He’s barely in this book, but Harrison makes the most of his appearance. (Maybe that’s what A Perfect Blood needed: more Al. They didn’t play very interestingly in A Perfect Blood – they were a bit of a deus ex machina – but there are possibilities there. There are still intriguing plot threads to play out. I think there’s life left in The Hollows. Although they’d only be decent antagonists during this book, which Rachel is at less than half power. HAPA proves to be a good antagonist, however, so I’ll let it slide. This feels clunky to me initially, since they’ve apparently been around for ages but never been mentioned before. A Perfect Blood introduces HAPA, or the Humans Against Paranormals Association.

It may also be the first mainstream threesome I remember reading. Her relationship felt out of the blue, since I don’t remember her flirting with the character in question, but it’s nice to see characters in the Hollows acting happy. Likewise, Ivy moved on from her never-happened fling with Rachel. Jenks might still miss his wife, but he’s moving on. Jenks and Ivy are both growing and changing. At times, it felt like Harrison had a list of questions people asked her and was ticking off the answers one by one because it would pad out the slight story.Ī Perfect Blood wasn’t all filler. Also solved: re-felting Kisten’s pool table. If that’s not his name, it doesn’t really matter, because the narrative quickly establishes that their brief relationship is over. He’s so milquetoast I’d forgotten he existed until Rachel suddenly needed his help. Is her relationship with Malcolm really over? Is that actually his name? I can’t remember. Did Rachel ever get her pack tattoo? You’ll find out in excruciatingly slow passages with Rachel’s new bodyguard Wayde. Instead of Rachel and Trent fireworks, we get the resolution of mostly forgotten plot threads. But they spend most of this entry clumsily avoiding each other. They’ve had sexual chemistry since Dead Witch Walking and Kim Harrison seems to be flirting with letting them consummate their attraction. By A Perfect Blood, Rachel is (unwisely) ignoring Trent’s calls and stagnating their relationship. Pale Demon pushed Rachel and Trent’s friendly and adversarial relationship forward by forcing them to spend a cross-country road trip together. Unfortunately, A Perfect Blood feels like filler. And it does have a promising plot – witches turning up dead, partially turned into demons, which Rachel is cut off from a great deal of her power. It was tense, sexy, and all about the characters. Pale Demon injected life into the Hollows series. Urban Fantasy published by Harper Voyager 21 Feb 12

Liviania’s review of A Perfect Blood (The Hollows, Book 10) by Kim Harrison

The hollows insider