True of Blood

Author: Bonnie Lamar
Genre: Supernatural/YA
Type: e-book (Kindle)
Series: 1st book in the 'Witch Fairy' series
Series Order: 1) True of Blood, 2) Blood Prophecy
First Published: April 17, 2011
First Line: "I have a television so I know what a family is supposed to look like but mine is nothing like that."

Synopsis: For the past three years Xandra's life has been anything but normal.  Her parents, who died suddenly in a car accident, still hover around Xandra and her younger brother in the form of ghosts.  Xandra's life gets even stranger when, on her 17th birthday, she is told that her mother is a powerful witch who had to go into hiding to protect Xandra from her birth father who is King of the Fae.

Xandra soon learns that she is the first witch fairy to be born in thousands of years and there are many who wish to harm her.  No one being possesses as much power as Xandra unknowingly has.  Her mother's family wants her dead for only Xandra's blood can open the doorway between the fairy and human worlds.  It's for this reason that the fae want to capture her so they can once again return to the human world and exact their revenge on both humans and witches who banished them thousands of years ago. 

Since Xandra's power was magically bound until her 17th birthday she has had no training on how to control or use her powers.  When two Fairies manage to sneak into the human world and are bent on forcing Xandra to open the gates between the world Xandra's mother knows that her daughter needs a magical tutor.  Eager to protect her child and her world in any way she can Xandra's mother agrees to send her daughter off to be trained by a powerful fairy.  Does he really have Xandra's and the human world's best interests at heart?  Or is Xandra being put into the hands of someone who means to open the gate once and for all? 

My Thoughts:  When I was perusing through the Kindle Store I noticed that this ebook got some really positive reviews.  For 99 cents I thought it was a safe bet that this was going to be a good read and it was ... almost.
The storyline was interesting but there were a few things that bogged it down.   It started off fairly strong but half way through the book became more about their burgeoning romance and less about the fairy versus human realms.  Xandra and her 'tutor' Kallen spent more time bickering than teaching her how to use her power.  You also never really get the feeling that she's in danger.  There aren't even any 'close calls' with the evil fairies to spice things up.  There's no big chase scene and we spend most of the book reading about Kallen and Xandra snuggling in a sleeping bag in various caves.  The story needed more twists.

One thing that I found odd was why her parents, brother and aunt were introduced into the story and then they just *poof* disappear.  If I'm being honest I don't know why her parents had to be ghosts.  Was it so her mother couldn't help her learn about her powers?  Why give Xandra a brother if he was only mentioned briefly?  The only reason I can come up with is that the author has plans for them in future books.

Finally, I found it odd that Xandra's mother, who knew about the prophecy involving her daughter, never tried to prepare Xandra for her 17th birthday and the sudden appearance of Xandra's powers.  Why run off and protect your daughter for all these years then when the deadline comes and she knows that people will be after her daughter she's not prepared at all?  Just odd.

While I didn't love this book I did find the overall premise interesting.  I like that the author is combining fairy and witch lore and hopefully in future books, there will be more intensity and more magic involved in the storyline. 

My Rating: 2.5/5 stars