Review--Blood Awakening by Jamie Manning

Ava’s life went from bad to worse the night Chance became a vampire.

He won’t have anything to do with her. Ava understands why—because he blames her—but it doesn’t mean she likes it.

And it doesn’t help that she’s starting to feel something for Erik, the boy who once wanted her dead. Especially when Chance decides that he does still love her, and wants her to be with him for eternity.

Now she has a choice: Humanity…or forever as a vampire with Chance.

But Ava wants nothing more than to be human again. At least, she thought that was all she wanted.

Thankfully her best friend Kayla has a plan to distract Ava from her boy troubles, and they go in search of Kayla’s missing dad. A great idea, but one that brings Sebastian back into Ava’s life. Along with another, more sinister former member of his coven.

Sebastian and Zyris face off against Ava and her friends, resulting in Ava making yet another choice that changes the course of everyone’s lives, and leaves her wondering if being human again is really worth losing everything.

NOTE: There will be SPOILERS from Blood Born!

Blood Awakening is the second book in Jamie Manning's Blood Prophecy trilogy and I have to say it was even better than the first one.

Some time has passed since the ending of Blood Born, Chance is now a vampire. Ava had Aldric turn him in order to save his life. Only thing is, now Chance won't even talk to her. She has spent some time with Erik (off the page) and now there seems to be something brewing between them, she's not sure she wants there to be anything. Hence the beginning of her boy troubles. To help her escape the problems, Kayla enlists Ava's help in finding her dad who has been missing for some time. This includes taking a trip to Boston, and Erik comes along as well to help his friend out.

The trip doesn't prove to be of any leads, but Kayla isn't about to give up. When they return home, it's only to have more added troubles for Ava. Chance is back in school and when Ava wants to see of restarting their tentative relationship again, Chance wants to be with her, but he wants her to remain a vampire. Ava's deal with Aldric involved her killing 100 vampires so that she may regain her humanity, as for now, she's only half vampire and half human. Ava isn't sure she wants to remain a vampire, even for Chance. You can just feel the tension that this is going to bring about!

When the four friends find themselves back in Boston, trying to track down a new lead to finding Kayla's dad, they find trouble instead. The kind of trouble that's vampire. Zyris is a leader of a vampire coven of sorts and she has plans. Plans that involve Chance and possibly even Ava herself.

I have to say that I really did enjoy this one, but yet, there were still a few things that nagged at me. Like when Kayla, Ava and Chance (and Erik) go back to Boston, it's during the school week and while Chance says he can mesmerize the teachers into believing all is well, I have to wonder, how long can he really do that? Time goes by in Boston and yet it seems no one's worried about the missing teens. Not even their parents! Especially when another teenager from their school reluctantly joins Ava and her friends in their crusade. It just makes you wonder, how neglectful are these parents? Why doesn't it get mentioned? Why aren't they calling their teenager's cell phones? And then there was another issue with moving car keys. Seemed like everyone had a set even when people kept getting separated.

But despite those minor issues that just seemed to nag at me when they popped up, I really did enjoy this one! Ava is quite the character and I find her situation fresh and unusual. Ava and crew even learn about a prophecy that is likely going to play a HUGE role in the next and I believe final book. Some of it seemed kind of obvious to me at the time when it didn't really for the characters, but I guess they were caught up in the moment of trying to rescue one of their friends at the time, to not see how obvious it was.

Now onto the romance! It seems like there is a love triangle brewing. Yup, another one of those. But seriously this is one of the more complex ones. I couldn't figure out which guy I was rooting for more. Ava loves Chance, but he's changed a lot since he became a vampire. And then there's Erik who has been there a lot for Ava recently and she for him. Plus now Ava and Chance are vampires and Erik is still human and a vampire hunter no doubt, so it does leave Ava in quite a predicament.

The ending was pretty awesome! Shocking revelations were happening left and right in the final chapters and they are going to be what sets us on course for the third book. There's even an evil little cliffhanger, but I am trying to stay on the positive side of things, but truly there's no telling what Jamie will have thrown at us! The wait to October is going to be loooong indeed!

Blood Awakening was a thrilling addition to the Blood Prophecy trilogy and while there are a few minor hangups I had as a reader, it was still a very enjoyable read. Nothing like adventure, romance and vampires to make for an incredible read!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars

This read was read for the COYER Challenge!