Review – Out for Blood (House of Comarre, Book 4) by Kristen Painter (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 480 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: October 30, 2012
ISBN: 978-0316200172
Stand Alone or Series: 4th book in the House of Comarre series
Source: Gift
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the fourth book in the House of Comarre series by Painter. The fifth (and final) book will be titled, Last Blood, and is scheduled for a Spring 2013 release. I enjoyed this book, it is again told from a billion points of view, but it worked better for this book than the last one.

This book picks up with Chrysabelle recovering from her ordeals in the last book. She is trying to figure out what the Ring of Sorrows has done to her since it was melted into her skin. Meanwhile Titania is presenting her new vampire baby to the masses. Lola is trying to find someone to turn her into a vampire so she can rescue her granddaughter (the above mentioned vampire baby). Lola is also wreaking havoc with Paradise city in general. Lastly Doc is taking over the local shapeshifter pack and finds the position comes with a wife, which really pisses off Fi.

Does the above sound like a strange paranormal soap opera? Well that’s pretty much what this book is. This book picks up where the last left off. It uses uses a ton of POVs to tell the story. We hear from Creek, Crysabelle, Mel, Doc, Fi, Lola (the mayor), and Titania. This works pretty well for the this book and the flow wasn’t too choppy because of it. Still, I liked the first couple books where the main POVs were Crysabelle and Mel much better.

We hear a lot from Titania and Lola in this book and I really don’t enjoy either of them much as characters. Both of them are short sighted and selfish. Crysabelle continues to have a blind spot where Mel is concerned and their relationship progresses very slowly, but it does make some progress. Mel is a bit of a weenie, I constantly want him to stand up for himself better against Crysabelle.

There are a lot of storylines going on here. Overall I enjoyed some of the developments in this book. I also enjoyed the way the storyline behind Mel’s curse and the Ring of Sorrows is developing. I am curious as to where the plot with Lilith the vampire baby is going as well. The only disappointing thing is that even with a good length book the story progress slowly because of all the viewpoints.

Despite all the POVs, the writing is well done and easy to read. The book was engaging and hard to put down. I plan on reading the final book in the series for sure

Overall a solid addition to this series, if not as good as the first two books. We hear a lot from Titania and Lola and they just aren’t my favorite characters. Mel and Crysabelle take a backseat to everything else that is going on. There isn’t a ton of action in this book either, it is pretty much a paranormal soap opera. The story also suffers from slow progression because of the multiple POVs. Despite all of the above, I still enjoyed the book and found it to be well written and engaging. Recommended to fans of paranormal books.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– VAMPIRES: Paranormal Reading Challenge
– TBR Pile Reading Challenge