Early Review of A Blood Seduction (Vamp City, #1) by Pamela Palmer

• Title: A Blood Seduction: A Vamp City Novel
• Classification: Adult Fiction
• Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance (I'm not sure which)
• Format: Paperback, 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (May 29, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0062107496
• ISBN-13: 978-0062107497
• Please Note: Contains some violence. Also, I read the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of this book, therefore, there may be some discrepancies between what I quote and the final version. Assume any and all errors are mine because they probably are.  
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"A vampire may play with his food, but he never sets it free."

People in the Washington D.C. area have recently been disappearing at an alarming rate. In the last six weeks twelve people have gone missing. It's thought a serial killer might be walking the streets, but so far no clues or bodies have been found. The police are baffled.

When Lily, a friend of Quinn's brother, goes missing they start searching for her. Within minutes of Zack talking to her and just a short distance from where they were to meet, Lily had disappeared. Quinn always knew she was different. Usually it was silly little things that happened that just weren't normal, like the changing of the colors of her clothes. One moment what was blue turned purple, what was red turned yellow, what was white turned bright blue, but on at least two occasions scarier things had happened. Now she was seeing things, visions of another older world. Each time the visions would manifest she'd feel a chill skate over her skin. She thought she was going crazy and perhaps loosing her mind, but now she's not so sure. While searching for Lily, she gets one of her visions and the two, she and her brother, travel through a temporary portal only she can see and enter a world Quinn thought only existed in her imagination. Something tells the two they're not in D.C. anymore. They now knew how Dorthy felt when she entered the land of Oz and it was not pleasant.

Welcome to Washington V.C. aka Vamp City. 

"In 1870, the sorcerer Phineas Blackstone created a city just for vampires. A city where the sun never shines...It exists precisely where the original lies. One on top of the other, duplicate worlds. Duplicates at first. No more. The outside has changed. And this one has moldered...They traveled freely between the two worlds, living here, hunting there when they chose. Until the magic began to fail...Now the vampires are trapped by the failing magic..If another sorcerer is not found soon, one to renew the magic, all those caught in Vamp City will die."

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I just adored this story. Ms. Palmer's world building skills are phenomenal. She gave a fresh feel to an old genre that left me wanting more. It has a dark feel to it and the vampires are more like the traditional ones we all read about before the Twilight invasion. While a lot of questions were left unanswered, this is only the first book of hopefully many more in a new series, so I expect more answers will be forthcoming.

Some of the vampires in V.C. feed off more than just blood, they feed off emotions. Some feed off fear, some pain, while others on pleasure. Humans are considered slaves in V.C. and are treated as the title would imply. The main law of the land is that vampires rule and humans have no rights. They are considered property, playthings, and mobile meals. Vampires are stronger, quicker, and can travel great distances in the blink of an eye making escape virtually impossible.

When Quinn and Zack breached the V.C. boundary they were captured and claimed almost immediately. Unfortunately they ended up under the ownership of different vamps. It is rumored no human has ever escaped Vamp City and most will not survive long. One of the biggest obstacles in Vamp City is figuring out who to trust, if that's even possible. It seems like everyone has some sort of hidden agenda for what they do. The question is what is that agenda? The one thing that Quinn has going for her is she can still see glimpses of D.C. via sunbeams. They're cracks in the magic that temporarily open portals between DC and VC while letting sunlight in, but strangely most cannot pass through them.

Quinn is smart, loyal, and brave. While she doesn't always make the best decisions, her heart is in the right place. Now she's focused on only thing, freeing herself and her brother from the Hell on earth they've found themselves as quickly as possible. With each passing day the chances of  both of them surviving decreases.Quinn's best chance at saving them is to convince the dangerous yet seductively alluring vampire Arturo to help her. Arturo's loyalties, however, lie with someone else and bargaining with him is like making a deal with the devil--you take a chance at getting burned.

I gave this one 5 out 5 roses. It was such a good read. It captured my attention during and after I finished reading it. I could see this one turning into a movie or miniseries. The thing I loved the most is I have no clue what will happen in the next book but I so want to. *sigh* I love it when a book does that to me. If you haven't figured it out already I HIGHLY recommend this one. A word of warning--if you're looking for a 'Happily Ever After' romance wrapped up neatly in one book, this one doesn't have that. It looks like the real romance is going to be one that spans more than one book. I'm not even sure if we've met 'the one' for our heroine, but we'll have to patiently wait and see. It does have a love scene, but I use the term 'love' loosely. On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale, this one scored a STEAM rating--too hot for a fan, but you still have a handle on things. You should use extreme caution when reading a book with this rating in public. People may inquire as to why you looked flustered and flushed.