There are several narrators in the House of Comarré series, so I’m going to structure this review a bit differently than normal.

Mal and Chrysabelle: A good chunk of their story revolves around their feelings for each other and what that means for the cursed vampire and former comarré, or blood servant. The main mysteries in their lives revolve around the possible identity of Chrysabelle’s brother, the effects of melting down the ring of sorrows and using it to replace Chrysabelle’s signum, and the attempted retrieval of the vampire baby.

Doc and Fi: Fi is, obviously, still not happy with the “benefits” Doc received when he became pride leader. She makes a pretty bold stance to get back what she lost, and I have the feeling the repercussions are going to be severe.

The rest of the crew: Creek is still suffering through life under the KM’s thumb, only this time, he has an unusual ally. The mayor of Paradise City makes a few bipolar decisions that will ultimately lead to her extermination, I’m sure, and Tatiana is as insane as ever.

Out for Blood was this close to getting five tombstones. Seriously, people, I loved it that much. There’s so much ambiance with the world the author has created, and the characters have grown so much since the first book in the series. Chrysabelle wasn’t as much as of a princess anymore and Mal seemed to have removed the stick that had been lodged in a very uncomfortable place for quite some time. When the good guys escaped the clutches of the bad guys and flew into the sunset…it was the perfect ending! But…it wasn’t the ending.

There’s this current penchant that a series novel has to end in a cliffhanger. Sometimes I love it; sometimes I don’t. Kind of depends on my mood, I think. In this case, I didn’t like it, mainly because we finally got to see the fae Mortalis has been telling Chrysabelle about and he’s “on screen” for only a few pages. The next novel could easily have featured the meeting of the fae and been expanded to suit my greedy needs, but alas, it was needed as that final element to send Out for Blood into cliffhanger territory. You see, the fae’s price was…well, let’s just say it caused a domino-effect of cheesetastic plot threads leading into the end of the novel.

Cliffhanger aside, I’m still happy to give Out for Blood 4.5 tombstones. Though there are the romantic elements I mentioned earlier, I’d say this move is firmly seated in kick ass Urban Fantasy territory with an extra helping of Fantasy.

Book stats:

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; Original edition (October 30, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316200174
• ISBN-13: 978-0316200172

Purchase a print copy of Out for Blood from Amazon
Purchase a Kindle copy of Out for Blood from Amazon

Books in the House of Comarré series in the order they should be read:
Blood Rights
Flesh and Blood
Bad Blood
Out for Blood

What Lies Beneath

I love talking about the tattoos that my hero and heroine both wear in my gothic urban fantasy series, the House of Comarré. Blood Rights begins the House of Comarré series and the fourth book, Out for Blood, releases today. The same hero and heroine star in every book so readers really get to know them and their tattoos. Here’s a little more about those!

In the case of my heroine, Chrysabelle, her tattoos aren’t actual ink, but sacred gold that’s been melted down and stitched into her skin. These marks are called signum and it’s a very painful process, as you might imagine, but every one of her kind (the comarré) undergoes the procedure to help purify their blood. See, the comarré are blood slaves whose job it is to feed the noble class of vampires so they don’t ravage the human race. Chrysabelle bears a large number of signum, more than many of her comarré siblings, making her one of the most highly prized of her kind.

The comarré are already a status symbol among the vampire nobility, who buy the comarré the way human millionaires buy Bentleys and beach houses. Unlike other material goods, the blood of the comarré actually increases their patron’s power. So the more gold in their skin, the more power they can provide.

My outcast vampire hero, Mal, has ink for an entirely different reason. His came to him by way of a curse and they mark him as an anathema to the rest of the nobility. His ink is actually a body suit of names. Each name belongs to a victim. Someone he drank to death. And because of another curse he’s under which makes it impossible to sink his fangs into someone and let them live, those names number in the thousands. Unlike Chrysabelle’s gilding, Mal’s names aren’t always stationary. Sometimes they merge and flow over him, covering him until he turns into the manifestation of the beast that lives within him. Sometimes, when Chrysabelle touches him, she can feel them moving.

In these ways, the marks of my two characters give the casual observer an idea of who they are. Chrysabelle looks like a sparkling prize, Mal a dark, tortured monster. And while these initial impressions aren’t wrong, they don’t begin to scratch the surface of what lies beneath Chrysabelle and Mal’s expansively distinctly decorated skin.

Books in the House of Comarré series in the order they should be read:
Blood Rights
Flesh and Blood
Bad Blood
Out for Blood

Author Bio:

A little about me: I’m a former college English teacher, but I’ve held a crazy mix of other jobs including maitre’d for Wolfgang Puck, personal trainer, and sales for Christian Dior Bijoux. On the writing side of things, I’m a two-time Golden Heart finalist and have been on the board of three different RWA chapters. What can I say? I like getting involved. I’m not adverse to bossing people around either.

My forays into writing have been as varied as the jobs I’ve held. I’ve written poetry, articles for magazines, short stories, paranormal romances (that include fantasy, contemporary and steampunk genres) and now I’ve found a home with urban fantasy. I love worldbuilding and few genres give you the kind of license urban fantasy does.

I’m also the co-founder of the award-winning writer’s site Romancedivas.com. I blog occasionally at www.fictionistas.blogspot.com and tweet at twitter.com/Kristen_Painter more often than I should. You can also find me on my Facebook author page here: www.facebook.com/KristenPainterAuthor

I live in FL with my retired Air Force husband and a horde of feline dependents. I’m represented by The Knight Agency.

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Learn more about Kristin Painter here:
Read reviews of the author’s work here

http://kristenpainter.com/
http://www.kristenpainter.blogspot.com/
http://www.twitter.com/kristen_painter
http://www.facebook.com/KristenPainterAuthor

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Chrysabelle is a comarré, a human whose sole purpose is to please her vampire master — think a mixture of an ever-full refrigerator and a Geisha. Comarré are impossible to miss; their skin is tattooed with golden designs, identifying them better than any nametag could.

Chrysabelle is also a murderess. Or so the vampires think. Her patron was murdered and she’s the prime suspect. Instead of waiting around to be punished for a crime she didn’t commit, Chrysabelle runs to the only man who can help her: Malkolm, a vampire not only cursed to kill whomever he drinks from, but a vampire cursed with the joy of hearing the voices of said victims in his head.

Blood Rights by Kristen Painter was slow to get into, but once the story really started going, I couldn’t put it down. Once the glitter and glitz was removed, the world of the comarré was a dark and dangerous place. They’re highly trained killers, sneaky, shiny ninjas whose true purpose was to regulate their patrons. Basically, they made kicking ass look good! I loved watching Chrysabelle go toe-to-toe with Mal. Their feelings for each other were uncovered blow by blow.

My complaint with Blood Rights is a common complaint in the Romance genre: there were parts that were a bit too soap opera-ish for me. The villain was practically curling her mustache while stroking her fat white cat, and the big twist at the end was completely expected. The awesome thing is, even with those predictable aspects, Blood Rights was still a phenomenal book. The relationships between the characters (Chrysabelle and Mal’s love/hate relationship, interactions with the ghost of one of the women Mal killed, even the scenes with the random fae creatures) were what really stood out. They seemed real to me, and because of them, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

Book stats:

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (October 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316084778
• ISBN-13: 978-0316084772

Purchase a print copy of Blood Rights from Amazon
Purchase a Kindle copy of Blood Rights from Amazon

Books in the House of Comarré series in the order they should be read:
Blood Rights
Flesh and Blood
Bad Blood
Out for Blood