Dhampir (Noble Dead Series #1)
By: Barb & J.C. Hendee
Write up:
A con-artist who poses as a vampire slayer learns that she is, in fact, a true vampire slayer-a dhampir-whose actions have attracted the unwanted attention of a trio of powerful vampires seeking her blood.
This write up is kind of terrible. But a lot of them tend to be. Here is the background: Magiere and her partner in crime Leesil earn their living by pretending to be vampire slayers, and going from village to village conning them into giving their life's savings to rid their town of the evil undead. They feel neither guilt nor shame and are happy to take the money and run. Magiere doesn't believe in vampires or any other superstitious nonsense, and she finds most of these villagers silly and feels no pain about taking what they have. She and Leesil have the whole scam down to a science, and we meet them in the middle of their latest con. But little do they know that they have actually stumbled on a real vampire, and they have caught his eye. One the way out of town with their ill gotten gains, Magiere is attacked by what she thinks is a mad villager set on taking back their money. But while fighting him with Chap their dog...she starts to notice that there is something strange about him, and strange about her and Chap’s reaction to him. He is too fast and too strong, and it seems her weapons are the only things that can hurt him. This seems to surprise him too. She and Chap kill him and she goes into denial about the whole situation. She later tells Leesil her plans to go straight. She had bought a Tavern in a town called Miiska and plans to run it and live the quiet life. Leesil is not too happy about it because he liked the life they are currently living where is has plenty of money and lots of flowing wine. But he agrees. But the death of the strange man villager sets of a chain of events that leads to Magiere finding out her true origins and her purpose in life. It seems she really is a vampire hunter.
In Miiska, the brother of the strange man that she killed aka a vampire, has set up a home there and is trying to blend in with the human population. He has two other vampires with him: Ratboy who is always getting into trouble and Teehsa. He senses his brother’s death and is sent into a panic. They think Magiere is coming for them and is a threat to the life they built in the town. They decide to strike first and send Ratboy to kill her before she reaches town…and set of the downward cycle that leads to lots of death and destruction. They are not aware that Magiere has been a fake hunter all her life and has no idea of her heritage, and they continue the entire book thinking she is after them. When she isn’t, she just wants the quiet life. So in a way it is rather tragic, because you kind of grow to understand and like Rashed and Teesha and you want them to stop what they are doing and get away. But they fall right into the cycle. Later we learn that all the misunderstanding and mystery in this book...is somehow being manipulated by one of the characters. It is an intriguing end that leaves open lots of good stuff coming in the next books.
This book was pretty action packed. From the start till the end and kept moving at a good pace, and the action kept coming. It was a real page turner. I liked both Leesil and Magiere even though they were total con artists from the start. I even liked the villains in this book, and I liked how their story was told as well so you understood them...and kind of felt sad for them in the end. The world created is pretty interesting and there is still a lot of mystery to uncover: why did Magiere's father make her and then leave her? Was her meeting Leesil a coincidence? What is Welstiel planning for Magiere? What is he up to period? Because it does not seem good, etc. They built up everything very well, and I look forward to reading the next books.
Overall grade: A
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