Review: The Blood Gospel

The Blood Gospel by James Rollins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This almost gets a 4 star rating for me.

This was a very interesting read for me! Not only because it has to do with archaeology, but because it talked about a lot of things I had never heard and, of course, the one in me who can't just ignore history loved those parts. Before you ask, yes, I searched for what was real and what wasn't. Speaking of that, I really like the way James Rollins grabbed characters who were real historical people and gave them his twist to fit in the story. If I have to talk some more about the characters, I could get me some Jordan anytime (he's a stud but such a cutie)! All the characters are well written, and the relationship between them and the way those relationships and the characters themselves grow is well explained and makes sense. That was probably my favorite part, the way the characters were written. Our main character's inner conflict she has with religion and her own family because of it felt like a refreshing background for me, and it was well explored and well written.

What detracted me from giving it full 4 stars (or even 5) were mainly two things: I had a really hard time reaching the end of this, I don't know why. Maybe I was having a reading slump, because it took me almost two months to finish it. I like the way its written, I like the way the characters and all the settings are described. I love the input the author gives us about historical facts through dialogue between the characters, which is beautifully done, and have nothing bad to pin about the way its written, so I have absolutely no idea why I couldn't just bring myself to finish it.

The second thing, which made me cringe a little bit (and I don't know if this is a spoiler or not but I'll just consider it isn't) was the strigoi. Which basically means vampire in Romenian, if I'm not mistaken. It basically made me feel the same way The Strain did. A story with such good potential, almost ruined by vampires. I can't say I didn't like it, they're pretty different vampires, if one can say so, but it made me cringe. And every time the book reminded me they were vampires, I cringed a little more. Now, I can't speak for everyone, and that obviously shouldn't have influenced my opinion just because some of the characters are, well, vampires, but it did, and I can't lie about it. Because I was expecting a fictional book about history with some fictional history in the mix, not a fantasy book.

If you just ignore the fact that they're vampires, this is a very enjoyable book, which I enjoyed very much. Still, I'll read the second, everything in this is good except... well, you know what.

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