Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Book Review: The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael

The Legend of the Blue Eyes
The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael

Genre: YA paranormal romance - vampires
Publication date: March 15th 2013
*Review copy was provided by the author is exchange for an honest review*


Arianna Grace liked her boring, Midwestern, teenage life where she ignored the many unanswered questions of her childhood. Why were her parents dead? Why did she not have family? Where was she raised until she was five? When someone offers to explain it all, Arianna thinks she’s just getting answers. Instead, she is thrown into a world of night humans who drink blood.

On Arianna's sixteenth birthday, her world is thrown upside down when she changes into a vampire. Night humans, or demons, as some call them, live in normal society. Learning all of the new rules of a world she didn’t know existed might be hard enough, but it's further complicated by two former-friends that now want to help her take her role as the successor to her grandfather. 

There is a war going on between the night humans. Sides have been taken and lines are not crossed. Four main clans of night humans are struggling for control of the night. Divided into two sides, clans Baku and Tengu have been at war for centuries with the clans Dearg-dul and Lycan. That is, until Arianna Grace finds out the truth; she’s the bridge of peace between the two sides. But not everyone wants peace. With the night humans divided, Arianna is now a pawn in the war between them. She must choose a side—her mother’s family or her father’s—and for once in her life, decide her own fate.

WHOA. This book was so good and intriguing, but yet so different and bizarre that my mouth is still hanging open.. XD

Arianna, a typical teenager, finds out that she is a vampire, and not a typical vampire either. She is a both a purebred Baku and a purebred Dearg-dul - two different vampire species that don't get along with each other.
Apparently, Arianna is the most powerful night human alive and many people want her hurt. That's why she was surrounded her whole life by her PPU - a group of people that were assigned to protect her. Arianna finds out that everyone in her life, including her friends, knew about her being a vampire and never told her a word about it.
While Arianna is trying to get used to her life as a vampire and to discover her special abilities, she finds herself in the middle of an ancient war between the Dearg-dul and the Baku. Which side will she choose, if any? And how can she stay alive when so many people want her dead?

First of all, I have to say that the author had some really original ideas about vampires. In this book, vampires rarely need to kill for blood. Each vampire has a least one Keeper - a human or a night human who is fully controlled by the vampire and provides him with blood. The weird thing is that so many people wanted to be Arianna's Keepers!! That was more than a little twisted. Who wants to be a walking blood fridge?!?
Arianna was surrounded all the time by guys who were more than happy to let her drink their blood as much as she wanted, so she never had to hunt or anything.

Talking about guys - the romance in this book was my favorite part of the book! I know that many people dislike love triangles and I have to agree that recently there are way too much of them in YA books. But it this book, there wasn't a love triangle. There was something else, something I've never seen before - a love PENTAGON. Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but think about it - 4 swoony guys in one book!! And they didn't even hate each other. They worked together to protect and help Arianna. I was so jealous :X
It's hard for me to decide which guy I liked best... I think it would be Turner. Turner understood exactly what bothered Arianna and always found a way to cheer her up and help her. He encouraged her to think for herself and to stop following orders all the time. It was really heartwarming to see how he loved her and  how he would give up anything for her. ♥

Arianna herself wasn't a very good character. She was quite passive and always let the guys around her fight for her. Well, I can't blame her... If I had 4 guys around my who were willing to do anything for me, I would have done the same! Arianna was the type of girl that follows orders. She didn't think enough for herself. There were parts when the guys put her to SLEEP while they were fighting. I was expecting Arianna to be much more kick-ass, but she wasn't... I hope she'll find more courage in the next books. XP

This book was very good and hooked me from the beginning. I will probably pick up the next book because I really want to know how the plot continues!!

Recommended to: people who like unique and different paranormal romance books.

16 comments:

  1. I'm kind of wary of vampire books right now, but I'm so happy that this one worked out for you, Sapir. Those are some interesting twists on the typical vampire folklore, too! But yeah, I don't see much realism in the fact that so many guys volunteered to become food for Arianna whenever she was hungry. I mean, where's your sense of pride?! Aw, disappointed about Arianna.

    All in all, I don't think I'll be checking this book out, but thanks for such a helpful and thorough review!

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    1. I am too.. but I've decided to give this one a chance anyway.
      Yeah, it was indeed very weird that people are WILLING to give blood to vampires.
      Thank you for such a nice comment :D

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  2. Okay, it was already starting to sound weird in your second paragraph explaining the two breeds that she is. O___O And then we get to the pentagon thingie. Okay, I have to admit, thanks to manga and anime and Asian Dramas, I have heard of them, and they are REALLY good in manga/anime/dramas. But for a book? O_____O I feel like I might get a headache! XD And then she gets put to sleep? DX Come on Arianna!

    I MIGHT check this, just because I'm currently reading Dracula and I doubt any vampire book will come even remotely close to as good as Dracula is. :D WONDERFUL REVIEW, SAPIR! ^^

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    1. LOL the pentagon was sooo weird. But it wasn't bad or anything.. just slightly hard-to-believe. Arianna was sleeping WAY TOO MUCH in this book. She missed the best fights because she was sleeping.. O_O

      Thank you for reading my review ♥♥

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  3. I really don't remember the last vampire book I read, but this does sound like I would like it. Great review.

    Jenea @ Books Live Forever

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  4. Great review! First time I've seen this book. Looks interesting. Also, thanks for your sweet comment on Cuddlebuggery's review of my book today. ;)

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  5. This sounds pretty cool and I'm impressed that the author was able to bring in vampires with originality! Props! I hadn't heard of this one before (I love the cover too!) but it sounds neat. A love pentagon you say? >.<

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    1. Yep. A love pentagon. And it was actually entertaining in some ways..
      Thanks for visiting my blog (:

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  6. I don't read a lot of vampire books but I do like how original this one sounds. And wow, a love pentagon! Thanks for sharing. :)

    ~Sara @ Forever 17 Books

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    1. My neither, but this one was definitely special. (:

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  7. A love pentagon? Well, that is a first. I haven't heard of this but like the cover.
    Brandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog

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  8. It's too bad that Arianna wasn't a stronger character. It sounds like this book would have been really amazing if she'd stepped up more. And I love the cover! Oh, and the take on vampires actually sounds really great!

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    1. I would have liked the book better if Arianna was much stronger, too.
      Thanks for visiting (:

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