3.5 Stars

Wynette A. Hoffman

Blood Is Thicker Than Water: The Reilly Vampire Chronicles Book One

Alien Perspective

ISBN 0-9721098-0-3

2002

The Reilly family and their friends are pulled into a world they never knew existed when Amy Reilly is brutally beaten, drained of blood and left for dead by a vampire at an S&M club. Someone there decided to give her a fighting chance, however, by dropping her off at the entrance to a hospital emergency room. After her recovery, Lorcan, an ancient vampire, and his thrall Jake run into Amy's roomates at a bar while waiting to meet with the local vampires, and Jake and Sophia make for quite a hot item....which proves a real annoyance to the local vampire nest, when Lorcan and Jake bring them back to the "party" at the S&M club. They're even LESS pleased to learn that Amy is still alive, and remembers what happened to her. Soon, there's a war between two vampire "clans", with the Reilly family in the middle...as a target to be used by the local vampires against Lorcan. The pregnant wife of Paul Reilly, who owns a metaphysical shop called the Pragmatic Pagan, is receiving visions from a mysterious golden entity named Ceridwyn, enabling her to warn and protect friends and family when they wander into danger. Is Ceridwyn pulling the strings to set up Lorcan and the Reillys? If so, why...and will any of them survive this mess?

The vampire breed described use their blood to heal themselves and maintain health and youth...but they no longer manufacture their own red blood cells, so they must get oxygen-carrying blood from others. Giving their blood to a human turns the human into a thrall. Thralls have a telepathic connection to the vampire who created them, and they also have superior strength and senses, healing ability, and extreme longevity so long as they periodically get more of the vampire's blood. Eventually, however, age catches up to a thrall, and they must either become a vampire, or die. The different bloodlines of vampires cannot be crossed, their blood is poisonous to one another..they also have slightly different capabilities, in terms of physical and psychic strength, and their ability to eat food or wake during the day. Lorcan's line is by far the stronger, but there are also a lot fewer of them. The Reillys themselves are highly psychic, and Paul doesn't trust Lorcan one bit...but when Amy and Lorcan become an item, well...you do what you can to help your family.

This novel would be a nightmare for marketing, so it's a good thing it was printed by an independent publisher. Its themes of family loyalty, action, romance, horror, and even spirituality make it a very unique story, but not one that would be easily shoehorned into one of the primary marketing categories. This is one of only two novels the author has written, but it seems to be well edited and polished. The author's writing will probably improve, and there's already a sequel (The Life of Reilly) in the works to look forward to. The movement of the plot is smooth, and it's very hard to put this book down before you've finished it. Action comes at every turn, but somehow there's plenty of time for introspection, romance, and the development of scenery and characters. I was surprised and pleased by the complexity of this novel and its satisfying length, as well as the engaging plot.

Reviewed by Donna M. MacGonegal