Bad Blood is the fourth book in the Blood Coven series written by Mari Mancusi. For those of you who haven’t read the series I’ll give you a little background. Book one titled Boys That Bite is told from the point of view of Sunshine McDonald, a teenage girl who is mistaken for her twin sister Rayne and bitten by a vampire named Magnus who Mancusi describes as an Orlando Bloom look alike, accent and all. Magnus feels bad about the mix up and offers to help Sunny find the Holy Grail in order to reverse the change. Of course they fall for one another along the way and Sunny begins to question whether she wants to return to her normal human life or live forever as Magnus’ blood mate.
Books two and three entitled Stake That! and Girls That Growl are told from Rayne’s point of view. Rayne, a Goth vampire wannabe is recruited by Slayer Inc and is forced to investigate a bite bar in order to discover its dark secret. Then in Girls That Growl, our gothic heroine is forced to join the cheerleading squad in order to discover the source of the disappearance of two football players.
I read the first book, Boys That Bite, the summer after my freshman year of college. That same day I also bought a little book called Twilight. For some reason I knew that I should read Boys That Bite first because I somehow felt that Twilight was going to be epic and it was. I’m glad that I did decide to read Boys That Bite first because I don’t think that my sense of humor would’ve been fully restored to me enough to appreciate all the humor and vampire pop culture references made within the pages despite the comedic undertones from everyone’s favorite oversized teddy bear, Emmet.
On to Bad Blood… For this fourth book Sunny returns as narrator. She and Magnus have been together for several months now and they are exiting the “honeymoon” portion of their relationship and entering into a more serious period. Sunny is debating about whether or not to finally sleep with Magnus while at the same time worrying about how being the coven leader has seriously cut down the time that they spend together.
But Sunny decides to cast aside her worries and go ahead with a romantic night with her vampire when he offers to get them a hotel room: complete with strawberries. And of course on the magical night that the love making is supposed to take place, a wrench is thrown into poor Sunny’s fantasies in the form of Jane Johnson, Magnus’ new blood mate. As described in book one, humans go through strict screening processes including DNA compatibility before being pared with a vampire and changed into a member of the undead. In book one, Sunny – or rather her twin sister Rayne – had been paired with Magnus but now that Magnus was the coven leader, he had been paired with a woman had a Master’s degree from Oxford. But as soon as Sunny lays eyes on Jane, she knows that there is something off about her from her slinky dress to the way she talks to the tiny bats she has on her acrylic nails. Nothing about Jane screams Rhode’s Scholar to Sunny. Sunny tries to voice her concerns to Magnus but he immediately blows her off calling her jealous and childish while assuring her that nothing will change between them and that Jane will be more like a business partner than anything else.
Needless to say, the charming, chivalrous, knight in shining armor (literally) Magnus from book one is gone and in his place is a total douchebag who totally pushes aside the concerns of his girlfriend despite the obvious-to-readers flaws in his future blood mate. Does he want to be paired with the annoying Jane for all eternity or does he just not care? But Sunny being in love, decides to investigate Jane and prove that she’s right and Jane isn’t who she says she is. This requires Sunny and Rayne to jet off to Las Vegas where there is a huge vampire consortium occurring and where Magnus will transform Jane into his blood mate the final night.
Sunny’s quest to prove Jane a phony leads her to an off-strip rundown casino that includes a Dracula Review show. There she meets Jayden; actor, animal lover, hemophiliac and hot emo boy extraordinaire. Sunny describes him with black razor-cut hair falling into intense green eyes that are rimmed with eyeliner and I start to drool and silently chant for her to dump the uncaring vamp and get with this sweet man of many talents.
Jayden informs Sunny that they are in need of a new Mina for the play and shows her a playbill that includes a woman that looks strikingly like Jane, her boyfriend’s new blood mate only this woman is named Sasha and not Jane. Still this is not enough evidence to take back to Magnus so she continues her investigation with some fun distractions provided by drool-worthy Jayden.
In the end Sunny does prove Jane a fake in time and Magnus begs her for forgiveness *rolls eyes* and promises not to take her for granted anymore. But then, Mari Mancusi throws in a twist that I should’ve seen coming considering this book series has a character named Jareth who is described as a Jude Law/David Bowie look-a-like making me anticipate the next installment of the Blood Coven series.
I really enjoyed this newest book in the Blood Coven series. I did miss the humor and different media seen in Rayne’s books but it was understandable considering the serious subject matter of the story. I was proud of how Sunny held her ground and confronted Magnus about his mistreatment of her. Some humor is included in the form of a gambling addicted Rayne and their little half sister named Stormy and helps to break up the drama of it all. And even though Sunny decides to stay with Magnus instead of moving on to Jayden, I’m surprisingly okay with that.
I would definitely have to recommend this book, Bad Blood and its predecessors, Boys That Bite, Stake That, and Girls that Growl to those who are into young adult paranormal romance and are looking for one that has a bit more humor than your average vamp novels and many enjoyable cultural references. Please go out and buy this series, which can usually be found in the Young Adult section of Borders or on Amazon, as the future of Sunny and Rayne’s story is uncertain and it would be a shame to end when the author had just introduced such a great plot twist at the very end of the novel.
