Member Review

Rebecca Charity is a vampire hunter. She was recruited as she was standing in the morgue, identifying her parents' mangled bodies with the promise of finding out who killed them. She's all in when she's promised that the next mission will mean a promotion to the highest level in the organization and guaranteed knowledge of what happened to her parents. The mission is to infiltrate the vampires' most prestigious university and pose as a human eager to join their world. Seems easy, until she arrives at her dorm to find a coffin belonging to the maddeningly gorgeous Aliz Astra, scion of one of the most powerful vampire families. Things get even dicier when an Aliz heals Rebecca after an attack and makes her her familiar. Now, they have to figure out how to undo it, while also fighting the feelings that are growing between them as they spend more time together.

It feels too familiar at the beginning, but give Summerlee time to cook because what could have been just another vampire/vampire hunter story becomes so much more with each little revelation dropped along the way. It's emotional and suspenseful. You don't know what anyone's going to do until the very last moment, with surprise revelations dropping almost by the chapter.

The only reason I'm not rating this higher is that Aliz is too perfect and naive. There are valid reasons for how she is; she's justified in the way she is, but she reads a little too much like a fantasy on a pedestal for Rebecca. It's not a dealbreaker, but it annoyed me that there wasn't more there to justify the big emotions that develop.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the great paranormal read!