Dhampir

by Barb & J.C. Hendee

Reviewed by Ruby

Magiere hunts vampires. Only, not really. Like so many other people in these types of movies/books, she is a fraud. With the help of her partner, the half-elf Leesil, and his enormous dog Chap, they make their way along the rural countryside conning money out of superstitious villagers.  Then one day she decides to pack it in. She buys a tavern in the costal town of Miiska. Leesil is not ready to give the game up, but agrees to see the tavern. On the way they are attacked twice by very powerful people that neither of them are ready to label as vampires, even when only Chap and Magiere's swords can hurt them.

Ignoring this they make it to Miiska and visit the tavern. Surprisingly they both like in and settle in fairly quickly. There's only one slight problem: there are three vampires living in Miiska and they do not like the idea of a hunter moving in their territory, real or fraudulent. So they attack.

Magiere is still is in denial about the whole Noble Dead thing, but a mystery man called Welstiel Massing kicks her butt into gear. He tells her that she, in reality is a dhampir, half-human, half-vampire, hunter of the undead.  She is the only one who can stop the vampires. She doesn't want to believe him, but she has little choice unless she wants to abandon her new home.

If the entire plot hadn't been orchestrated by one character then it would have been a little unbelievable how Magiere and Leesil end up in the one town where there are three vampires, one of them being the brother of the vampire she killed on the road. It's still a little sketchy, but I'll buy it as long as in the upcoming books the plotter doesn't turn out to be an idiot. I'll reserve my judgment until then.

The book itself was pretty good. The characters were all very interesting, especially Leesil and Magiere. The only thing that bothered me is that their entire pasts have already been told to us. We know every thing about Magiere's past minus the identity of her father, but we know he's a vampire, one who hated what he was enough to sire a dhampir. And Leesil's past was all there also. It would've be nice to hold some mysteries back, since this is an ongoing series and all. The only mystery left is 'who is Welstiel?'  And I swear if he turns out to be Magiere's father I'm going to scream. 

I have a bad feeling that Leesil and Magiere are going to end up together romantically. I'm a little scared because I don't like bad romantic plots, and it's very rare I find one I like. Lets hope they don't end up together, or at least if they do, it'll be well done.

Grade: B