I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
A Perfect Blood
by
Kim Harrison
It is part of the The Hollows #10.5 series and is a paranormal fantasy in Hardcover edition that was published by Voyager on February 21, 2012 and has 438 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Dates from Hell, Pale Demon, Unbound, Something Deadly This Way Comes, The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, Every Which Way But Dead, A Fistful of Charms, For a Few Demons More, The Outlaw Demon Wails, White Witch, Black Curse, Black Magic Sanction, "Pet Shop Boys", "Trouble on Reserve", Into the Woods, Holidays are Hell, Ever After, The Drafter, "Waylaid", The Operator, The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death, "Sudden Backtrack"
Tenth in The Hollows paranormal fantasy series about a demon-witch who is turning the world and its perceptions on their heads.
In 2012, A Perfect Blood was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Paranormal Fantasy.
My Take
This installment bugged me. Rachel was so stupid throughout the story that I just wanted to put the damned book down. First Trent keeps trying to help her and she keeps ignoring him. She’s wearing that stupid magic-limiting band. She’s doing her best to elude her bodyguard and put herself at risk. Really. Grave. Risk. She muffs capturing Eloy and the battle with him is just stupid…
Harrison keeps telling us that Rachel’s worried about killing people if she takes the band off. WTF??? Am I missing something I should have read in Pale Demon? I sure don’t remember any urges on her part to kill people. Harrison certainly doesn’t give us anything in this installment to believe it. It’s just words that Harrison does nothing to back up. Harrison is also fake-building tension by having Rachel ignore Trent’s suggestions his ideas for protecting her from Al’s wrath if/when she removes the magic-limiting cuff Rachel’s wearing. I gotta confess, I sometimes wanted the bad guys to take Rachel out so we wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore… I know, I know, blasphemy.
A very cool-sounding tattoo. There’s an attraction building towards Wayde for Rachel; she’s already very attracted — and fighting it — to Trent. I suspect he’s always been in love with her. He’s certainly frantic enough looking for her. And they spend a lot of time working together.
The vamp possessing Nina keeps pushing everyone’s buttons including Ivy’s. The FIB is being ignored and the I.S. is trying to sweep it under the rug. If they can pin the blame on Rachel…well, they’re cool with that. Better, they think, than admitting a hate group is still active.
The good part is that Rachel, Ivy, and Jenks with his pixy-contacts are showing up both agencies and doing end runs around them.
The Story
The DMV refuses to acknowledge Rachel’s existence and the I.S. and FIB want a list of the magic she knows. A list she just knows they’ll use to frame her for anything they want. Then there’s the Weres who are being murdered…in some pretty horrible circumstances. Odd enough that they suspect Rachel.
They quickly learn that HAPA is behind it all. A hate organization that, obviously, will stop at nothing to take out the supernaturals. Even to the point of using magic themselves.
Every two steps forward results in a step back. Captures go wrong. Glenn is holding out on them. And now they have Rachel.
The Characters
Rachel Morgan is now formally a demon…and doesn’t exist in the rolls of citizenship, including the DMV. Wayde Benson is her new Were bodyguard. Her dad, Takata, sent him to protect her. Now, Wayde is fixing up the tower as his own living space with some perks for Bis. I wanna move in…!
Ivy (a living vampire) and Jenks (an extra-long-lived pixy) are partners with Rachel in Vampiric Charms. Bis is a young gargoyle who lives with them; he pays rent by taking the watches the pixies sleep through. He was also teaching Rachel how to travel the ley lines. Belle is one of the injured fairies from Black Magic Sanction. She’s now living with the team and I suspect there may be a romance budding… Bis is teaching Belle how to read; she’s too embarrassed to tell Jenks she can’t.
Algaliarept “Big Al” is the demon who wants to either kill or severely punish Rachel. It’s all her fault that he’s in trouble in the ever-after. He’s also a threat to the babies…
Outed as an elf, Trent Kalamack is no longer in politics, but Ceri‘s five-month-old Ray and his own eight-month old Lucy are keeping him very busy. It also turns out that Trent’s life is not what he wanted…what he still wants.
Detective Matthew Glenn is with the FIB and having it off with Ivy. And Daryl, the nymph. Yup, Daryl’s still living with Glenn and they’re having a threesome…off the pages. Although. Seems there might be trouble on the horizon for them. Dr. Teresa Cordova is Glenn’s superior at the FIB. W.H.A.T. a bitch!
David is the alpha of the pack to which Rachel belongs and is trying to get Rachel to get her pack tattoo. And Rachel keeps blowing off the world-renowned tattoo artist, Emojin. Marshal has a brief (and sad) cameo when he helps Rachel.
Nina Ledesma is a clerk at the DMV whom a much-older vampire possesses — Felix Ohem__. The same vampire Rachel met at the end of Pale Demon. Hmmm, I think Nina may be a new project for Ivy. Winona is one of the witches kidnapped and experimented upon.
HAPA, Humans Against Paranormals Association, hate magic. Hate supernaturals. An extremist hate group that has infiltrated law enforcement on both sides. Their people include Jennifer, a twitchy nurse who just loves shooting HAPA prey; Chris is a manic scientist who loves hurting people; Eloy Orin is their military liaison and is very good with a sniper rifle; and, Gerald is their tech guy.
A new law enforcement entity has entered the picture. The “men-who-don’t-belong” that no one acknowledges, but have ultimate power. They’re a damned scary bunch. And they only think that Trent and Rachel have been halted. Rachel suspects Glenn has plans to join them.
The Cover and Title
The cover is black, white, and red — a foggy woodland setting in black-and-white with Wayde watching over her from behind as Rachel feels the electricity of the ley lines. Her red hair in a long braid, Rachel is poised for action even kneeling, her hand resting on one cocked knee as she reaches to the ground with the other wearing a low-cut tank top with black jeans and knee-high black books. I’m not sure why she’s feeling the ley lines when she’s still wearing the silver band around her right bicep cutting her off from feeling those same ley lines.
The title is what it’s all about. What the bad guys are searching for — A Perfect Blood.
Yeah this one bugged a lot of people, but I really loved the nostalgia factor having read it since 2005. It really reminded me of old times and hpw things have changed. I liked getting back to the mystery aspect of it too. I haven’t been that invested in this series’ murder mysteries since Book 2. The only books that I didn’t enjoy much were Book 4 (aside from the scene where Jenks gets big), Book 7 (with the banshee; that was felt like filler even more than this one), and Book 8 (mainly because of Pierce’s presence, everything else was pretty good if a little TOO fast-paced). I have a feeling Ever After is going to be awesome though.
I kind of wonder how much of it is being involved in the characters and their lives. What’s their progress with relationships…Rachel’s shunning issue has certainly been a big draw for me. Wondering how she’d get that resolved. Book 2 was definitely a pip in terms of mystery…and a bit of a parallel with A Perfect Blood. Book 4 was not one of my favorites either, although, like you, I did love Jenks getting big! And putting it to the shifters as they did. Book 5 I just hated for the emotional wreck it left me…sob… I really liked #8 if only for all the payback Rachel got…YES! Book 9 was another pip—I want a tulpa! I did appreciate the DMV scene in this last one, too. Talk about empathy…and Rachel had it so much worse than the rest of us…