Review--Blood Born by Jamie Manning

Waking up in a coffin hungry for blood is only the beginning for sixteen-year-old Ava Blue. When Chance Caldon, the hottie who dug her up, tells her she's half vampire, Ava's world really turns upside down.

Half vamp? Ava can't believe it...she doesn't even know what that means! Not until Aldric, a thousand-year-old vampire, shows up and tells her it's true--and that he's the one who turned her. Then Ava truly begins to believe what she is. Now she has to deal with a sudden and powerful bloodlust, the desire to see Aldric dead, and her growing crush for Chance. Ava knows she's a monster now, she can feel it; and her life is over.

But redemption isn't lost. Aldric is giving her a chance to regain her humanity. The price? Kill 100 vampires, or remain a bloodsucker forever.

So Ava sets out to get her life back. But killing vampires begins a battle that could destroy everything she is working toward. In the end, Ava's decision will forever change her life and the lives of those she loves.

Jamie Manning's Blood Born is yet another read, I've had for quite awhile that I am just now getting to! It was quite a surprising read as well in a lot of ways. I was lured in by the cover, there was just something intriguing by it. I'm a sucker for dark colors and graveyard backgrounds!!

Ava literally wakes up in a coffin buried underground, as a vampire. It was quite the start to the novel and she is dug up by a strange boy named Chance. There is a definite connection going on between Ava and Chance. The beginnings of a budding romance maybe? Ava has no recollection of her past life as a human. Somethings like television or other mundane things come back to her, but nothing really that was apart of her life and who she was.

Then in walks her vampire creator. Aldric turned her to save her, we learn. Save her from what, we don't know. But Ava doesn't want to be a vampire so Aldric offers her a deal, kill 100 vampires and she can become human again. This deal is a bit confusing to me, especially when her first vampire kill was really killed by Chance, she was there fighting it, but didn't make the killing blow that led to its death and yet it still counts as 1 kill. Plus, the whole reversal process of going from vampire to human always confuses me because I don't see how it's possible. But it has been done, so we'll just have to wait and see how Jamie does it.

A few other things that kind of nagged at me, was this constant feeling that Chance was someone from Ava's past. Like they knew one another, but yet again, this never really gets answered to my fulfillment. There was one brief answer, but I didn't feel like it really answered my question of who Chance was to Ava and not just who he is in general. Confused yet? The other nagging part was something minor and that was how Chance's mother never really questioned why Ava--this teenage girl her son barely knows (or maybe not?)--is going to be living with them for awhile. And Ava is still in high school, she gets enrolled at Chance's school and basically Chance becomes her friend of sorts or a guidance counselor...really struggling for words here, because Chance is human, not a vampire and yet he seems to know how to handle vamps and is there for Ava to help her through her time of need.

Ava also meets other teen vampire hunters and sort of becomes friends with them. They teach her how to kill vampires since she's going to be needing that bit of info for her task. She makes friends among them and even a frenemy too.

The ending was pretty surprising, yet as the events were happening I sort of foresaw this last event happening. There was a good deal of action in the end as well with a good old fashion brawl among vampires and vampire hunters, plus two vampires--Ava and Aldric.

Overall it was an interesting read. There were a few grammar errors and another placement error of sorts, but it was an enjoyable novel. Yet, I can't help but feeling let down in some ways, as I felt there was so much building up--especially with Ava and Chance and the feeling that I got that there was definitely something more going on between them than what we saw--and yet nothing was answered or resolved. True, this is only the first book in the trilogy and I can only hope that the second one will have some answers for me. I just read what it was about and it does look intriguing as news problem are being added to Ava's plate. So eventually that one will have to make it to my reading queue as well!


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars

This read was read for the Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge