Blood Curse

Vampire's Love #1

by Janice Harrell

A teenage vampire is forced to resist her bloodthirsty nature when she falls in love with a mortal boy, and her growing feelings make her desperately seek to become human again. Original.

Genres: Vampires, Horror, Young Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

223 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Paula Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This didn't do much to change my wariness when it comes to 90s teen horror featuring vampires. Harrell willfully ignores so much vampire lore I wondered why she even bothered making Rena a vampire! I didn't understand the attraction; the boy she was after was about as interesting as a wooden plank!

[Sam Kettle Natasha Slee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these when I was about 13/14 in my school library and absolutely adored the books. Since then I have looked for them time and time again, I'm now nearly 31! I got so excited when I found them that I ordered them straight away! These started my love for all vampire books. Super super happy I found them again after 17 years!

[Candy Soulistic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! One of the first Vampire books I ever picked up. This is when I was in HighSchool and it was a great read. In my twenties I tracked down this book and the second book online and bought them. I re-read them. Great story!

[Lana Standley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the first books i ever read as a child and i loved it. Since then i have been hooked on vampire love stories. Thanks janice

[Katherine Hayward Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rina is 200 years old and is a vampire. A blood curse means she is destined to live life as an immortal.

James is a high school student who sparks an interest in Rina. She poses as a student and is in all his classes but his girlfriend Chelsea sees something wierd in Rina from the start.

Who will win James' heart?

Blood Curse is the first Point Horror book I have read and also the first in this mini series.

The author, Janice Harrell, had me hooked right from the first word in the book.

The doubt and mystery James and Chelsea felt surrounding Rina, her personality and presence was extremely well portrayed and the love battle between Rina and Chelsea in their fight for James was well done, too.

I felt for Rina when she missed her human life and disliked Chelsea.

A quick, fast- paced read. I'll be on the lookout for more Point Horror books as well as Blood Spell, the second one in the series (an extract of which is at the end of book 1 which I was pleased to find).

5 stars.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very typical Point Horror novel. It features the story of a female vampire who becomes infatuated with a teenage boy she meets in a cemetery. She enrolls in high school to get closer to him with the eventual goal of making him her companion. Somehow, she ends up accidentally turning his girlfriend Chelsea into a vampire when she tries to kill her rival, thus setting up the next book. It's dated, but fun.

[Mell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this ages ago, back in the 90s, when the original Vampire Diaries caused a mini boom in vampire books. The woman at the bookstore was scandalized that Scholastic Books was publishing vampire fiction.

But this one was a dud. The characters had no pop. I never bothered to read the sequel.

[Michele Vance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, undeveloped characters.

[Nadia Hana Hana · Rating 1 out of 5]

You would think that this is a novel about a pretty vampire who fell in love, a girl with dark history ? NO! This is a book about hundreds years old vampire who is just aimlessly fell in love with some random guy, tried to kill his girlfriend, murdered a bunch of people, and still, for some reason, the author still want to paint this character as innocent and naive. It’s so inconsistent; the writings are awful, and the main character is just a manipulative psychopath. A sorry, sadistic, manipulative psychopath who “happens” to be a vampire. Yet here we talk about romanticizing love and her history, and her “innocent”, how much she’s not like “other girls”, how she’s special, beautiful, alluring ( manipulating ) because she’s a vampire. But besides that, nothing. At all. She has no interests towards anything, no nothing. So one day she met some guy and boom, she’s obsessed about him. Think about if the roles reversed. It won’t be a “Vampire’s Love”, it would be dark suspense-crime novel. I don’t mind the sexy, mysterious, alluring types of female characters. But this is just bad writing, she’s just plain, childish, and obssesive.

[Nadya · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this when I was roughly 13 years old. This was the first book I finished in one day.

As a 37 year old re-reading it, all I could remember was a vampire called Rina in high school and the blue cover with a vampire mouth on it.

Someone from Instagram told me the author and title. Remembered nothing of the story.

Flowed quite nicely and happy to have re-read it ☺️

Didn't remember the story.

[Sarah Thomson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re reading this after diving into the point horror world in my teens. It tells the tale of a teen vampire who falls in love with a fellow school boy.

The characters are fun but not deep. It’s what I’d call light viewing for readers. It’s not an intricately detailed or accurate book when it comes to lore but it was a fun read.

[Nadya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this years ago in high school..the first book I read in a day. Years later I could only remember a vampire with the name.of Rena and a blue cover with a vampire mouth on it. Thanks to asking on an Instagram post someone gave me the title and author and I have now ordered a copy for myself (previous cope was the school's library)to reread.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot sexier than your average Point Horror, and a lot more vampirey too. A nice departure from the faux realism of RL Stine and sort of campy with it.

I read this for our podcast Teenage Scream, which dissects the best (and worst) of 90s Teen Horror.

https://soundcloud.com/teenagescream

[Bryony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic point horror 🧛‍♀️

Kind of a tropey concept but told from a female vampires POV.

Chelsea was the most interesting character, James was just dull.

[D.L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, what a stupid book!

[Madame Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read. Ridiculous in some places but entertaining otherwise.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. Oddly, I had the sequel in this series as a kid but hadn't read this one before. I liked the overall plot although I do think the characters could have been drawn a lot better.

[Sakura Koneko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this series after reading Janice Harrell's other vampire series, Vampire Twins.

I was a little dismayed at first at how normal the book seemed to be, even though it was nice to have a main character that was a female vampire. There were a lot of goofy things in this book regarding vampires, though in the end it wasn't a bad book.

If you're bored and able to find a copy, I'd say give a look.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, if I remember rightly I read it all in one day and it was that good I've still got it on one of my many bookshelves and still have a read of it every now and again

[Teash · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this book, it was amazing. made me feel like i wanted to be her in a way. i lent my copy to a friend and never got it back :(

[Katrina Sutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book that I enjoyed very much. It has romance and vampires. What more could you ask for?

[Limbo Doria · Rating 5 out of 5]

its a beautiful book