Title: Out For Blood
Author: Alyxandra Harvey [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: Walker & Company
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Provided by publisher
Parental Advisory: violence, death, sex
Teachable Moments: bigotry, loyalty, diplomacy

“He was graceful as moonlight, fluid and pale as he draped over Chloe.  She slept on peacefully, utterly unaware.  Not exactly proof of the effectiveness of our education.  Then again, right now, neither was I.  Quinn was a dark silhouette out of any standard vampire horror movie, leaning over, teeth gleaming. And I just waited trustingly, patiently, hopefully.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Hunter Wild is the youngest in a long line of elite vampire hunters, a legacy that is both a blessing and a curse at the secret Helios-Ra Academy where she excels at just about everything.  Thanks to her friendship with Kieran Black, Hunter receives a special invitation to attend the coronation of Helena Drake, and for the first time, begins to see the difference between vampires that must be hunted and vampires that can become friends — ore even more.  When students at the academy fall victim to a mysterious illness, Hunter suspects they are under attack from within.  She will need someone she can trust to help her save the future of Helios-Ra….help that shockingly comes in the form of Quinn Drake, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire.  Who said senior year would be easy?

Opinion:
Out For Blood is the third installment in one of my favorite series — The Drake Chronicles.  In it, Harvey continues to work her paranormal magic focusing on Quinn one of the twins that make up the middle of the Drake brood.

Action packed from the jump Harvey wasted no time getting into the meat of the story by throwing the Drakes directly into the middle of Helios-Ra — an organization sworn to kill vampires.  Specifically, the story focuses on it’s prep-school for budding hunters. Not wanting to spoil the plot of the story for you all I can say is that there is something nefarious afoot at this prestigious academy, something that it’s administration is chocking up to Hel-Blar and a variety of other vampires.

Told in alternating points of view the story follows Quinn and Hunter Wild, a student at the academy and decedent of a renowned family of vampire-hunters.  Sure there is some serious bigotry at work in the family (as evidenced by the role her grandfather plays in the story) but not from Hunter herself.  In fact, Hunter takes quite a liking to Quinn and by liking I mean she’s got the hottie hot hots!  And dude, I can say, who can blame a girl?

As far as characterizations go, Quinn is my favorite of the Drake family thus far.  Of course, it’s not hard for him to do since you all know I love me a bad boy with a heart of gold.  Naturally he was going to resonate for me.  What I liked best about Quinn was that he was just the right level of arrogant, his cockiness wasn’t unappealing or overbearing to me.  It was, in fact, quite charming.  A ladies man, he never had to work hard for attention from any woman he set his sights on.  Except maybe Hunter, he definitely had to work a little harder than usual for her.

Hunter was equally appealing.  Strong and empowered she wasn’t falling all over Quinn the moment she saw him.  Sure, she was interested but I liked that she wasn’t sitting around her dorm room pining away for him.  In fact, she continually challenged him and tried to distance herself.  But you know how things like that typically work out right?  Not so easy!  Especially when there are circumstances that continually threw them together.

The circumstance of most importance was the siege on the Helios-Ra Academy by some unknown group.  Thought to be vampire based Hunter, some of her classmates, Kieran and Quinn start to work the case.  It is during their inquiries that Quinn and Hunter bond.  But, I’ll say that while romance is definitely in the air it plays a relatively small part of the story.  The bulk of the story focuses on Hunter and the events at school.  Which, being honest, I quite enjoyed.  Don’t get me wrong the romance was enjoyable as well but it wasn’t the whole purpose of the story.  In that way Out For Blood was quite evenly told.

Speaking of how the story is told I give Harvey props for the transitional nature of the series.  Instead of going the route of continuing the same large story over the entire series she chooses to focus on something new for each book while maintaining certain elements over time.  She ends one book by bringing it’s main plot to a conclusion but then still threads in an inkling of what the next story will be throughout.  I also enjoy that even though the story in the book is new and shifts focus to a different member of the clan Harvey doesn’t entirely forget those characters that preceded.  It’s written where the reader knows the primary focus is on one member of the family (in this case Quinn) yet I still knew what was going on with the rest.  Out for Blood was no different in that regard, I enjoyed revisiting Lucy, Nicolas, Solange and Kieran.  In fact, the latter is who tied in the new heroine Hunter.  It was an excellent transition to make.  We also got a sneak peek at Quinn’s twin brother and computer geek du jour Connor who I presume will be the focus of the next story.

As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of my favorite series going right now.  It’s fun, at times humorous, filled with interesting and dynamic characters who take the reader on a thrilling ride.  Definitely one to put on your shelves.