Book Review: Reign of Blood by Alexia Purdy

 

Reign of Blood (Reign of Blood #1) by Alexia Purdy

 

"Never tease anything that wants to eat you. My name is April Tate and my blood is the new gold. Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother. The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I'm just hoping to make it to the next Vegas sunrise..."

In a post-apocalyptic world, a viral epidemic has wiped out most of the earth’s population, leaving behind few humans but untold numbers of mutated vampires. April is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the remains of Las Vegas one year after the outbreak. She has become a ferocious vampire killer and after her family is abducted, she goes searching for them. What she finds is a new breed of vampire, unlike any she has seen before. Unsure of whom she can trust, she discovers that her view of the world is not as black and white as she once thought, and she's willing to bend the rules to rescue her family. But in trying to save them, she may only succeed in bringing her fragile world crashing down around her.







Reign of Blood captured my attention from the beginning. Alexia Purdy has really created a creepy, post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. The cover is marvelous and it fits perfect with the story.



April can kick some vampire butt.
April is an awesome main character. She and her family have learned to adapt to a world now overrun with blood-thirsty vampires. Taking survival seriously, she collects weapons and knows how to uses them.

And when her family goes missing suddenly, she stops at nothing to find them. This leads to her taking on the role of hardcore, vampire slayer.

The Action
The action scenes keep the reader intrigued during her "solo" period. I enjoyed her survival mode because so much was going on when she would venture into the city hunting. Warning some of the scenes are a bit gruesome and bloody. Nothing overly terrible, but it did make me cringe every now and then. But hey-- what else do you expect from a vampire slayer?

The Vamps
The city (and world) is desolate because of a disease that has swept through changing people into almost zombie-like vampires. And April and her family are the only known humans that have survived. But not every person affected turned to a blood-thirsty, mindless vampire. Some turned to hybrids vampires, who have more humanlike qualities.

Enter the vampires that aren't (only) bloody thirsty and they know about her missing family, and cue the MC's love interest. And sadly, cue some instalove. The love interest was hard for me to buy, since April is always talking about how she hates vampires. But after I let go over the quick attraction bit, Rye really grew on me and I liked him with April.

Standing Up For Herself
I love that April doesn't change or lose sight of her goals even though she met Rye. She still carries her weapons around, still willing to do anything to get her family back, and still takes down vicious vampires.

The dinning hall scene, where she stands up for herself, is one of my favorites. At first, I thought she had slacked off because she was with the hybrids, but then she proves once again how tough she really is. It earns her respect and I loved every minute.

The Ending.
The beginning of the book slowly hashes out all of these problems (and more that I didn't want to spoil), and we see countless scenes of April slaying vampires. It builds pretty well, but the ending felt rushed and abrupt.

I wanted so much more from those next scenes. And when I started the next chapter, it wasn't there. The characters had jumped like a week in to the future. It left me clueless how everything went down. And it wasn't fulfilling. It left many, many questions.

So...
Reign of Blood was a solid three star read for me. Even though the ending threw me for a loop, I still enjoyed the plot and want to read the second book.

If you enjoy post-apocalyptic settings, vampires, action, a cute relationship, and a tough, loyal main character than you should definitely give this book a shot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book, which was given in exchange for an honest review.

 

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