Blood Ties Book One: The Turning

I read each book in this series and while I'm not a huge fan of romance mixed with Vampires, I didn't mind it here. The writer is consistant and she's created an accessible female protaganist. I am looking forward to the forth book, and I hope people on the fence, looking for something to sink their teeth (mind the pun), give this series a chance. My best thing is that it's very true to the world it creates, and the Vampire lore stays in tack. I will keep this author on my short list to see what she comes up with next!

One of the best vampire books I read in a long time. Carrie is a perfectly flawed heroin. By perfectly flawed I mean she actually grows and develops through the series. The men in her life are just as realistic. No one really evolves into the typical perfect romance novel heroes, but personally I liked that. Too often I've run into characters that perfectly fit some mold and never deviate from that. With this series, you never know what to really expect.

I took out this book in the library because I am into the paranormal romance novels. However, this book was a true surprise, a refreshing one. I do not really see the romance in the book. It was dark and just paranormal fantasy. I am not sure what genre it should be placed in. However, it is a fantastic read. It begins with Carrie Ames, a new doctor, who is working in the ER. A patient is wheeled in and is just a heap of cuts, torn flesh, and bones that are splintered. An eye is missing from the socket and there is no sign of life. Carrie freaks out and heads for the locker room. Her teacher and the ER Supervising Doctor, asks why she wanted to be a doctor. Originally, she thought it was because she wanted to help people. She realizes that her father has pushed her in this direction for her whole life. Also, she begins to think that it is the power to control life. An amazing way to describe a doctor's wish to enter the field. Carrie who is determined not to show fear and give up on the field of medicine heads to the morgue. She wants to look at the John Doe patient who frightened her earlier. She searches the morgue but cannot find him or the orderly who was supposed to be in the morgue. She finally sees a shrouded body and can make out that it is the orderly who is dead on the table. She is suddenly attacked brutally. We feel her pain and the description takes us through her deadly experience. She awakens some time later to find that she has been in the hospital a month. Detectives come in to ask questions but they think she is some nut case. She finds that in her chart that she flatlined in the OR and her body temp has decreased dramatically. No doctor knows what to make of it. Carrie cannot cure her forocious (spelling?) appetite. She smokes but it does not seem to satisfy her anymore. The story twists again where she meets a dark person by the name of Nathan and a teenager, Ziggy. Carrie is in the process of learning that she is a vampire and how her life must change. In this narrative format, she is able to walk us through her turmoil, the change, and the confusion of this process. It shows that it is not a romantic or an easy experience. As a scientist who only looks for facts rather than faith, she is having a harder time dealing with the change. She searches the Internet and tries to read a guide book about vampirism. Carrie fights the urge to drink blood and shuns the idea that she is a vampire. She begins to understand that the patient who attacked her in the morgue is now her sire. This story is a nonstop rollercoaster ride. While some parts are predictable, the ending is very different than most romance novels. It is refreshing to read an almost realistic look into the world of vampires. I love the way that Jennifer Armintrout does not see it always as a wonderful process. She depicts the ultimate evil vampire with a weakness that is based upon humanity. The big bad vampire just wants to be loved. She shows in this novel w

I enjoyed this book tremendously and finished it in two days. The story is dark and the characters are complex. Definetly not a book for everyone, but I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Carrie Ames is a newly "minted" ER doctor. She has followed her life plan to get to this paint in her life. But, it goes horribly wrong one evening. When she is confronted with a patient who she thinks is beyond redemption she freezes and runs away. Later after talking with her boss she decides to face her fears head on and goes to the morgue to look at the body. This is when things go wrong she quickly figures out that the coroner has been brutally murdered, and she is attacked and left for dead by the very corpse she went to see. The issue is that the corpse was a vampire Cyrus. After waking up and finally being released from the hospital she starts to except that she has been "turned" into a vampire herself. She seeks the internet for information. Eventually stumbling on Nathan Grant who is also a vampire she starts to understand all the changes that are taking place. She accidentally runs into her new "Sires" lover (Dalia) who is out to kill her to keep her sire (Cyrus) from interacting with her. Nathan saves her after he run in with Dalia and then turns to give her an ultimatum. She can either join the movement he is a part of, which believes that vampires should never harm anyone, and those that do are to be eradicated. In fact he was the one who had attached Cyrus the night he ended up in the hospital where Dr. Carrie worked; he had an execution order to kill Cyrus from the movement. As Dr. Carrie is trying to decide what path to take she is drawn to Nathan. This is why when Dalia attacks Nathan and puts him in a coma Dr. Carrie is willing to go live with her sadistic sire. She trades her freedom for Nathan's life. But she won't let anyone tell Nathan this and he suddenly treats her like a leper. When Nathan's adopted son runs into trouble he runs to Dr. Carrie she is put in a further tight spot when she becomes determined to save the sons life. Now she needs to keep them both safe, especially during the superstar even of the year for vampires, "The Vampire New Year", when the movement plans to attack and kill Cyrus and his Sire. This is definitely a book I wasn't expecting from Harlequin. It doesn't have the normal happily ever after story line. Also there are graphic accounts of injury and torture by the vampires. But, that being said this was a fantastic debut novel by Armintrout. If the series keeps up she will be held in the same company as Charlene Harris, Laurel Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon. He characters are well thought out and she took the time to work through how people go about not aging and having dead people disappear and not be suspected.