Review of Reign of Blood by Alexia Purdy and Giveaway

Reign of Blood was a different kind of read for me. I am relatively new to the paranormal genre. My experiences so far have been more of the paranormal romance variety. When I have encountered vampires, they have appeared almost human when you meet them. That is not the case here. Sure, there is some drama, but compared to this book, those were all light in comparison. This book is significantly darker.


April Tate, her mother and her six year-old brother are the last three humans, that they know of, living in Las Vegas. One year ago, a virus overtook the population, turning most of the humans into a hybrid species of vampires that are more zombie-like in nature. They don't speak. They move slowly, yet attack humans with the hopes of feeding on them. One bite can easily turn you into one of them.

April and her family head out one day to stock up on supplies. they separate, to make the work faster. When April returns to their van, she finds that her family is gone. She is left to fend for herself, encountering yet another breed of vampire along the way and discovering secrets she never knew.

The book reads more like an action movie than others in the genre I have read. It starts out slow, with just a few small battles between April and the feral vampires, as she tries to find her vampire. The story is told in the first-person, so you feel every movement, no matter how tedious, as she does it. You can feel her loss and confusion that she tries to hide behind her desire to avenge her family. That slow pace quickly builds up, though, when she encounters a new breed of vampire that shares all kinds of secrets with her.

All of these battle scenes do mean there is a lot of blood and violence. If you can't handle gore, then this book is not for you. If you can stomach hearing about blood and ichor, machetes and decapitation, then you are all good to go. I am usually okay with such things, but my stomach turned here and there because Alexia is so descriptive, I could picture every moment. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

A few twists and turns in the plot may catch you off guard. I felt like the final chapter read more like an epilogue, but it leaves the story open for future books. I believe Alexia Purdy intends for this to be an entire series. I look forward to reading the next installment.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

If you purchase the ebook, you will also have the chance to preview Coexist by Julia Crane. Use the Amazon link below to purchase the ebook copy. (Hard copies are also available.) You can also enter the giveaway below, to win your own free ebook copy, as well as some fun swag!



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