Review: “Blind Thirst” by Veronica N. Davis

Blind Thirst by Veronica N. Davis

Read the Book Rating Scale.

Alessandria and Ethan are vampires and are in love. But there is a violent and uncontrollable change occurring in Alessandria, and that threatens to destroy both her and Ethan. Not to mention Alessandria’s ex is still in love with her and is willing to manipulate and kill in order to get her back. There are others trying to get to Alessandria, for less than friendly reasons. Ethan and Alessandria fight the enemies together, while trying to unlock the secrets of Alessandria’s blind thirst.

• Realism: 3. The world within Blind Thirst is not much different from our own world – except for the vampires and tigers. The rules of the world of vampires and tigers feels almost whimsical and not clearly drawn out. The reader encounters more exceptions to the rules than those that follow them; including the intense emotions, such as love and sacrifice, the immortals normally equate with mortality. At times the characters use words and references that do not meet the time period in which the scene or flashback occurs.

• Enjoyment: 3. There are flashes of brilliance and creativity in Davis’ writing, but they are overshadowed by the constant poor pronoun affiliations and confusing narrative. Often there is a reference to a “he” or “she” before the character is identified. If used sparingly it would make for wonderful suspense, but it is used entirely too much in the book. The writing isn’t as clear as a story that weaves such a complex web dictates. I found myself re-reading passages more often than I can tolerate. The fight and action scenes are well-crafted, as well as the descriptions of the vampires extraordinary physical abilities.
• Entertainment: 4. There is a great story in Blind Thirst – unfortunately it is hidden in a subplot-filled welter. The book begins with a daughter searching for her father in a blind rage … and then that mission falls to the wayside in exchange for other storylines. It makes the novel more slice-of-life than mission based at times. As if the characters are just going through the motions of over 1,000 years of existence. But there is an interesting love triangle involved and potentially deadly secrets. I just wished the storylines moved along more coherently.
• Impact: 4. A love triangle between immortals is an interesting take on the vampire love motif. The love parts aren’t too mushy either; just enough to convince the reader of the love between Ale and Ethan. I also enjoyed the race of tigers as opposed to the normal supernatural vampire-rival standby: werewolves. Self-righteous vampires killing criminals is another creative element Davis employs that I enjoyed. Lots of great creative pieces into the story. A good way to take somewhat cliché story elements and flip them to a point where I don’t notice the clichés.

Score: 14/40

In my humble opinion, Blind Thirst is a wonderfully creative but poorly executed novel. That might sound harsher than I intend. Meaning: one cannot learn creativity and imagination, but one can be taught how to write better. Davis has the creativity and imagination down pat – now it’s time to have the writing technique catch up with it. Davis is an author that I will follow in the future, to see where she takes her writing. There is plenty to like about Blind Thirst, and I was mildly satisfied throughout reading it. Davis’ potential genius shines through at the ending, though the book ends with lots of unanswered questions.

Order Blind Thirst on Amazon.com.