Review: The Turning by Jennifer Armintrout

Title: The Turning (Blood Ties #1)
Author: Jennifer Armintrout
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: June 1st, 2006
Word/Page Count: 384 pages
Format: Purchased

I'm no coward. I want to make that perfectly clear. But after my life turned into a horror movie, I take fear a lot more seriously now. I finally became Dr. Carrie Ames just eight months ago. Then I was attacked in the hospital morgue by a vampire. Just my luck.

So now I'm a vampire, and it turns out I have a blood tie to the monster who sired me. The tie works like an invisible leash and I'm bound to him no matter what I do. And of course he's one of the most evil vampires on earth. With my sire hell-bent on turning me into a soulless killer and his sworn enemy set to exterminate me, things couldn't get much worse -- except I'm attracted to them both.

Drinking blood, living as an immortal demon and being a pawn between two warring vampire factions isn't exactly how I'd imagined my future. But as my father used to say, the only way to conquer fear is to face it. So that's what I'll do. Fangs bared.

Maniai’s Review:

I'm not crazy about the romanticism of vampires, so I usually avoid modern vampire romances. I actually picked up The Turning after coming across Ms. Armintrout's blog and finding her to be intelligent and well-written. And yet, it took reading her short erotic piece, Glass Slipper (under the pen name Abigail Barnette) to make me actually open The Turning.

This was a very well-crafted book, and I am looking forward to continuing the series. It had so much going against it for my personal tastes - a 1st person POV narration, and the whole vampire thing. And yet, Armintrout pulls it off really well. The heroine, Dr. Carrie Ames, is frankly not immediately all that likable. And again, this manages to work. Instead of a 'spunky' marysue-ish heroine, we get someone with flaws and kind of a flat humanity that is pretty realistic. It's her struggles and weaknesses and growing into what she's become that makes her grow on you, I think. I guess it helps that it's about her becoming a vampire, rather than some human chick boinking the walking dead because they have fangs and sultry eyes.

The 'romance' was also very human - imperfect, uncertain, messy, and it left lots of room to see what happens later in the series.

I didn't give it five stars, mostly due to personal taste. It doesn't make me want to run out and read a bunch of other vampire paranormal romances, and it will probably be a while before I tear into the next one in this series, just because I need a break. But also, towards the end of the book, it just felt loose, like it was almost too imperfect and human. There's a lot going on, and a lot of set-up for future books, and I almost had a feeling of dread for that later on. I'm not sure I want to see how the Nathan/Carrie story ends or doesn't end. And I do hope to see some of the secondary characters later on.

All said, though, I think if you're going to pick up a 1st person POV vampire romance, this is a good one to read.