Nice idea, poorly executed. ( )

This book was everything you could ask for in an action thriller. Cade is the good guy vampire dedicated to protecting the president and the people of this country. Zach, the newbie liaison between the president and Cade, was a snot nosed ass who grew up fast. The story revolved around a terrorist plot to create the ultimate weapon, a soldier who couldn't die. There were many subplots but the author kept them woven tightly and the story flowed smoothly. The story never lacked for action and Cade wasn't a tear them up vampire. Definitely worth reading. ( )

A fun read. It occasionally brought to mind the National Treasure movies (the smart & funny young sidekick, a ship named Charlotte, and especially the Resolute Desk) and a bit of Joss Whedon (bad guy revising his computerized To Do after the dust settles). Mostly there's lots of vampire action and Frankenstein-esque-zombiness. Bela Lugosi even makes an unexpected but perfect cameo. Part spy novel, part horror story, part war on terror.

Cole is more in line with the noble monster vampire tradition (which is how I like my vampires) rather than the smoldering lover-boy tradition. He wears a cross for a rather noble reason, and which I thought a great twist on vampire lore.

In a book group setting, this book might spark a good discussion on the question, "what kind of vampire would you be?" ( )

Zach Barrows, ambitious White House staffer, made the mistake of sleeping with the President's daughter and now he's been reassigned as partner and handler of secret agent Nathaniel Cade. Cade's mission, given to him by President Andrew Johnson as part of a pardon for vampirism, is to protect the Union from supernatural horrors that the daylight world, and Zach, are not prepared to cope with.

Blood Oath is the first in the Nathaniel Cade series by Christopher Famsworth. Nathaniel Cade is the vampire version of Jack Reacher with a little bit of The West Wing thrown in. In this mission someone has been shipping dismembered American soldiers back to the States with the intention of reassembling them in a kind of frankensoldier based on old Nazi experiments.

Cade is more of what I'd consider a "classic" vampire. Ultra strong and fast, drinking blood helps him regenerate from wounds, severe sunlight allergy. He has a strong moral compass for a vampire that could make for some interesting situations in the future. Basically everything but the supernatural seduction because:

"Humans are our food. Do you want to have sex with a cow?”

Did I mention there's some humor too? On the flip side, Zach Barrows starts off highly unlikable and obnoxious. I believe this is by design so we can see his character grow as he adjusts to the full reality of his new job situation. I ended up with how well Zach handles himself by the end of the book.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Bronson Pinchot. It took me a bit to get used to the narration as he was more monotone than I prefer. It made more sense as the story went along and more characters were added which upped the variety of voices.

Famsworth had fun drawing inspiration from popular horror legends and weaving them together into an entertaining horror/thriller. Fair warning, there are a couple gory parts and one in particular that made me cringe. That said, I enjoyed the set up and I'm looking forward to continuing the series. ( )

This combines all the best parts of thrillers and vampire lore with hints of The West Wing. SO GOOD. I am cranky that the next in the series isn't in the library's ebooks for me to read right now grumblegrumblegrumble. ( )