abmalada 's review for:

Blood Orange by Karina Halle

3.0

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I… don’t know how I feel about this. I want to say 3.5-4 stars for enjoyment, but there were definitely some issues that is downgrading this to 3 stars. As a filler read, I really enjoyed it and will read the next book, just don’t think too hard about it.

The plusses for this book were: gothic Venice vibes (immaculate), vampires and all the romance-y tropes you’d expect from that.

The negatives: the prologue/flashbacks were not my favorite. The prologue especially had me questioning if I wanted to read this. But they’re easy enough to get through. More importantly, nothing really happens in this book. All of the high stakes situations with the guild and the other vampires never gets resolved, even a little bit, so I’m hoping that happens in the next book. Regardless, this book can’t standalone.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’m conflicted on the Valtu/Dahlia resolution.

Spoiler

On the one hand, it makes sense that Valtu, being a scary vampire, snaps and kills her. It tracks. On the other hand, it feels like a cop out. Dahlia dies which is a convenient way of never addressing the vampire/vampire slayer issue. Or the fact that she wants to leave the guild. It also feels weird to me to throw Valtu’s storyline on ice for 21 years and it’s awfully convenient from an endgame-standpoint that Dahlia is reincarnated as a vampire. I’m sure we’ll get a discussion of it in the next book, but the whole situation leaves me feeling untethered.