My Blood Approves
By: Amanda Hocking
Published: March 17th 2010 by Lulu
261 pages
Source: Own/Personal Kindle Library
Goodreads description--Teenager Alice Bonham's life feels crazy after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave, he's unlike anyone she knows. Then she meets his brother, Peter. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him. Falling for two guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood.
Alright people, let’s go ahead and get this out of the way up-front: My Blood Approves is VERY Twilight-esque. There’s the scene in the beginning of the book where vampire boy shows up in a car, jumps out and scares away a couple of thugs. There’s the fact that the main character’s name is Alice. Well…quite honestly I could keep going for a while. And while I’m sure these facts were a major turn off to some people, I don’t know, they weren’t so much for me. I took note of them, and then moved on. And here’s the thing, I really liked Twilight. And I ended up really liking My Blood Approves as well.
One thing I really liked about My Blood Approves was that there really was a slow build up to the emotions for Jack and Alice. Yeah, Alice not throwing herself at him like everyone else is what sparked his interest in hanging out with her, but I really did get the vibe that they started out as friends and next thing you know, it was kind of like “Crap, I have feelings for this person.” However, throw in the added bonus of the crazy connection that Alice has with Jack’s brother, Peter, and well we have what really kept me interested. We can’t really call it at love triangle because Peter is SO not on board with what’s going on. But the entire book I was trying to figure this relationship triangle out, and I’m not sure I’ve decided who I want her to end up with. Jack has the emotional connection to Alice, but there’s a very instinctive, primal (HOT!!!!!) connection that Peter and Alice have. And so while I do love love, I tend to have a soft spot for the bad boy. Therefore, I’m finding myself still torn.
I want to say this one ended in typical Amanda Hocking fashion—a kind of cliffhanger—but I’ve truly only read two of Amanda Hocking’s books so far and so that’s probably not fair for me to say yet. I’m definitely excited about reading the rest of the series.
I know there are people out there that are incredibly critical of self-published work, and while I have found grammatical and spelling errors, I’m not the authority on grammar or spelling either (I’m actually quite bad at spelling). Those errors can be overlooked in my opinion if they don’t dominate the book and in comparison with a well written story. I personally think Amanda Hocking’s self-published works that I’ve read are better than some of the authors with publishers backing them that I’ve read recently. And I definitely look forward to reading her traditionally published works as well.
So for me, My Blood Approves gets 4 Stars. Have you read My Blood Approves? What did you think? Let me know!
