Review--Out for Blood by Kristen Painter

After nearly dying at the hands of the Aurelian, Chrysabelle finds new determination to move beyond life as a comarré. That is until the Kubai Mata bring a new task to her doorstep: rescue the child Tatiana has kidnapped, or Mal becomes enemy number one.










I received this book from the author for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.

It's been so long since I last ventured into the House of Comarre, I was afraid I would be entering into Out for Blood totally blind. But thankfully Kristen Painter does remarkably well at bringing us up to speed at a decent pace.

There are so many points of view in this novel, Chrysabelle, Mal, Fi, Doc, Tatiana, Creek, the Mayor...that sometimes it can get overwhelming. But not as much as you would think. True in the beginning of the book it was a bit disorienting for me, since I was also trying to get back into the story that has been playing out for three books now. But once I got back into the thick of things, the changing points of view were manageable. In fact, it became the route of changing points of view that happens so often for me, in that we read with one character and gets very exciting and then bam! We're off to a new character and then the excitement builds up and then bam! It's like constantly chasing cliffhangers, yet for the most part, the relief is only pages away!

Chrysabelle is dealing with her new tattoo that was made from the gold from the ring of sorrows. A powerful ring that was wanted by many people, Tatiana included. The tattoo has a unique set of powers that it gives Chrysabelle that are guaranteed to make her life a little more interesting, as if it wasn't already. 

The KM however send Creek to get Chrysabelle to retrieve the vampire child Tatiana had stolen sometime ago and is raising as her own. Chrysabelle refuses at first, but it's not until the promise of being able to find her long lost brother does she agree to go. It's actually at the 300 page mark out of 446 does she take on the job. While that part was a little trying,--since the cover back says this is her mission--the waiting for this big mission to start, we have so many characters to visit with, that the story still moves along fairly quick.

The Mayor, wanting to rescue her vampire grandchild--the one Tatiana has--is on a mission to become vampire herself, but is struggling to find a vampire willing to turn her. She in turn creates a bit of chaos in the city when she sets a curfew for supernaturals.

Doc and Fi are dealing with the fallout of Doc now being Pride leader of the pack he once belonged to. He killed the Pride leader after being challenged, but he gained more than he bargained for by winning. Such as the Pride leader's wife. And in order to be with Fi, the wife must be out of the picture without causing war amongst the Pride she grew up in. The only option truly is that Fi must fight her to the death...or surrender.

Creek has his own problems dealing with an entity that is suppose to help him--or something like that. I kind of missed what the purpose of this deity or whatever being around him. But that too, takes a wrong turn. Chaos ensures.

Basically, we have a whole lot of chaos going on this book! With a lot of interweaving storylines as well. It's always intimidating at first, but once you into the book and know the characters, their stories start to flow flawlessly.

The ending--involving much more than Chrysabelle attempting to kidnap the vampire baby back--was pretty exciting, as endings usually are! It leaves you on more than one cliffhanger. It had been awhile since we got to be with the other characters like Doc, Tatiana and the Mayor, so all their storylines were unresolved. But the one with Chrysabelle and Mal was a doozie! That one I didn't see coming and it also reveals a major secret about the comarre!

The final book in this series, Last Blood will come out in the summer next year, or so I heard. This will wrap everything up and I look forward to that. With so many characters I am hoping most of them get their happy endings and the others I hoping for some comeuppance!

Set in our futuristic setting where vampires, varcolai--shapeshifters-- and other creatures live among us, and magic exists this is a read you can fall into and want to stay lost!


Overall rating 4/5 stars