Last Blood (House of Comarré #5) by Kristen Painter

Last Blood is the last book in the House of House of Comarré series. It was billed as the final showdown between forces of good and evil but never really delivered the epic that was promised. When we last left the star crossed Mal and Chrysabelle (a name I will be happy never to read again), Mal had lost is love for the comarré and had revered back into a monster.  For her part, Chrysabelle discovered that she was pregnant with Mal's child.

This series has always suffered from too many characters and it was the most obvious in this book.  The POV continually shifted between Tatiania/ Chrysabelle and Mal, Doc/Fi and Remo, the mayor who wanted Lilith back and of course the whole KM debacle.  There were times when I felt myself saying just get on with it already.

Mal was finally a monster again had a chance to commit some real havoc, instead he was drugged to the point that he was unable to do much of everything and Chrysabelle quickly saved him.  The mission was supposedly dangerous, but it took her no time at all. Mal was back to quickly moon over Chrsyabelle and vow his undying love for over and over again. It was sickeningly sweet and quickly became annoying. Why is it that readers constantly feel the need to introduce love to a vampire for the purposes of taming said vampire and make them emotionally wrought pain in the asses? It's boring.

Review of Out for Blood (House of Comarré #4) by Kristen Painter

Once again, Painter has many story lines on the go, though as far as I am concerned, not all of them are relevant.  After nearly dying, Chrysabelle has decided to move away from her past as a
comarré.  Her main objective is now to find her brother at all costs.  Doc is the new alpha of his pack but unfortunately, the position comes with a wife, which means problems in his relationship with Fi. The Kubai Mati are not pleased with Creek and he has to deal with Yahla (the woman without a soul) and a mayor with plans of her own about how to deal with the supernatural elements.

With all of the things going on in Painter's story, she manages to keep it all focused. For me, the largest issue is the storyline with Creek.  It seems that Painter tries to give him things to do as a way to justify his character but he is always in the background and for most of the time, he feels like a distraction. Creek either needs to better integrated in Doc/Fi or Chrysabelle/Mal's storyline, or dropped altogether in my opinion. This character seems to be struggling for a place now that Painter has brought and end to the love triangle between Creek, Chrysablle and Mal.

 Now that Doc is finally able to shapeshift, you would think that things would go well for him but finding out that he now has to marry the former Alpha's wife, puts a real crimp in his relationship with Fi.  Though we know he is very upset, he doesn't exactly go out of his way to assure Fi that he is going to make things right, or reassure her of his feelings.  It's Fi who takes the initiative and decides to fight to death for the right to marry Doc. One of the problems with this is that Doc's new mate is a woman of colour and typically she is cast as evil. Thus far in the series, there hasn't been one positive portrayal of a woman of colour and this is of course cast against Chrysabelle's epic Whiteness. Chrysabelle is meant to represent the height of womanhood and we are told repeatedly about the Whiteness of her skin and her long flowing blond hair. Clearly, this is a model that excludes all women of colour.

Review of Bad Blood by Kristen Painter Book Three of the House of Comarré series

When we last left Chrysabelle she had been stripped over her signum and her status as Comarré for daring to bring Creek,  Kubai Mata and Malkolm the cursed vampire onto sacred Comarré  land.  She is saved by in an infusion of Malkolm's blood, but instead of being grateful to be alive, Chrysabelle feels violated and that her pure blood has been defiled. Despite having her skin cut off her back, Chrysabelle is determined to see the Aurelian again to find out the identity of her brother.  To do this, she must find a sigmatist to re-tattoo her and since the only sanctified gold she has access to is currently in the form of the ring of sorrows, this means she must retrieve it. 


Though Chrysabelle is involved in her own drama - surprise surprise, Samhain is quickly approaching and this means that the protections that kept humans from seeing the supernatural world around them will finally be completely erased.  Doc is able to switch to his true form but it comes with a cost. Fi is desperate to find a way to save the man she loves, but because Mal is off once again with Chrysabelle she must marshal other sources. Creek is charged by KM to protect the mortals from the demons and various other worldly creatures that are appearing on the streets of Paradise City.  Dominic's fake comarré are being murdered and with the world completely going completely off kilter, this might have been ignored if one of the women hadn't been the mayor's daughter, who just happened to give birth to a half vampire child.  The witches of course are plotting but this time they have trapped a Castus [read: demon] in a fish tank of all things, to do their bidding.


Chrsyabelle is so determined to secure the ring of sorrows that she blocks this all out.  She heads off to New Orleans to deal with the fae.  Though this puts Mal at risk, because no vampires are allowed in the city of endless night, he accompanies her to keep her safe.  He does all of this because he loves Chrysabelle, though he does not feel worthy of her attentions.  For her part, Chrysabelle, spends most of the book ordering Mal around and charging around New Orleans.  Chrysabelle is in a city that she is not familiar with, immersed in fae politics, but she cannot be arsed to listen to Mortalis, her fae guide.  This is typical spunky agency at its best.  Why oh why are these people letting her lead? She is so worried about Mal over reacting and going all vamp, that it does not even occur to her that she could potentially be wrong about anything. This of course silences any reasonable dissent that Mal could present.

Review of Flesh and Blood by Kristen Painter: Book 2 of the House of Comarré Series

Tatina of the house of Tepes, and Chyrsabelle the comarré, still have unfinished business.  When we last left the house of comarré series, Tatina had murdered Maris, Chyrsabelle's mother, and in return, Chrysabelle had severed her hand.  Back in their own separate spheres, Tatina is even more determined to capture Chrysabelle, and force her to hand over the ring of sorrows.  Chyrsabelle of course wants vengeance for the death of her mother, and to keep a promise to Mal about finding away to end the curse that plagues him.  Doc, a leopard Varcolai, (shifter)  is desperate to find a way to save Fi, the ghost woman he loves, and he is even willing to take on the powerful anathema Dominic to do so.  There is also Creek, a member of an secret society named the Kubai Mata, whose purpose is to protect mankind, and his mission is to secure the ring. 


As you can see, there are several story lines being intertwined in this one book.  The one that is the most typical, and quite frankly the most annoying, is the love triangle that develops between Creek, a Native American man and Mal the cursed vampire.  Creek was sentenced to seven years in prison after he murdered his father to protect his sister and jumped at the chance to be become a Kubai Mata, to secure his freedom and gain a better life for his family.  He makes it clear repeatedly that though he is a member of the group, that they don't trust him enough to give him a lot of information.  With everything that he has at stake, he still finds Chrysabelle quite irresistible.  At first he cracks it up to not being with a woman for many years, but in the end, he simply decides that there is just something special about her. In part, Mal is heavily attracted to Chrysabelle because she is a member of the comarré and has been bred specifically because of the specialness of her blood.  He is impressed by her determination and physical strength.  What I don't understand is why Mal continues to love her, after she takes away his only chance to be human in what is clearly a selfish act.  Unlike many vampires who are self-loathing in urban fantasy because that just seems to be the in thing, being twice cursed adds validity to Mal's desire to remain human once given the chance.


I am particularly upset with Creek's fascination with Chrysabelle, because it seemed in many ways to be based on her Whiteness.  There were constant mentions to her skin virtually glowing and her long blonde hair might was well have been a crown.  Not for one moment are we allowed to forget that Chrysabelle is White and many ways, this Whiteness is given a moral value of pure goodness.  This is especially true when juxtaposed to Tatiana, the Roma antagonist. At times it reads as though getting Chrysabelle to agree to a relationship with Creek, would equal an elevation of his person.  

Cover Snark: More Tattoos, Less Clothes!

Our cover snark is all about tats.  As you can see on the cover of Blood Rights, Chyrsabelle is covered with tattoos and they are a symbol of her status as an extremely valuable comarré.  My problem is not that Chyrsabelle has tats, the problem is that you can see her tats.  Throughout the book, Painter goes to great lengths to ensure that it is clearly understood that these tats are not to be seen.  They are reserved for the vampire that owns the blood rights of the comarré .  

We can only see the tats in question because Chrsyabelle is wearing a backless and shoulderless dress. Yes, this is yet another example of not matching up with the plot. While Chrsyabell does dress in all white, she certainly would never choose to wear anything so revealing and would see that dress as a complete negation of the vows that she took when she became comarré, but then why bother with a little thing like making sure the cover represents the story when the opportunity exists to show a little skin.  

This cover completely negates everything that Painter set up in her story.  It’s enough to make me wonder if the publisher even read the story before choosing the cover art. It’s all about what sells, and certainly not about what’s accurate.


              

Now, if I remember how Mercy is described in the book, she has 1 tattoo. A little coyote paw on her lower stomach. So this? I’ve no idea what this is, Is it adjusted to make her look sexy? Or is it blue collar coding to show she’s a mechanic? (After all, pictures of her almost wearing a boilersuit or carrying a wrench are not uncommon) Or did the cover artist escape his cage and managed to scribble random ink (and remove most of her clothing) before he could be restrained?