) | June 2006 (US)
Paperback: 374 pages
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: Review Copy
Reviewed by: Carolyn
RATING: 6/10 – good
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
I’m no coward. I want to make that perfectly clear. But after my life turned into a horror movie, I take fear a lot more seriously now. I finally became Dr. Carrie Ames just eight months ago. Then I was attacked in the hospital morgue by a vampire. Just my luck.
So now I’m a vampire, and it turns out I have a blood tie to the monster who sired me. The tie works like an invisible leash and I’m bound to him no matter what I do. And of course he’s one of the most evil vampires on earth. With my sire hell-bent on turning me into a soulless killer and his sworn enemy set to exterminate me, things couldn’t get much worse — except I’m attracted to them both.
Drinking blood, living as an immortal demon and being a pawn between two warring vampire factions isn’t exactly how I’d imagined my future. But as my father used to say, the only way to conquer fear is to face it. So that’s what I’ll do. Fangs bared.
REVIEW:
‘The Turning‘ is the first book in the ‘Blood Ties’ series by Jennifer Armintrout. It’s a solid start to a series if a little uneven. It also doesn’t really sit within the urban fantasy genre or the paranormal romance genre but somewhere in between in my opinion. Although there are a few gruesome scenes that may be too explicit for PNR fans, especially if they are just after a romance and nothing else.
Carrie Ames is a doctor working in a hospital when a John Doe is pushed through the hospital doors brutally beaten, body mangled and at the point of death. Carrie finds it a difficult case to work on and discovers, to her embarrassment that she just can’t deal with it and runs from the ER. Unfortunately, the guy dies and so later in her shift Carrie decides to confront her fears and view the body. Unfortunately, she meets something far worse than a dead body down in the morgue and her life is changed forever.
The hero of the story is a vampire called Nathan who is a very likeable character. He’s the ‘good’ guy and helps Carrie come to terms with her new life. There’s also the vampire, Cyrus, the anti-hero who is quite a disturbing character. He’s the vampire who ‘changed’ Carrie and who enjoys killing, torturing and raping fifteen year old girls. It’s Carrie’s interactions with this particular character which prevented me from connecting with her, as I really didn’t understand her attraction towards such a despicable man/vampire.
Because of the ‘blood tie’, Carrie finds herself drawn to Cyrus physically and if it was just the ‘blood tie’ I could have let it slide. But unfortunately it wasn’t. Carrie was attracted to him even without the blood tie and when seeing visions of him raping a young girl it was hard for me to understand her attraction. Cyrus was just downright disgusting.
Nathan on the other hand is a true hero. Someone who sticks to the rules, who cares and wants to help, but who is also strong, handsome with a hot body to boot. Of course Carrie is attracted to Nathan as well as Cyrus, but I could understand why. The sex scenes are fairly explicit but not overly so, unfortunately there was no love involved with either Nathan or Cyrus.
VERDICT:
I found ‘The Turning‘ to be a very easy book to get into and the pace steady, which kept me turning the pages with ease. It has a fairly exciting plot with characters that are vivid and interesting. I did find Carrie to be a little irritating at times as her thoughts chopped and changed constantly, which made it difficult to connect with her. However, I enjoyed it enough that I will definitely continue the series and fortunately have book two already at hand.
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6 Comments
Great review!
The blood tie you mentioned between Carrie being attracted to Cyrus seems cool, with the exception of her wanting him before the tie and seeing him him rape someone. That has me more then a little disgusted right now.
~Kelsa
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I enjoyed the first book – and the second. I haven't read any of the others though. I have them around here – but I have a lot of books piling up here to read. time to get crackin'
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I have had this book on my ereader for a while. The blood tie relationship sounds like a difficult one to get your head around. But I'm still intrigued by this book so will give it a whirl.
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awesome and honest review! Going to look more into this series. Thanks
Tena @ Crazy Book Slut
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I really liked this series. It's dark and complicated, and, like you I found Carrie irritating sometimes, but it's compelling enough that I bought all four of the books.
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Amateur Voice – Yeah, that was the one aspect I found difficult to like about the book. But I will read book 2 just to see where the author is taking the story as some of it is really good
Mardel – I know what you mean…so many books to read LOL
Laura – It's a good book but there are issues with it, but as I've said I will read book 2, but if it doesn't get better then I won't bother finishing the series – too many other good books to read.
Tena – Thanks! I hope you enjoy reading it when you get around to it.
Erin – I'm glad you like the series, it gives me hope that the series gets better, especially if you had the same issues with Carrie as I did
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