Balthazar by Claudia Gray Review

Balthazar by Claudia Gray

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Goodreads: Haunted by memories from his first days as a vampire, Balthazar has spent hundreds of years alone—without allies, without love. When he emerges from his isolation to help Skye Tierney, a human girl who once attended Evernight Academy, Balthazar has no idea how dangerous it will be. Skye’s psychic powers have caught the attention of Redgrave, the cruel master vampire responsible for murdering Balthazar and his family four centuries ago. Having learned of Skye’s powers and the remarkable effect her blood has on vampires, he plans to use her for his own evil purposes. As they stand together to fight the evil vampire, Balthazar realizes his lonely world could finally be changed by Skye...just as Redgrave realizes that he can destroy Balthazar once and for all by taking her for his own. 

In a story filled with forbidden love and dark suspense, one of the most beloved characters in Claudia Gray’s New York Times bestselling Evernight series will captivate readers with his battle to overcome his past and follow his heart.

My take: Having not read Evernight series, I was afraid I would be at a disadvantage. Turns out that the marketing for this new series is true. It is sold as a separate series and adds to Evernight but does not need the background of Evernight to understand the story. The only disadvantage I felt was not understanding who Lucas is and a few questions about Bianca. Those are minor and not relevant to the main story.

It's another book about forbidden love with a teenage girl but with a strange twist. Although Balthazar is a vampire, he is not evil. He's not dark and brooding, either. If it were not for the vampire business, he might even be the kind of boy you could bring home to meet your parents.

Like any vampire book, the rules are different. Human blood is a life force and must be consumed to keep the humanity in the vampire but killing a human by draining their blood will turn them into a vampire (that last part seems pretty standard). There are good vampires and bad vampires. There are a lot of vampires who could be either and are, like many people, tweeners. We are introduced to blood thirsty Lorenzo in the first chapter. He's not so good. We meet a few others that are hypnotizing but fairly control freakish or mentally unstable.

Then there's the twist which is that Skye's blood has special power. Power that makes power - hungry vamps more powerful if they own her. Skye doesn't want to be owned.

It's a good book. Mostly clean. Swearing is minimal. Sex is implied but also minimal. Dialogue is clean.