I first read Hocking’s work when my junior suggested her Trylle trilogy. Well, my junior fits into the age category Hocking targeted, while I consider myself to be too old for paranormal romances, or better put, immature, shallow paranormal romances. I enjoyed the Trylle trilogy though, despite the flaws that I would like to elaborate later in another post.I was looking for a bit of light reading when I stumbled upon ‘My Blood Approves’ in my iBooks. I downloaded it when I was looking for the Trylle series a year ago.

One thing about Hocking is, she has the power to engage you into her book, no matter how stupid the story is. Yeah, My Blood Approves got me hooked for two nights, because two nights were all it took for me to finish reading it. The language was simple, too simple for someone like me who endeavours on Jude Devereaux’s, Kazuo Ishiguro’s, Andrea Lewy’s elaborate, wise choice of words. As her Trylle trilogy, she repeatedly, annoyingly used the word ‘foxy ‘ way too many times that I have to look up on the meaning few times to make sure that I wasn’t missing the real meaning of it. Okay, I get it, vampires are just too hot that you can’t find any other word, but ‘foxy’ from a bulk of 200 000 words in English.

So, this book is about Alice Bonham, a plain looking 17-year-old-girl, who  apparently has super-tasty, deliciously-scented blood that gets all the vampires turned on. So, that is how she gets involved with a family of hot vampires consisting of, the foxy Ezra, the foxy Mae, the foxy Jack and the-ever- so- foxy Peter. Hocking came up with a concept that no other vampire stories (that I have read) have offered. Something called ‘bond’.  Since Alice’s blood is surreptitiously tasty, every vampire wants to get a bite of it, more of a suck in this context. Peter, however, is physically bonded with Alice, which means, Alice, a mortal, is supposed to be Peter’s wife but oh no, Jack’s in love with Alice.  Alice, on the other hand, gets all wet and physically vulnerable when she even smells the tangy fragrant of Peter (tangy is another word that was used at least a hundred  times in this book) but she feels comfortable in Jack’s arms, she loves Jack’s heartily laugh and she probably is in love with Jack. Yes, she is very confused. She gets stuck in this love-sex-bloodlust triangle and that’s the conflict in this story.

The thing I like about this book is nothing. I don’t like the language. I don’t like the superficiality of the characters; I especially don’t like the personality of the protagonist, Alice. It somehow strengthened the judgments I have on Hocking. Both her Trylle series and now, My Blood Approves, share the same type of protagonist, a girl who, undoubtedly, has very low self-esteem and somehow is being wooed after by, at least two paranormal guys. In both stories, the main girl could not choose between the guys and this conflict is prolonged into a series of books. So, in real life, I assume, no offense, I assume Hocking probably, is not very confident about herself and she tries to channel out her needs by creating girl characters that are sought after by many guys.

Overall, I think this book deserves a 2.5/5. As I said, Hocking is good at making the readers buy the next book in the series, so, I am actually on the second book, Fate. I am curious to know what happens to the special physical bond Peter has with Alice and whether Alice chooses Jack over Peter. So, I guess the plot is not bad, after all. 

Five words about this book: Foxy, supernatural, shallow, immature, sensual.

Post-script:

I imagine Jack to be like this, or probably like Enrique Iglesias, except his hair was supposed to be sandy brown.

Does Sarita Mandanna sound Indian to you? It does to me and that’s the sole reason why I bought this book. Now don’t stamp me as a racist, but come on, since I read Rishi Reddi’s Karma, I feel obliged to buy Indian author’s penning. I am an Indian, I mean, I am a Malaysian, but my ancestors are from India and that is probably the reason why I feel drawn to Indian authors.

So back to this book, first of all, let’s talk about the cover. Not that very enticing, I should say. The cover is framed by different types of plants, like bamboo and flowers and there are two herons flying above the title. At first glance, the cover did not make any sense to me, but once I started to read, then it dawned on me. The very core of this book is all painted on the cover. Friendship and nature.

Generally, Tiger’s Hills is 593 pages long (I finished it in 5 days) and the plot is divided into three main chapters, viewed from the three main male protagonists in the story, namely, Devanna, Machu and Appu. Interestingly, I realized much later that they all are from the same family.  Their lives revolve around Devamma or frequently called as Devi. Devi, happened to be an enchantingly beautiful lady who is Devanna’s best friend since she was 5 years old and who was in love with Machu since she was 9 years old, since the she first time she saw Machu was being celebrated for killing a tiger.

The story was set in Coorg or better known now as Kodagu in Karnataka, India. The story covers a long time span, from 1878 when Devi was born until 1940s when Gandhi made his presence seen in Coorg.

What I really like about this book is, first of all, the language used in this book. Of course, my nights could have been made shorter by the use of simple sentences and subtracting the unwanted details about flowers and nature, but as I said, the language is used in this book is one of its plus points.  The words used in this book made me feel like someone was reciting a poem to me. A poem that I could actually, easily understand. The words crafted by Sarita Mandanna literally filled up my sense receptors, for example, “To the North, the undulating hills of bamboo country, softly rounded, dotted with towering arches of bamboo and slender knots of trees.” While I was reading that particular sentence, slowly, the hills and the tall bamboo trees were unfolding right before my eyes and I could smell the greenness of it. There’s another part that I love so much, which is, “It was a perfect specimen, the dew still glistening from its pistil, and with such a fragrance. Sweeter than a rose, richer than jasmine, with the musky underpinnings of an orchid.” I died intoxicated for a second there. I was longing for that fragrant. I searched all my olfactory memories and tried to find the perfect fragrant that would suit her description, but nothing comes close to her narration. I settled for vanilla blended with jasmine in the end. But, that’s what I am telling, Sarita has really vivid imagination and she stitched them perfectly into a beautiful prose.

Secondly, the thing that I like and at the same time, hate, about this book is, the story itself. I like it because it keeps me turning from a page to another. It’s cryptic enough to make me wonder, why the hell is she telling me about bamboo flowers, why do I need to know that the Reverend would probably be gay, why Devanna is so gifted in learning?  Sarita answered all my questions, slowly, sometimes even after the curiosity dissipated and all the answers burned me, because the idea of the story is to create ramifications. One single action triggers a domino effect, not just to you, but to the world, to everyone else and I guess, that’s what I got from the story. The story ended perfectly, but for days after completing this book, the story keeps playing in my timid head. What would have happened if Devi….? Does Appu deserve all that wealth and attention? Poor Nanju, his birth wasn’t his fault at all. Probably Devi has a mental disorder? Have I done this to anyone’s life? All these questions keep repeating in my head and that’s what I hate about this book. It gives you a scar.

What I don’t like about this book is the usage of too many local slangs and words. Words like odekathi, uyii, monae, and many more, repeatedly made me wonder whether are they English or some other language? I could have just googled them up but I chose to ignore those words.

Five words about this book: Lyrical, sensual, natural, yearning and love.  

I love this book and the haunting capability of it and it’s definitely a long, yet worthwhile read.