Sheep Book Review: In Memories We Fear by Barb Hendee

In Memories We Fear, by Barb Hendee, is the fourth installment in the Vampire Memories saga. It's an urban fantasy with a low level of sexual content (kissing and a small amount of sensuous touching) making it accessible to the young adult crowd. It's an uncommon story that could go either way depending upon your taste. For myself, In Memories We Fear was a little lacking in things I've come to enjoy.

Plot:

Eleisha Clevon lives a quiet life in Portland, Oregon — for a vampire. She has learned to feed without killing humans and to train others of her kind. Along with her protector, Philip Branté, and their human companion, Wade Sheffield, she seeks out other vampires to offer them a community and to show them they do not have to exist alone.

Now, a series of killings in England point to a new — and feral — vampire. Eleisha, Philip, and Wade travel to London to make contact with the terrified creature, to offer him sanctuary and stop the bloodshed. But the vampire they find is not what they expected. Maxim is centuries old, with no memory of living anywhere besides the forest and feeding on animals. Now, he’s gained a taste for human blood. Philip thinks he’s too dangerous to save, but Eleisha won’t give up... even at the cost of Philip’s love and her own life.

Our main group of characters include vampires, ghosts and a psychic human. An evil elder vampire , Jullian, is out to destroy the vampires that are seeking to free themselves from the old ways of killing the person they drink blood from to survive. The main group of good guys are coming together to find other like-minded individuals and teach them the very first law of the vampire code: "never kill when feeding". Each member of this group brings different talents to the table which results in the story taking on an adventure flavor while out on the hunt for those like themselves. Along the way, a series of vicious killings and word of a feral vampire loose in the streets of London sends the gang overseas to investigate, tracking down their fellow vampires before Jullian can nab them first.

This story is definitely heavy in the psychological department, for those that like to forgo the action-packed bloodfests this would be a good fit for you. I do love a good romance in my novels, but Hendee creates characters with no sexual knowledge or history leaving me a bit confused as to why that gene was apparently cut out of these vampires' DNA. One of the characters, Phillip, was very needy, clingy and always bored so his character started to become quite annoying at times. Eleisha is a soft spoken empathic vampire who gives Counselor Deanna Troi a run for her money. At times the dialog is very engaging, yet at other times things seem to flounder around which has the unfortunate net result of loosing any footing gained in previous chapters.

It's a mixed bag of emotions for me: I liked aspects of the book but the lack of believable characters and overused situations had me skipping along pages in chapters towards the back half. To be fair this was also the first book I've read in this series but I feel no real need to go back and read what lead up to the current edition. I'm on the fence about continuing any further with the Vampire Memories saga. I'd suggest to proceed with caution and possible check around at other reviews as well.

Getting 3 "off with his head" Sheep.

KD