There are several narrators in the House of Comarré series, so I’m going to structure this review a bit differently than normal.

Mal and Chrysabelle: A good chunk of their story revolves around their feelings for each other and what that means for the cursed vampire and former comarré, or blood servant. The main mysteries in their lives revolve around the possible identity of Chrysabelle’s brother, the effects of melting down the ring of sorrows and using it to replace Chrysabelle’s signum, and the attempted retrieval of the vampire baby.

Doc and Fi: Fi is, obviously, still not happy with the “benefits” Doc received when he became pride leader. She makes a pretty bold stance to get back what she lost, and I have the feeling the repercussions are going to be severe.

The rest of the crew: Creek is still suffering through life under the KM’s thumb, only this time, he has an unusual ally. The mayor of Paradise City makes a few bipolar decisions that will ultimately lead to her extermination, I’m sure, and Tatiana is as insane as ever.

Out for Blood was this close to getting five tombstones. Seriously, people, I loved it that much. There’s so much ambiance with the world the author has created, and the characters have grown so much since the first book in the series. Chrysabelle wasn’t as much as of a princess anymore and Mal seemed to have removed the stick that had been lodged in a very uncomfortable place for quite some time. When the good guys escaped the clutches of the bad guys and flew into the sunset…it was the perfect ending! But…it wasn’t the ending.

There’s this current penchant that a series novel has to end in a cliffhanger. Sometimes I love it; sometimes I don’t. Kind of depends on my mood, I think. In this case, I didn’t like it, mainly because we finally got to see the fae Mortalis has been telling Chrysabelle about and he’s “on screen” for only a few pages. The next novel could easily have featured the meeting of the fae and been expanded to suit my greedy needs, but alas, it was needed as that final element to send Out for Blood into cliffhanger territory. You see, the fae’s price was…well, let’s just say it caused a domino-effect of cheesetastic plot threads leading into the end of the novel.

Cliffhanger aside, I’m still happy to give Out for Blood 4.5 tombstones. Though there are the romantic elements I mentioned earlier, I’d say this move is firmly seated in kick ass Urban Fantasy territory with an extra helping of Fantasy.