Blood Casino

3.5 Rating

Blood Casino is an interesting take on the “vampires come out of the coffin” trope made famous by True Blood. In this world, vampires are known for having their fingers in all the pies associated with vice and sin. As the name of the book suggests, particularly gambling, where it's possible to exchange blood for chips, sometimes too much.

The book is in first person POV, a personal favourite of mine, and from the point of view of Evangeline, known as Eva or Angel. Eva was a character I had a feeling I wasn't going to like from the beginning. Apparently 18, she's got this strange mix of maturity and immaturity, with the immature portions grating on me. But as a character, she also had a lot of depth and character. By the end, I still wanted to yell at her for some or most of her choices, but the reasoning at the same time I guess is hard to reason with.

The vampires in the book are the same old vampires, with a little bit of added something to make things interesting and fresh. And there's a hint of something more, something other. Because after all, if vampires exist, what else is there? We don't find out yet, maybe we will, and I'm intrigued to know what route this is going down.

The main thing that's keeping me from rating this highly is the plot. It all made sense, mostly, and was engaging enough. It just felt rushed. Like too much was happening in too few words and pages. Some areas could've done with a little more build-up, more tension that, as I read, I could cut with a knife. It was lacking in this.

Saying that, I plan to carry on with this series and hope that, with the world set and the characters introduced, the writing can only get better, but we shall see.

My only other hesitation is that I am completely over love triangles and do I smell one brewing...? I'm not sure yet, but maybe. I really hope it's not ruined by that!