TSS: Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Digging graves is a hell on a manicure, but I was taught good vampires clean up after every meal.


Title: Red-Headed Stepchild
Author: Jaye Wells
ISBN: 9780316037761
Publisher: Orbit/2009
Pages: 328

Usually I don't go in for vampire stories. However, the title and cover had attracted me, I asked for the book from Jaye Wells, and she was kind enough to send it to me.

Sabina Kane is a half-vampire, half-mage, who has been brought up by the vampire side of her family. Her grandmother has made sure that nothing of a Mage is remembered and left in her. She has been trained as an assassin and is forced to kill one of her best friends David, to show her loyalty.

When she is given a very complex mission, threatening for both the Vampire and the Mage races, she is made to face some hard facts about herself. She finds herself in the midst of shocking revelations, which destroys everything she had believed in. She does not know whom to trust and whom to turn to. The fine line between right and wrong is suddenly blurred for her. Had she always been deceived about her legacy? Why is she an outcast in the eyes of her grandmother?

Red-Headed Stepchild has a few interesting characters. I especially liked Gighul, the demon, who turns up at Sabina's doorstep and is unable to go back. In a freak act of magic, Sabina turns him into a hairless cat. He is sarcastic, witty and churlish. But he is very lovable too. Imagine a cat, who is hairless and is forced to wear sweaters and four booties knitted by Vinca, the faery. She is bubbly, too bubbly for Sabina's taste and Sabina is forced to share accommodation with her.

Clovis, half-Demon, half Vampire wants to rule the world and Sabina feels strong sttraction for him. Then there is Adam, a Mage who tells about her Mage half of her family. How can one forget Sabina's grandmother, who is totally unlovable.

Red-Headed Stepchild is a breezy book which I read at one go. Vampire lovers will adore this book. Wells has left a lot of scope for sequels. I liked the bantering, the dark humour and all that blood drinking. Go figure!

And can anyone recommend a few Vampire Novels? Sans porn...

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Inspired by the book, I wrote and posted the the following poem on my other blog, rooted:

there was a piercing pain
everything went blank
when I came around
I found myself sprawled
on that cold earth,
in a bloody mess
my dignity in shreds
(arrow still stuck in my chest)

was I seeing things?
cat wearing a sweater
with four booties?
unblinking yellow eyes
staring at me
purring sensually
it darted towards me
and pulled out the arrow

(I cried out with pain)
in no time it licked it clean
that forked tongue
was a dead giveaway
when it talked back
I was doubly sure
my long lost demon
had come back to me

he shed his sweater
showed me his hairless form
a magic gone wrong
he gotta live with it
a faery gave him a sweater
and knitted him booties
first I laughed
then I hugged him

as a vampire myself
I had no complaints
I felt a happy tingle
went into a trance
when my cat bit hard
blood dried itself out,
both our powers had returned
healing my wounds