Review "Blood Song"

Title: Blood Song, (Bloodsinger, #1)
Author: Cat Adams
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: June 8th 2010 by Tor Books


Bodyguard Celia Graves plies her trade in a world where vampires roam the alleys of Tinseltown and movie stars openly practice witchcraft., where stre...more Bodyguard Celia Graves plies her trade in a world where vampires roam the alleys of Tinseltown and movie stars openly practice witchcraft., where streetcorner psychics have real powers and cops use memory enhancement spells on witnesses. Though she’s an ordinary human, Celia uses street smarts and charmed weapons to protect the rich and famous from mortal and supernatural threats.

She’s landed a plum job, protecting the Prince of a small but politically vital nation while he tours Los Angeles’s least savory hot spots. What should be a routine assignment goes badly wrong. Attacked by a master vampire, Celia knows she is about to die.

She’s startled to awaken on a cold metal table in a university lab. Celia Graves has become an Abomination, neither fully mortal nor fully vampire. Her “master” is hunting her, to destroy her or finish what his bite began. She’s accused of murder and the cops aren’t sure whether she should be locked up or staked. And then there’s the demon she glimpsed during the vampire attack . . . .
Struggling to cope with her new powers and trying not to terrify everyone she meets with a flash of fang, Celia reaches out for help from her once (and future?) lover, who is a powerful mage; his warrior-priest brother; a handsome werewolf who keeps his lupine nature concealed from the world; an elderly clairvoyant, and one trustworthy cop.

Celia Graves has three days to save the world, her sanity, and her soul.


When I first saw the cover, I was really intrigued. It rather dark but still capitivating, so you can say the cover literally sold the book for me. I was even more surprised that it was not lightly chosen. In one scene during the book, Celia, the heroine looks into the mirror and then describes her "new" self after becoming an abomination and it´s pretty much the model on the cover. The tone of the skin, the color of the eyes, the hair, everything looks just like Cat Adams describes Celia. I really like it when covers are chosen and created with such care!

But the cover is not the only thing about this book that I liked. When I first read the blurb, I was somehow reminded of Three Days to Dead, where the heroine also wakes up and has only three days to solve her own murder. I was afraid that the story would be oo much alike, but thank god I was wrong.

Blood Song depictures a world where clairvoyants, werewolves, vampires and demons are known to the common people. Known, but not necessarily liked. Quite the contrary, being a vampire practically equals a death sentence. Even the nickname for them, "bats" has a deprecatory sound to it. In this world, Celia, an ordinary vanilla human (a human with no supernatural powers), as she refers to herself- tries to make a living as bodyguard. It´s a job that allows her a fairly decent living. Still, she can´t afford to turn down the offer of the prince of a small (fictional) European country.
But the job goes awfully wrong and Celia ends up an Abomination, half human, half vampire. From the moment she wakes up she has to deal with the reactions of other people to her new self as well as her new cravings and instincts as half-vampire. The turn in this book is definetly not a positiv thing. Even though it has some positiv effects like heightened healing abilities, which Celia watches with an almost morbid fascination, the change is followed by even bigger trouble. Not only does Celia try to find the ones/bats resposible for her turn, she also has to convince the authorities, who are more than willing to lock her up or worse stake her at sight, that she is the actual victim of the attack. What´s more, there are still bats out to finish the job of killing her and a demon who wants her dead.
Only with the help of her friends is Celia able to barely make it from one day to another.
Vicky, her best friend and a powerful clairvoyant; Alex, Vicky´s girlfriend and police officer; Gibson, an honest cop, her exm Bruno, a very powerful mage and his brother, a warrior priest.
Celia is a very believable and down to earth heroine. The story is for a good part about her own struggle to come to terms with her new self as well as how she copes with the way other people react to her. She is always in danger of being mistaken for a bat and because of that being staked on sight. You can tell that it is very hard on her, especially so as she is not free of her own demons. Throughout the book there are hints to a event in the past that has not only changed her profoundly, but also her entire family. Celia is a strong heroine without being too kick-ass, smart but also vulnerable and dangerously weak at times. Even though she really has to deal with a lot in this book, she is never whiny. When she´s sad, she has every right to be so.
If you´re looking for hot and steamy romance and sex in your Urban Fantasy you might be disappointed with Blood Song. There is romantic tension and more than one possible love interest for the next book, but it is still Urban Fantasy, not PNR.
The story is very cleverly planned and written. There are a moments that make you wonder at first, but as your read the book on, all falls into place. The story takes a few turns I hadn´t seen coming, which just shows the the author (or rather authors) really know what they are doing. A huge twist at the end opens a whole new perspective to the book and exciting possibilities for the next book in the series, Siren Song.
Blood Song is a powerful book not only about action (there is a whole lof of action in this book, believe me!). It´s also about finding a way to deal with a situation that turns your life upside down in the worst way imaginable, when everything around you seems to fall apart.

All in all, Blood Song is in my opinion a topnotch Urban Fantasy book with great character and an intricate, well planned and cleverly written story.

Blood Song gets 4 of 5 points from me!

The next book in the series, Siren Song is released in September 2010.




If you want to learn more about the authors, visit their homepage here. Among other things, you can find a first excerpt of Siren Song!