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Behind this innocent looking book cover is one hell of a great vampire story. Don’t let this cover art fool you!

First Promise (Book One in the Blood Run series)

By Christine Dougherty

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I nabbed this book for free off of Amazon. The blurb made me curious. I am so glad I did.

First Promise sat in my kindle for a few days, and as I was browsing to see what I might like to read, I happened on this book.  I opened it up, started reading, and a couple of hours later, I was finished. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want it to end. I was so pumped up I wanted to hit something! Just kiddin. But I was anxious to read more of this series.

I hopped over to Goodreads to check out Christine Dougherty. I was surprised that I had not friended her. Her books are my kind of reading, wonder how I missed her. Be sure, I friended her now! And I spotted the next two books in the series. They are available on Amazon and now I don’t have to wait to dive back in!

Let me tell ya’ll about this story.

It started in 1983.  News reports and rumors about vicious attacks trickled into the small town of Willow’s End. The townspeople soon start to believe the reports are true as the outbreak escalates, spreading to all corners of the Earth by the end of 83.

It takes a while for the infected to reach Willow’s End.  It’s now 1985. People start to go missing and some are found dead, their bodies ripped apart. Then the worse happens. The vampires get Promise’s parents. Promise, only eighteen years old, now has to protect and care for her nine-year old brother Chance. They are all each other has.

One week later, she loses Chance also. The survivors of the surrounding towns have taken shelter in the high school. It is a secure outpost, like many scattered throughout the country. They should have been safe. Then someone leaves a door open, and the vampires come pouring in from the darkness outside. It’s a bloodbath. So many die. And Chance is bitten. It doesn’t take long for him to change into a bloodsucker.

The others want to stake Chance, but Promise forbids it. As he howls and gnashes his long incisors in her face, Promise cries out to him to stop. He seems to have enough humanity left in him to hear her, and he dives out the window and runs off into the night.

Promise was not  always her name. She changed it from Destiny because she made a “promise” to her little brother. Since she first laid eyes on him as an infant, she always felt like he was her child. Now she has to hunt him down and end his pain.

Her promise, “I’ll fix everything. Until the day I rest in my grave, I will look for him.”

Now she shares a room with her horse, Ash, and her friend Lea, a quiet, shy girl, head-over-heels in love with Mark, who is hopelessly in love with Promise. Quite the pickle they are in. Promise has no interest in Mark besides friendship and they all manage to remain close, looking out for each other.

Then a newcomer arrives. A handsome young man, several years older than Promise. They seem drawn to each and not just because Peter has a horse also. The stories going around that he’s half-and-half are true. He has been bitten and survived, unchanged. The fact that his dreams are filled with a lust for blood will remain his secret.

Okay, I have to stop here. It is really going to get cranking now.

This little jewel is screaming at me to keep telling you more.

I am so glad there are two more books in this series. I have fallen hard for Promise and Peter, along with Lea and Mark. There are some periphery characters I like also and they help keep the story flowing and make it plausible.

I love how the author describes Promises’s feelings about vampires. They echo my own, and I’ve never seen it mentioned before.

“It still felt weird on her lips and in her ears. Vampires. The word was squirmy and old-fashioned and almost… embarrassing.”

There is one other moment in the story where this happens. It is like the author knows how I feel. It has to do with Peter and Promise, and what she discovers about his life before the outbreak. See if you catch what I mean. It’s like the author read my mind.

This would be a great read for young adult and more mature readers.

I’ve only touched on this story. There is so much in store for you. You have to read First Promise!

5 for 5 plus a pinch more because I don’t have to wait for the next two books. They are available now!

My review of Two Riders (Book Two in the Blood Run Series) is coming soon!

About Christine Dougherty and where to find her.

Christine Dougherty is at home in South Jersey with a husband, dog, and two cats. She has published short stories in The Absent Willow Review, Necrotic Tissue, Fiction at Work, and Niteblade.

Christine’s greatest influences are Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Anne Tyler, Dean Koontz, Wally Lamb and a fascination with the scarier aspects of life, be they paranormal or criminal.

Christine writes in the genres of horror, paranormal, and psychological thriller and is never happier than when she is tackling the undead, the walking dead, werewolves, vampires, zombies, ghosts, aliens, spooky scenes, scary characters, psychics, demons, devils, and quirky heroes and heroines.

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To purchase the Blood Run Trilogy click on the images below.