Books Devoured: Review ~ Blood and Bullets

Sunday, March 4

Review ~ Blood and Bullets

Blood and Bullets
by James R. Tuck

3- Pizza on a Monday night. It’s Good Stuff.

Synopsis: (From the Authors Press Kit)

Since hunting down the monster who took the lives of his wife and children five years ago, occult bounty-hunter Deacon Chalk has lived by only one rule.

He does not work for the monsters. He kills them.

So why would a vampire try to hire him as protection against another monster hunter? After enforcing his only rule Deacon goes to meet the target, a vampire slayer named Nyteblade. Professional courtesy demands he tell this Nyteblade the vampires are hiring people to kill him. Deacon finds the vampire slayer waiting in an alley.

Waiting to stake him.

He discovers that Nyteblade is a bumbling, fumbling, wanna-be instead of a badass vampire hunter. Someone who needs saving from monsters instead of the other way around. This is proven when a horde of vampires descend and he has to escape while trying to keep Nyteblade alive.

Someone has set Deacon up. Someone wants him dead.
Someone should have sent more vampires.

Bound and determined, Deacon will find out who tried to kill him no matter how many bloodsuckers, were-spiders, cursed immortals, undead strippers, or insanely powerful hell-bitches he has to wade through.

It's going to be a long night.

What Did I Think?

There are so many good things about Blood and Bullets by James R. Tuck. I love all the references to the south, especially the “recipe” for sweet tea! The basic premise for the book is really good. A man's family is murdered by Vampires so he devotes his life to ridding the world of Monsters of all kinds. The ideas that James brings into this world are really well thought out. I LOVE the were-spiders! That is the scariest form of Lycanthropy I never imagined! Also, there is some great Historical (or Biblical depending on your beliefs) details thrown in that gives an amazing explanation for Vampires; it is one of my favorite origin stories for Vampires ever!

There were times that I felt like I was reading an early version of the book that needed to go through some more editing. There was a lot of repetition and extraneous details, especially about the weapons. While some of the details were really cool (a toothpick is enough wood to kill a vampire?) I felt like they were wasted ideas when thrown out as extra detail. I wish he had saved some of these cool tidbits and used them in the future. If you count the actual scenes in the book, there were very few compared to the amount of pages because of all the extra information. This book has solid ideas that in my opinion were just overshadowed a bit by all the extra stuff that should have been cut.

I have to admit that the main character is just a little too perfect and at the same time a study in contradictions. He cries about his murdered family at random times but is a badass covered in tattoos. He runs a strip club but it's ok because the girls don't get completely naked and he cares about them. I do think that there is enough good in Deacon that with more information, I could soften to him even more. I think with more fleshing out in future books he can become one of the big names in UF beside Anita Blake and Harry Dresden. The Author has some really amazing ideas and I am so glad that there is another book to take the story further. I really do think this has the potential to be one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series.

BOTTOM LINE: This book was not perfect but there was so much good in it that I am excited to read the next one!

Here is a look at the cover for book 2 releasing August 1st, 2012