Drink Slay Love

Sarah Beth Durst

Publisher:  Simon and Schuster

Publish Date:  September 13, 2011

Format: galley grab e-book

Series:  Drink Slay Love

 

Pearl is the daughter of Isabel Sange and Mickey Sange, the girlfriend of Jadrian and is also a vampire.  One night when she and Jadrian were out hunting, she stopped at the Dairy Hut to visit her favorite snack Brad.  When she and Brad were out back, she was staked in the chest by a unicorn.  There are two ways to kill a vampire – a wooden stake through the chest and beheading.  Pearl had thought she was dead.  Then the next morning, she awoke on her couch in her home.  She did not understand how she survived the staking, how she got on her couch and what was happening to her.  She learned that her family had found her before sundown next to their front door, which adds another question to her ever-growing list.

The Vampires of Connecticut are planning the Fealty Ceremony where the King of New England comes and they pledge their loyalty to him.  It is rumored that the King does not give second chances.   The Sanges were lucky enough to be chosen to host this ceremony that only occurs once in a century.  The problem is that they have to find enough “dinner” or humans to supply everyone who is coming to the ceremony.  That is where Pearl and her newfound talent of “day-walking” come in.  Her parents enrolled her in high school, so she could gain the trust of some of the community so they could invite the vampires into their homes and secure enough donors, as vampires are not allowed to enter homes without invitation of one of the members of the household.

Pearl attends high school and makes friends with the humans that are there.  She is not sure this is a good thing as she is starting to grow a conscious and re-think her and her family’s actions and whether or not she can deliver the “meal” to the ceremony.

This book was well written.  Yes, I didn't like ALL of it, but is there a book where you like every part of it?  I wasn't too happy with parts of the ending, but now I read on Durst's website that this is going to be a two-book series and that made a little happier.

Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire . . . fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil . . . until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don’t exist), and they’re shocked she survived. They’re even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl’s family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King’s feast—as the entrées.

The only problem? Pearl’s starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she’s definitely dead if she lets down her family. What’s a sunlight-loving vamp to do?

•Evan and Bethany.  They are friends to Pearl even when her actions show that she doesn’t always deserve or want friendship. 

•How the Greenbridge High School is like being in an actual high school.  So many times, I read a book and they make the high school experience something that it isn’t.  I like how the students are fickle – they like you one day and stay away from you the next.  This is how the high school experience should be written.

•The inner battle that Pearl has with herself.  She knows what is good, but that is at war with what she knows she should be like as a vampire.

•The fact that the students of Greenbridge High School are accepting of Pearl.  Yes, she has to prove herself in certain instances, but that is true of any student attending a new school.

•The humor in this book.  I love books that make me laugh.

•Jadrian.  Yes, he is one of the “bad” characters aka vampires and he probably wasn’t meant to be liked, but it goes deeper than that.  I do not like him because he is inconsistent and disloyal.  He tries to play Pearl’s emotions against her – dancing with another vampire, so she will be jealous, et cetera.

•Pearl’s family.  Again, they are vampires and are not meant to be liked.  The family dynamics are dismal at best.  Pearl constantly has to prove herself and her loyalty to her family.  I don’t recognize this with the other family members and Jeremiah is the prime example of this.

•Certain parts of the ending.  It was a good ending; I just didn’t like a few parts of it.  I’m not into spoilers, so I won’t tell you which ones.