Blood Ties Book One

The Turning

By: Jennifer Armintrout

Narrated by: Elenna Stauffer

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

I'm no coward. I want to make that perfectly clear. But after my life turned into a horror movie, I take fear a lot more seriously now. I finally became Dr. Carrie Ames just eight months ago. Then I was attacked in the hospital morgue by a vampire. Just my luck.

So now I'm a vampire, and it turns out I have a blood tie to the monster who sired me. The tie works like an invisible leash, and I'm bound to him no matter what I do. And of course he's one of the most evil vampires on earth. With my sire hell-bent on turning me into a soulless killer and his sworn enemy set to exterminate me, things couldn't get much worse...except I'm attracted to them both.

Drinking blood, living as an immortal demon, and being a pawn between two warring vampire factions isn't exactly how I'd imagined my future. But as my father used to say, the only way to conquer fear is to face it. So that's what I'll do. Fangs bared.

Don't miss the rest of the Blood Ties series, including Book Two, The Possession and Book Three, Ashes to Ashes, and Book Four, All Souls' Night.

©2006 Jennifer Armintrout (P)2006 Audible, Inc.
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Critic reviews

"This fast, furious novel is a squirm-inducing treat." (Publishers Weekly)

If you like to smoke....

If you like listening to graphical almost sexual detail on how much the protagonist likes to smoke this is the book for you.

But personally other than knowing that a character smokes for character development reasons, I feel that smoking is utterly useless in the telling of a story. I stopped listening to the story during one of these descriptions and never finished it.

Other than that the story was not bad and if I had been reading it I would have been able to easily skim over those paragraphs and probably would have finished.

Disappointing

I love most of vampire and fantasy books. I can let go my grasp on reality and be carried away into another world. I’m not even that picky. Though I suspend reality when reading or listening to a book, I don't become brain dead! In every fantasy the author needs to set up the "rules" the characters live by. For example, vamps cannot be killed by a stake through heart; they can mesmerize people, they have super strength. Fantasy writers pick and choose which of the legends and contradictory information out there on vampires or witches, or whatever the subject is and creates a reality the characters interact in. Unfortunately this author was horribly inconsistent and made this fantasy world seem "fake". Those of you who are fantasy readers know what I mean. The narrator wasn't that bad, I found the author's lack of integrity to the story more distracting than anything else. I had to rewind to make sure I heard it right more than once. The most irritating example of this is when a vamp feeds from someone they seem to go into that person's memories. The heroine, a new vampire, does it more than once, yet she willingly lets the bad, more experienced vamp feed from her without ever mentioning having to build walls to keep secrets from him. It went right into a sex scene and I got the feeling she "forgot" to keep to the "rules" she made up for her vamps just to put in a sex scene. It wasn't convenient for the characters to stick to the memory thing right then... of course she went back to it when she needed to reveal more about the characters. It was frustrating and I couldn't wait to finish the darn thing so I could just end it! I wished I wasn't the kind of person that HAS to finish a book once it is started, this one was torture and it had so much potential when reading the blurb! I think a new editor could help her.

ok story, reader not that good

The story has potential but needs a new reader. She can't do male voices or multiple characters in one story. Because of this I wont be getting any other books with this narrator.

didn't like the main character at all

I didn't like the main character at all. she seems shallow and moronic. It makes no sense whatsoever that the story work out in her favor at all because she does everything possible to make situations worse. at no point does she make informed intelligent decisions that help in any way. instead, all her decisions and actions are based on "well, I just had to do it. no other way was even possible because of my FEELINGS." This is "dumb overly emotional female lead" at its worst.

Very Dissappointed

After reading the preview I was interested in the book. I downloaded it and halfway through was regretable about the purchase. It was not at all like I expected and very grusome. I was planning on listening to the rest of the series but have decided not to listen further.

so-so

The story is pretty light and breezy. The dialogues reflect this.

Having read L.K. Hamilton's and Kim Harrison's books, I found this title somewhat lacking. The action "wasn't." Really. And the erotica was less than skillful. In fact, it could have been left out entirely.

The narrator has a voice that I could listen to while she read grocery lists. However, her characterizations aren't quite perfected and "Nathan's" accent frequently slips towards the end of long phrases.

Overall, it was entertaining enough, though I won't continue with the series.

Couldn't finish it

I found it to be very badly written. It's...smut, filled with plot and character inconsistencies. And really, really stupid characters.

I couldn't finish the first third. Not so much a vampire story but a bodice-ripping romance with some vampires thrown in.

Eugh!

SMH

Ick... I didn't like this book. I didn't purchase the other two! I couldn't take Ziggy and Dalhia's voices... I couldn't deal with it... I read book 2's synopsis I said to myself "oh hellllll no I will not do this to myself again" LOL No Thank you!!!

Horrible Narration, Below Average Book

I am not usually too critical of the narrations, but this one was unbelievably bad. The best "voice" was the bad/non-existent Scottish accent. The worst part was the sudden appearance of Yoda in minor characters who then shifted to the speech patterns of stoned surfer dudes. I can't forget about the occasional slips into the speech of a severely mentally disable person with a lot of nasal congestion.

I should have read the reviews of this one before I bought it. At first I thought it was going to be quirky like "Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs", but the intro music and the occasional horror aspect reminded me of the Anita Blake series. However, it can't hold a candle to those and can't stand on its own. I DEFINITELY won't be getting the next book in the series (if there is one) and I might even return this. Don't waste your time, money, or a credit.

This isn’t romance, it’s a horror story!

I really tried to give this a chance but, I couldn’t finish it. This isn’t any kind of romance. It’s violent, really violent. Innocent people are constantly being brutally murdered. It you enjoy the worst kind of horror film, this just may be the series for you. It was definitely not for me.
-V from Kansas