My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey

“ Solange has always known she is a vampire. And as the only female vampire ever born, not initiated, she is surrounded by danger on all sides – from other vampire tribes who want to take her blood into their lineage, and from the bounty hunters who are set on destroying her and her family.

When she is kidnapped, it’s up to her elder brother, Nicholas, and best friend, Lucy, to save her.

But can Lucy save herself from Nicholas, who temps her with every look – what will be her own fate if she surrenders her heart to a vampire?” – Book Cover

 

There is an ancient prophecy in the vampire community that says a female vampire will be born to the Drake family and she will become queen. Solange is the first ever female vampire born, and it doesn’t make everyone happy, including herself. Solange doesn’t want to be queen for one, and she is tired of being curtsied by other vampire clans who wants her to give them vampire babies, or her power. She is tired of bounty hunters trying to put an end to her life, and most of all she is sick of being over protected by her seven older brothers. Thankfully, she has her best friend Lucy to keep her from going insane.

 

Lucy is human, grew up with the Drake family as if it was her own, and she would do anything for her best friend. She might not be the object of a prophecy but she also has problems of her own. Trying to keep Solange alive being her biggest concern, but she also has to deal with a weird and sudden attraction for Nicholas, Solange’s brother, whom she always enjoyed bothering and broke his nose at more than one occasion.

 

My Love Lies Bleeding (or it’s US version, Heart at Stake, which title I think makes more sense by the way) is a great debut novel from Alyxandra Harvey.  A good vampire story with interesting Lore, filled with action and hard decisions, and a spark of romance. It has all the needed ingredients for a good Paranormal YA book.

 

I have to point out that the narration is rather original. Every chapters or so the narration switches back and forth between Solange and Lucy. It has the biggest advantage to display all the action, taking place at different locations at same time and gives us an exclusive window to both main character’s feeling with a first person narration.  Even though the narrator is clearly stated at the beginning of every chapters (in bold!), I had to adjust at the beginning because I would get confused as to which character’s POV I was reading. But this is most likely due to my goldfish memory.

 

I really loved the story, you can relate to both girls and I liked their emotional dilemma. The end hinted at potential love stories, and I was sad not to get to read them. I’m a sucker for romance and I wanted more! I’m hoping we’ll get more info in the following book, Blood Feud, but the main characters are different in the second installment, so I’m not getting my hopes to high.

 

While the main character were well embodied, I wished Solange’s brothers were more concrete. They are mentioned many times, involved in fights, but we don’t really know much about them (except Nicholas). So hopefully we will get to discover them in the following books.

 

If you like Young Adult Vampire books, I suggest you pick this book, the second will release in June so you still have some time to catch up before the next round!

 

Read an excerpt

 

 

The Drake Chronicles:

My love Lies Bleeding (Heart at Stake)

Blood Feud (June 2010)

 

Book Stats:

Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books (Jan 4 2010)

ISBN-10: 1408803402

ISBN-13: 978-1408803400

Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm

 

Book Source: Personal Shelf

Posted by Tynga at 14:35

 Review, Vampire, young adult  9 People left their mark

Tynga is a 32 years old mom of two, from Montreal, working as a lab technician in an hospital specialized in heart disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading all things Paranormal and photography.

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