Fantasy Dreamer's Ramblings

The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod
Book 1, Spellcrackers.com Series
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Year: 2008
Pages: 385
Author: Website | Twitter

My name is Genny Taylor. I work for Spellcrackers.com. It’s a great job, pays the rent, lets me do the thing I’m good at – finding magic and cracking it – and the bonus is it’s run by witches, which stops the vamps from taking a bite out of me.

Not that vampires are the big bad any more, not since they launched a slick PR campaign – ­ oh, and they brought the goblins on board. Now the vamps are sought-after celebrities, and Getting Fanged and taking the Gift are the new height of all things cool.

But only if you’re human.

And I’m not.

I’m Sidhe fae.

And I know firsthand just how deadly a vampire can be.

The Sweet Scent of Blood is set in modern day London, where it is common place to run into a brownie at the cafe, see pixies running through Trafalgar Square, or walk into the wait area of Old Scotland Yard and come face to face with a goblin. Magic seems to be everywhere you turn in London. The vampires are treated like glamorous A-list celebrities and are a huge money making tourist attraction for London.

This book is told from Genny's point view, her accounts are in vivid detail interlaced with her dry sense of humor. Genny leads a solitary life because she has a past with a secret that she needs to keep to herself. This means she has to avoid the fae and vampires because if she gets too close, they will know what she is trying to hide. If her secret gets out, she risks losing her job with Spellcracker.com and that means losing the protection against the vampires, that working for the witches affords her. You see being Sidhe fae, Genny is an instant attraction for vampires, who consider her kind a delicacy. So, when a vampire's human father comes around asking Genny to help his son out of a murder rap, she feels like she is caught between a rock and a hard place. But a favor has been called in, so she takes on the case and finds herself in one dark intriguing situation after another, usually involving a vampire or two.

The vampires in this book are reminiscent of the vampires from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, in that they can be cruel, beautiful and impress upon you a strong sense of danger. Also the fact that they consider other beings not vampire their food. I enjoyed the tension in the dark scenes between Genny and the mysterious vamp Malik, and when Finn, a sexy satyr comes on scene the air literally crackles. I found myself cheering for one then changing my mind and cheering for another. Here's a tasty tidbit of a scene between Genny and Finn.

"I wasn't making a wish, Gen." He crooked a finger at me. "That was a promise." He twirled the finger like he was reeling me in. "Wishes have to be granted." I felt a sharp pull deep in my centre as though hooked on the thorny stems of bramble. "Promises on the other hand." - he touched his lips to his palm, eyes never leaving mine - "when given" - he blew me the kiss - "are a sure thing."

Bet your wondering what happened before and after this scene to cause this bit of conversation, huh?

I got a real thrill out of how Suzanne McLeod threaded magical, fairy tale characters into the book. It's one of the aspects of this book I really enjoyed. But don't be mislead by the mention of fairy tale characters, into thinking this book is a light read because it isn't. This story has several dark moments, some full of tension, others fear. Tidbits of information are constantly being thrown out, reeling you. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series, The Cold Kiss of Death, because some of these tidbits are surrounded by mysteries that haven't been solved yet.

1. The Sweet Scent of Blood
2. The Cold Kiss of Death

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