Bad Blood Rising (The Dark Watchman Book 0)
By Jake Jeffries
Let me start with the fact that I have a love-hate relationship with this book. It is certainly not something I would select to read were it not for the fact that I was asked to rate it. Yet, I couldn’t put it down! Why? I’ll get into that.
The author lists his book as “fantasy, paranormal and urban.” The fantasy part I got. The paranormal part? Kinda. The urban? I have no idea what that means. (Books written for people living in the city? Wow, is that stuck up or what!) Me? I would rate this book as; cheesy, vampire-ish, paranormal comedy, suburban. All meant in a good way! (I just threw the suburban in to have a little fun.)
Bad Blood Rising centers around Vangetsu Ocelot, a super powered vampire who is chasing Mathias, another super powered vampire who killed Vangetsu’s family way back when. Along the way he meets and couples up with: Ramona, Deputy to the Grim Reaper; Jason, a gay vampire; Selene, a witch full of magical power; and Odin, a one-eyed kitten who becomes his faithful companion and saves his ass several times.
In the beginning of each chapter there are cartoon like caricatures that will forever change how you view vampires (including the gay ones), witches, wizards and one eyed kittens. Along about chapter 5 or so they recruit him into the Legion of Light with the following plea (and bribes):
“Become an agent of The Legion of Light. We could use your help especially with the casualties from the factory and the troll attack last night. You get free housing, free nourishment, get to kill or capture bad guys and best of all you get a bitchin’ new duster.” (I especially like the “bitchin duster” and now I want one!)
Anyway, he soon finds out that his daughter isn’t dead and that Mathias and his organization (the Order of Darkness) changed her name from Eliza to Helena (Which is why he couldn’t find her?) and now they plan to kill her. During his quest he and his team run into werewolves, witches, wizards, arachnobots, ninjas, vampires electric bullets, ice bullets and…well a lot of things.
I could go on and on but instead I’ll tell you that the story starts a little slow and gets cheesier and funnier as it goes. Yes, it’s cheesy but in a good way. The writing is just so, so with a lot of unnecessary descriptions, short choppy sentences and errors that occasionally get to be annoying.
In summary this is not my kind of vampire book. But if you’re into fantasy and paranormal books and live in the city (?), this book is for you! A cute, funny read worth your time!
PS Keep writing Jake! You’re a great story (fable) teller and with a few corrections, you’re going to make a wonderful author.
Bob Boze
(A note from A. Fae, For those who haven’t figured it out, Bob enjoys writing certain reviews laced with humor. And we love it!)
