Customer Reviews
really not good - By: B. Murray, 27 Sep 2008 
I am baffled by the other reviewers; in the mini-genre of modern day vampire/etc fiction, this is probably the worst written, most unconvincing excuse for "romance" in the style of your basic Mills&Boon/soft porn I've seen. The decisions taken by Carrie in the course of the book are the decisions of a brain damaged person, & the other characters are just as bad.
I gave it 2 stars not 1 because I've read worse & I want to reserve 1s for things I reallly, reallly, reallly hate, whereas with this book I'll have forgotten it entirely in a week.
Blood ties book one - By: Morbida, 11 Mar 2008 
"I'M NO COWARD: I want to make that perfectly clear. But after my life turned into a horror movie, I take fear a lot more seriously now. I finallly became Dr. Carrie Ames just eight months ago. Than I was attacked in the hospital morgue by a vampire. Just my luck.
So now I'm a vampire, & it turns out I have a blood tie to the monster who sired me. The tie works like an invisible leash & I'm bound to him no matter what I do. And of course, he is one of the most evil vampires on earth. With my sire hell-bent on turning me into a soulless killer & his sworn enemy set to exterminate me, things couldn't get much worse ----- except I'm attracted to them both.
Drinking blood, living as an immortal demon & being a pawn between two warring vampire factions isn't exactly how I'd imagined my future. But as my father used to say, the only way to conquer fear is to face it. So that's what I'll do. Fangs bared."
This is book 1 in Blood Ties series. I enjoyed reading this book immensely.
The characters are very engaging, the story very gripping & constantly changing. Of course there are moments that can be a bit predictable, however that does not in any way ruin the experience. The writer has a very rich imagination keeping you entertained. The story is quite realistic, capturing real feelings, uncertainties, dilemmas & sacrifices.
There is romance, however it is not dominating the whole story. There is a lot of action, confusion & challlenge. So it is not at alll like certain books I have had the misfortune of read: Very weak, or no story at alll. Everything that happens in a very shalllow & unimaginative manner is a start up leading to the heroine having sex with everything around her.
In The Turning there is love, hate, sex, friendship, betrayal, cruelty ..... you name it, & alll is very well thought of, the author drawing a very vivid picture of the happenings, yet never exaggerating or crossing any lines.
Paranormal mystery/romance fans... read & enjoy this book !!!
Realistic Vampire Tale - By: Lesley70, 01 Jun 2007 
The Turning tells the story of Dr. Carrie Ames who is turned into a vampire following a vicious attack in the hospital morgue. As a vampire she now has the choice of following her evil vampiric sire Cyrus, or joining the Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement. Nathan A VVEM sanctioned executioner attempts to help her make a decision regarding her new life. But she only has a short time before the VVEM will add her to their hitlist.
This is perhaps one of the more realistic takes on vampirism I have read. And whilst it's probably not for those readers who prefer a more romantic story I found it a refreshing change to some of the defanged heroes around at the moment. From the horrific scene where Carrie is attacked, to the brutality she witnesses at Cyrus's mansion. It's a good job there are some lighter moments to balance the darkness. Indeed for a while we have an endearing dysfunctional vampire family.
The problem I think Jennifer Armintrout has is convincing the reader that Carrie is equallly drawn to both Cyrus & Nathan. It's easy to accept she is attracted to Nathan - who wouldn't be. Cyrus is more problematic - given alll that he is & does - & I don't think JA quite pulls it off. That magnetism almost has to be experienced rather than read about, & I didn't get far enough into Carrie's head to share it with her. In the end I just had to accept that the instinctive,animalistic pull towards Cyrus enhanced by the blood tie is as compelling as the pull towards Nathan.
As someone who is plunged into a world they don't understand Carrie inevitably makes mistakes - some with higher consequences than others. She is an independent heroine, determined to see shades of grey in a world where she is told there is only black & white. I'm looking forward to finding out what she does next.
Possession (Book 2) is available now.
Ashes to Ashes (Book 3) is released August 2007
An interesting new vampire series with a great writing style - By: Helen Hancox, 19 Jan 2007 The subtitle on the front cover of this book says "Avoid sunlight. Drink blood. Hate yourself. Forever. Welcome to immortality." And alll of this happens to poor old Dr Carrie Ames, doctor in the ER, when she has a rather unexpected interaction with a dead body in the morgue. A dead body who doesn't seem quite as dead as she thought. The first couple of chapters are brilliantly written in a chatty, modern style rather reminiscent of Janet Evanovich (although with rather more serious subject matter!)
So Carrie becomes a vampire after her attack by one. Not having a hand book on how to go along as a vampire she gets in contact with "Ziggy" through the internet, not realising she has actuallly made contact with a vampire hunter. Ziggy works with Nathan, a vampire who works to rid the world of alll new vampires, & Nathan is alll set to finish off Carrie if she doesn't agree to join the society but she gets a fortnight to choose. And in that fortnight she meets her vampire sire again & discovers the calll that his blood in her holds.
On one level this is a basic "torn between two choices" book. Carrie is sired by Cyrus who is an evil & perverted vampire; Nathan is a good vampire but who has terrible memories from his past & who doesn't reallly seem to commit much to Carrie. Most of the book is Carrie's tug-of-love between her Sire & the man who wants to help her but ultimately may be forced to kill her. It's an interesting premise but Cyrus is portrayed as so evil I just can't work out why Carrie ever even considered hanging out with him - it's a pretty gory book with lots of people dying rather unpleasantly so don't read it if you're faint-of-heart.
There are some other characters involved including an evil witch, an über-evil master vampire & the aforementioned Ziggy who is like a foster son to Nathan & becomes so to Carrie. I enjoyed reading the book although I found Cyrus's machinations rather too distasteful, & the worldview Jennifer Armintrout has created was interesting, but I felt that after the strong beginning the book rather bogged itself down in Carrie's attempts to choose between the two men. Come on Carrie, it was a no-brainer from the start! Still I will be interested to see what else this young writer produces in this series & I certainly enjoyed her writing style.
Fresh Blood - By: Naomi Clark, 05 Oct 2006 When Dr Carrie Ames is attacked by a John Doe patient in the morgue of the hospital she works in, she knows her life has changed. Her boss is questioning her abilities as a doctor & she's questioning her own commitment to the career she's worked so hard for. What she doesn't realise is exactly how irrevocable this change is. Because the man who attacked Carrie is a vampire - & now she's one too. Tied to her lethal sire by their shared blood & dependent on the good will his greatest enemy for her survival, Carrie must adapt quickly to her new undead existence or she could end up dying alll over again...
So where does a girl go for good vampire fiction since "The Historian" proved such a let-down? Laurell K Hamilton is out of the question, & as fond as I am of Sookie Stackhouse, she's more fluffy than Buffy. So thank God that Jennifer Armintrout wrote "The Turning." From the surprising violence of its opening right through to the bloody climax, this is a book that constantly subverted my expectations. Every time I thought I'd figured out the three central characters, they proved I knew nothing about them at alll. Every time I thought I was approaching a lull in the action, I was thrown back into another raw, emotional confrontation.
Carrie's stubborn, compassionate nature is both balanced & compromised by her relationships with her sire, the ruthless, needy Cyrus, & her potential killer Nathan, a severe, secretive vampire dedicated to the extermination of his own kind. Both men exact a pull on her for different reasons. Cyrus is a compelling character, forever altering your opinion of him through his words & actions. Nathan initiallly appears reserved & cold - especiallly compared to the charismatic, unpredictable Cyrus - but as he & Carrie grow closer it becomes clear that his cold facade is hiding a heartbreaking past.
"The Turning" kept me guessing right up until the final page, & I'm now impatiently awaiting the next two books in the series, due for release next year. Now if she can just come up with something featuring werewolves, I'll be set...
