Strange Angels 1-14

Ok so I didn't do this book chapter by chapter and for this book it's pretty ok to do that.

See the chapters in this book are pretty short. We're talking about eight to maybe fifteen pages if you're lucky. It was really easy to get to chapter 15.

From chapter one you're introduced to a relatively normal sixteen-year-old girl. From the synopsis it's pretty hard to believe, I know. Dru worries about the same things we did in high school, hair, make up a female body, you know the usual lol.

Here's the difference: her father and her hunt things that go bump in the night. I know, I know, that line is so cliche but it's true. Lili St. Crow calls it different stuff but it's basically the same. They hunt vampires (suckers) and werewolfs (werewulf) and other random demons and nasties.

Dru's always been the assistant, never the brains or brawn of the duo. But when her dad busts through her kitchen door a zombie, Dru has to act fast. It's hard to kill your own dad even though it's not really him anymore. Somehow she does and leaves him rotting on their frozen living room floor. Dru never turned the heat on the night before while she was waiting for her dad to come home from his hunt.

With her father dead, what will she do now? Enter her new "friend", Graves. She made his acquaintance the first time she skipped school. He gave her a normal place to be at rest for a few hours. Except now she couldn't afford any type of normal. She was digesting killing her father, her father turning into a zombie. The biggest one was that she killed him. When Graves sat in front of her at the mall's food court, his company was not welcome.

Thankfully though he didn't pay attention to her attitude. Graves bought her food and gave her a place to hole up for a while.  Oh yeah and he did this with no questions asked. The break only lasted for a day though, come night time again trouble had found her again.

A burning dog "the size of a shetland pony" had found her in the mall. Thankfully it was after closing time and there was no one there but her and Graves but Graves had gone to someplace else in the mall. Dru had no idea what this thing was, nothing that they had ever encountered before with her dad.

While trying to dodge it she runs into a dumbfound Graves. The burning dog drowns in the mall fountain and behind Graves is a werewulf. Dru raises her gun to fire too slow and it attacks Graves. Sadly it bites him in the shoulder. She fires again and blows out the wolf's jaw, buying her time to get Graves and run.

Think Dru, think. She can' stay in the mall, she has an injured boy that's loosing a lot of blood and going in shock. Oh yeah and he can turn anytime within twelve hours because he was bit and "infected". Dru forces herself to go to the only place that will offer them any shelter: Her house. You know the one where she just shot her dad.

Once they got there and it was a long journey, Dru was so tired she wasn't thinking straight. She striped them both down to underwear and huddled under her blanket in her room. Classic way to fight hypothermia.

Of course she wakes up first and instantly starts thinking again. Need to tie Graves up, wipe down more and get something in her stomach. She wasn't impressed with the plan but it was all she had. If Graves changed she'd be in trouble and more than likely dead. Better to be safe and tie him up.

She wipes down, eats cereal and tried to think about what comes next when Graves wakes up. Needless to say it was an interesting scene, or it would have been for them if she hadn't had the gun in her hand the whole time she was asking questions. The last one asking if he's a virgin and the gun to his head. Yeah, Dru traumatized the poor boy. Satisfied though she untied him and went back downstairs.

So here's where we are in the book now. Graves comes to the conclusion that Dru isn't all that bad and sticks around to help her and asks her twenty questions about what's really out there. Dru is still trying to figure out what to do next. Though having someone with her that isn't abandoning her....at least yet makes her feel a little better.

The burning question in her right now is who hurt her dad and turned him into a zombie because it WAS done on purpose. This was no accident.

Bloodlines- Chapter One

So chapter one of the book is usually always your introduction. With spin off series it's usually an introduction along with a brief summary of the story it is spinning off of.

Bloodlines is no different except for the fact all your recap is in the story itself. There is no prologue or 'in the previous story...'

As promised Richelle Mead has started with Sydney Sage's story. Our lovely, ex-vampire hating Alchemist. Yes an Alchemist in this story is still one that messes around with science to bring about magical things.

This particular Alchemist however is the one that disobeyed all teachings and helped our awesome dhampir Rose Hathaway escape from Moroi prison and prove her innocence. That action got Sydney, well for lack of a better term right now, sidelined from all duties.

Now, the Alchemists need Sydney's assistance. Lissa's illegitimate sister Jill Mastrano is in danger. The Moroi have this pesky little rule that in order to be Queen you have to have at least one family member alive. Stupid rule but hey if it works for them who's to argue? However it puts Lissa in a precarious spot because Jill is the only family that Lissa has left alive and just the year before found out about her sister when the people voted her Queen.

Sydney, in chapter one, has to convince her superiors (her father included) that she and not her younger sister Zoe is up for the task. It's when she finds out what the task is that she starts getting cold feet.

Sydney and Jill are to be roommates at Amberwood Prep, and that's not the best part. She has to liaison with Keith Darnell with whom she is mortal enemies with. The reason why comes a bit later in the book, for now you only know that there is a secret between the two of them that makes them hate each other with a fiery passion.

For a first chapter, Richelle Mead sets the mood to intriguing right off the bat.