Blood Feud ~ Alyxandra Harvey review

Blood Feud (Drake Chronicles #2)
Walker Books for Young Readers
June 22, 2010
272 pages
Buy/info at Amazon


*(Spoilers for Hearts at Stake (Drake Chronicles #1) be here)*


Solange Drake has gone through the change and is now a vampire. Despite what an ancient prophecy said, she is not Queen, however. Her mother is going to be the new Queen. While Solange couldn't be happier about not being queen--she never wanted it in the first place, she still has to deal with the Montmarte, her very unwanted suitor.

Packages continue to be left at her doorstep and she's still in danger from the overzealous (hopeful) paramours. Blood Feud isn't about (at least not solely) Solange, though. Her brother, Logan, is the main Drake in thus book.

As all of the different vampire clans come together for the new Queen's coronation, Isabeau St Croix is sent for the Hounds, a group of mystical vampires who raise dogs and live in caves.

With Montmarte still hoping to have the crown himself, Isabeau and Logan are soon working together to keep his family safe.

It's not long before both the trouble and their feelings deepen.


In the way that Hearts at Stake was about a bigger, action-y danger but also about some romance of its central characters, Blood Feud is about a threat to really all not-entirely-evil vampires, but also about Logan and Isabeau. Isabeau's life is told through some flashbacks to her life as a human (during--quite literally--the French Revolution) and now as a vampire.

Without giving too much of the story away, I wasn't sure that Isabeau's actions and her timeline quite matched up, however. Sometimes she seemed too well transitioned for how things were said to have happened. I did enjoy the looks back at her French life, however and the Hounds were a really interesting additon to the Drake Chronicles world.

I think I have crushes on all of the Drake brothers, so the fact that I kind of love Logan (not the most, but still quite a bit) shouldn't really come as a surpise.

While this wasn't my favorite of the series, I am glad I read it and it definitely includes crucial plot points that will be a part of/start out the third book.

7.5/10

(no, half numbers are not good--but I can't decide)