Review: Freeblood by Marny Copal

Title: Freeblood
Author: Marny Copel
Paperback: 346 pages
Publication Date: October 27, 2011

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Secrets and lies have surrounded 21-year-old Quinn Zauber since a vampire killed her mother and brother a year ago. Jo-Jo Huang, her best friend and roommate, has offered steady support, even going along with Quinn’s crazy ghost-hunting schemes. Now Jo-Jo has been kidnapped, and clues point to an audio recorder the roomies placed in Portland’s notorious underground tunnels.
With her naïve cousin Kasey riding shotgun and an old attraction, paranormal investigator Del Whelan, imposing his own brand of help, Quinn searches for Jo-Jo, fights supernaturals, and strives to keep her horrible secrets under wraps.
What Quinn doesn’t realize is that her witch bloodline makes her of special interest to one of the deadliest vampires around.(copied from Goodreads)

My Review

Freeblood by Marny Copal has its own unique twist on the vampire. In this world, humans that drink vampire blood fall into two categories, fastbloods or freebloods. If a human feeds on a single vampire’s blood three times in a row, they become bound to that vampire until the blood leaves their system. These are referred to as fastbloods, or vassals. Freebloods are more on the fringe of society, because they are bound to no one, and they have to switch their source of their blood on a constant basis to prevent becoming a fastblood.

At the beginning of Freeblood, Quinn and her cousin Kasey were on their way to meet Jo-Jo, when a group of fastblood kidnaps her in front of their eyes. This leads Quinn on a mission to rescue Jo-Jo, before anything happens to her. While searching for information, Quinn runs into her old instructor from the Order, Del Whelan. The Order is pretty much the supernatural policy dealing with anything that is supernatural and a risk to humans in the area. Del is investigating a magical disturbance in town, but he forces Quinn to take his help. Quinn is very stubborn, and likes to work alone, so as you can guess being forced to work with others is not her favorite game plan.

I really liked the world that Marny Copal created in Freeblood. While Quinn is far from perfect, she is a very strong female character. There are many real issues mixed into the fabric of the story of Freeblood, one of those being addiction. Vampire blood is highly addictive, and freebloods are for lack of a better word, junkies. Del Whelan is a very compatible strong male lead for Quinn. The biggest issue is Del wanting to take care of Quinn, and Quinn wanting to take care of herself. It leads to some very likable chemistry between them. I really hope Marny Copal continues this series, so I can know what happens between those two.

I would have to say, anyone who likes a strong female who takes the lead, Freeblood is going to be a great read. I would have to compare her to a slightly dark version of Buffy, or even Val from the Demon Underground series. There are also a few evil vampires to hate along the way. This book is very well written, and very enjoyable. I enjoyed Freeblood immensely and had a hard time setting it down. Big thanks to Marny for letting review Freeblood!

**Unabridged Bookshelf received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review**