Shannon A. Thompson

When seventeen-year-old Serena escapes just moments before her execution, she finds herself back on the streets, running from law. Serena isn’t human and neither is Daniel, who finds her and spares her life. Although they share the title of being bad bloods, that’s all the two have in common. In the city of Vendona, having special abilities is cause for immediate execution. Together, Serena and Daniel must unite to help save the rest of their kind but will their secrets get in the way? Can these two overcome everything they’ve come to believe about each other or is all hope lost for the bad bloods?

I absolutely loved November Rain. Shannon A. Thompson created a powerful work of art in the first bad bloods book. The city of Vendona has a wonderfully, dark dystopian feel with dark alleys, large fences and mysterious fields rumored to have been the place of a massacre. The characters in November Rain all have enigmatic abilities that remind me of “Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children”. I am so intrigued on how these came to be and can’t wait to dive into book number two.

In November Rain, Thompson invites us into a world of secrecy, murder and unlikely friendships that are bound to make your head spin with wonder. Just who are these bad bloods? Where did they come from? Why is the government threatened by them? Can two separate tribes of bad bloods unite as one, in order to survive?

Pick up your copy of November Rain and while you’re at it, make sure to get November Snow. I guarantee that you’ll want to jump into the second book the minute you finish the first. I received a copy of November Rain in a goodreads contest and this by no means hindered my honest review.

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… (meer)

The Bad Bloods are like underground superheroes that haven’t been accepted by society yet. Each Bad Blood has one or more powers and as a group have been deemed undesirable by government and society. There are camps where Bad Bloods are sent to and eventually executed. This made the book feel like a near future scifi tale and also like a war time history story at the same time.

It’s a decent start to a series. Serena, Daniel, Calhoun, and Robert all get solid set ups for their characters. I was left with plenty of questions about the world building though. Serena doesn’t talk about her time in the Bad Bloods camp where she spent approximately 1 year. So I wonder quite a bit about what goes on behind those fences and walls and also why she was kept alive that long if all Bad Bloods are to be executed. The big bad nemesis of the story remains pretty far removed from the action and faceless. At first this intrigued me but then I was just frustrated at the lack of info as the book neared it’s end.

Then there’s these Flocks, which are basically Bad Bloods living and hiding together as large adopted families trying to pass as regular citizens. This was also a bit vague. I get that the kids have to keep their noise to a minimum and that most Bad Bloods can’t find legal work unless they obtained some fake IDs. Still, there were all sorts of questions about how so many living together keep the neighbors from asking questions and such.

Calhoun was the most interesting character for me. He’s a surrogate father for Daniel and he doesn’t have any superpowers himself. Yet he assists these Bad Bloods, putting his own life on the line. He has a history that’s hinted at and I really hope we get to know more about him in the next book in the series.

Serena and Daniel and Robert – a triangle. It might turn into a love triangle and it might not. I don’t really care for love triangles myself but I know it can up the drama for a book. So there’s this big election coming up and the outcome will have significant effect on the Bad Blood community. Somehow Serena is key in this election. Once again, it’s all just penciled in; there’s no details as to how or why. So, once again, this initially intrigued me but then just left me frustrated by the end of the book as we get nothing more.

Also, since Serena has this nebulous uber power, both Robert and Daniel are wanting her to side with one of them and not the other. I didn’t really care for this aspect as it turned Serena into an object to be won or taken instead of keeping her a character with personal motives. I hope the second book is more about Serena and what she wants. Also, as she’s the only main female character, I need her to be a whole character to stay interested in her. There’s plenty of minor female characters, but so far Serena is the only plot-relevant female in a cast of male characters getting important stuff done.

The book does end on a big fat cliff hanger with nothing resolved and just a jumble of questions. I am intrigued but also frustrated because Book 2 is not in audiobook format yet. There’s lots of potential here for this tale to be an awesome story and I really hope Book 2 does that for me. As a side note, I want Daniel’s aspartame addiction (which gives him speedy healing and needed nutrition – awesome!) 3.5/5 stars.

Narration: Jonathan Johns made a really good Daniel and an excellent Calhoun. I adored his performance of Calhoun. He also does little kid voices really well. However, his female character voices need some femininity. The ladies sounded like soft spoken males and that sometimes made it difficult to keep track of whose head I was in with the switching POV. Also, there were a few repeated sentences here and there. On the other hand, he really carried off the character emotions quite well and there were a variety of emotions, both subtle and stark, in this story. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Clean Teen Publishing. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.… (meer)