My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

Publisher:  Lulu, self published
Pages:  266

(Release Date:  March 17, 2010)

From the Cover: 

Seventeen-year-old Alice Bonham's life feels out of control after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave hits aside, Jack's unlike anyone she's ever met.

Then she meets his brother, Peter. His eyes pierce through her, and she can barely breathe when he's around. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him.

But falling for two very different guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood...

Alice Bonham is an average seventeen year old high school student.  She has a younger brother, who acts more like an older brother, and a best friend who maybe doesn't have her best interests at heart, but who's going to notice her without being Jane's sidekick?

So, that's how she finds herself in her current situation, running for her life, in clothes that don't fit, and blisters on her feet from borrowed high heels.  Why is she running for her life?  Because Jane wanted to go clubbing.  But, neither one can know that there are scary things out there wanting for them.  When they start for home after a dismal failure at clubbing, a gang of guys thinks it's time to party with Jane and Alice as the party favors.  Hence, the said running for her life.

In rides Jack Townsend, not on a white stallion, but in a silver Jetta.  He fights off the bad guys and rushes in to save the damsels in distress.  Jane immediately falls under his magnetic spell, but Alice is having none of that, she's had enough excitement.  And, that's what make Alice special to Jack.  Her lack of total worship.  Not that he's all that worthy or unworthy, he's just Jack.  But, he is sweet and cute, and he's the only guy who has ever liked her more than Jane.  And that makes Jack special to Alice.  His total lack of Jane worship.  What Alice doesn't know is Jack has secrets, and those secrets are the things that can go bump in the night.

My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking is a quick little YA read, and it's... OMG... Good!  It's another twist on the vampire genre, which I have somehow become totally hooked on.  In this tale of vampirism, it's a communicable virus spread by the sharing of blood, either on accident or on purpose, but the individual being turned doesn't have to have their blood drained first.  I mean, yeah, if there's been a feeding frenzy accident and a person has become drained, and you want to save their life, the vampire shares blood, but draining isn't necessary for turning.  It's not the replacing of the human blood for vampire blood, but more of a bonding of their bloods to create a vampire.  The turning is of the human body to a vampiric body, better than before... stronger, faster, prettier... kind of like the Six Million Dollar Man on steroids.  (btw... now it would be six billion...)  So, that how our hero and heroine find each other.  Jack, big strong sexy vampire guy meets sweet delectable Alice, who has a penchant for getting herself in trouble.  At first, it seems Jack wants Alice for himself, but then we meet his brother, Peter, and Alice finds herself connected to Peter somehow, but Peter refuses Alice, and then Jack finds himself drawn to Alice, not for her blood, but for the person that she is, for the love he feels.  The problem:  Peter may not be ready to relinquish Alice and he'll kill to protect her.

My Blood Approves is another indie authored book, and I've decided I really enjoy discovering indie authors.  Not only is this a fun fast read, and not only did I fall in love with the characters, but it can be picked up on the ebook sites, B&N, Amazon, Smashwords, and others for a mere 99 cents!  Can you think of a better way to spend a buck that picking a good read?  I mean, really, a MacDonald's cheeseburger cost 99 cents, and My Blood Approves is way more satisfying, way less fattening, and it tastes way better too.  I'm so happy I saw this on the book sites, and after looking at it for a couple of weeks, I decided, why not?  So it's not from a big publisher, so what?  What matters is that this is an excellent read.  Ms. Hocking designs her own book covers, does everything involved to get the book ready for publication, and so far as I can tell, she doing a wonderful job!  There are a few grammatical errors and a few places where a word was left out, so a tiny bit more editing could be done.  These few minuscule errors took nothing away from the book, I'm not a perfectionist or a purist, what matters to me is a story that I can fall into, with characters I want to get to know, and Alice, Jack, Peter, Mae, Ezra, and little brother Milo, drew me in.  And to my readers out there in blogland, it was worth much more than the 99 cents I paid to read it, and I immediately downloaded Fate, the second book in the series (again a bargain at $2.99!), and Flutter will be next, followed Wisdom.  Ms. Hocking also has another series that will be visiting my iPad very shortly called the Trylle Trilogy:  Switch, Book One is also a mere 99 cents!  It's about changelings and trolls, and I can't wait to try it.  I highly recommended this series to YA lovers out there, paranormal romance and urban fantasy lovers.  I would love to say that Twilight lovers would enjoy this series and I believe they definitely will, but there are no sparkles here, no strolls in the sunlight, and these vampires are definitely not vegetarians.  They like they're blood fresh, warm, full of pheromones, but they're willing to settle for the local vampire blood bank or bar.  Just a taste of what the story holds in store for those who'd like to try it.  Come on, give it a try....you know you want to....you won't be sorry!

I picked up this book for my own enjoyment.  All opinions expressed are my own.