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Bloodshot (Cheshire Red Reports #1)

by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 1,848 ratings · 395 reviews

VAMPIRE FOR HIRE

Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing governmen...more

Paperback, 359 pages

Published January 25th 2011 by Spectra

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Aug 15, 2011 The Holy Terror rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy, color-blue, color-black, color-red, borrowed, hispanic-characters, 2011

I really enjoyed this book. It was a darker action-packed urban fantasy, and I'm glad that I stumbled upon it. I had never read Cherie Priest before, but I found this at the library and decided to give it a chance.

At times I would describe the plot as being Vampire Mission: Impossible. I even said that Raylene reminded me of a morally ambiguous Kate Beckinsale from Underworld. These two things made for a fantastically different novel from what I've been forcing myself to read lately. It was such...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Tatiana rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who don't like their UF hawt

Recommended to Tatiana by: Kelly

Shelves: urban-fantasy, series-dropped-lost-steam

Let's just cut to the chase here - this book could have been much better with some humor, some steam, and told by a more charismatic narrator.

Cherie Priest is a competent writer, the concept of this book is a good one - hence 2 stars instead of 1, even though I didn't finish reading it. I actually opened this book thinking it would be a great addition to the genre of vampire UF. But what started as a 4-star read for me - OMG, such a great premise - Raylene is a vampire and a professional thief w...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Hazel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I may be too old for this. Cherie Priest is a thoroughly competent writer who has created what should be a fun genre novel. In fact she is more thoughtful and shows greater attention to detail than the average. In theory, I should like this, but... I think the word is 'meh'.

Our heroine is, in essence, an vampire cat-burglar. But neither the writing, nor the character have the elegance or style of a real cat-burglar. I think I wanted Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman. Yes, a vampire Raffles, I could...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Pete rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my first read of Cherie Priest and I didn’t know what to expect. Vampires and PNR have been dominating my reading for about 3 years, and I am addicted by this genre. This book bothered me from the beginning, and I immediately hated the heroine. I love strong kick-ass feminine protagonists’ stories, but like them to have some bit of conscience. Raylene is a neurotic vampire thief with OCD. She’s ruthless man killer, who is full of snark right from the beginning, made it difficult to get t...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Kelly Maybedog Hawkins rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: what-modern-fantasy, what-vampires

2.5 stars

Bloodshot
I’m not sure how I feel about this book. The first half was so-so, the second half quite good. Much of it wasn’t predictable. There were elements that pushed the first half up and the second half down. And one overarching problem: The main character is basically a sociopath. For example, in the beginning she kills someone just because he breaks into her warehouse even though he was unarmed. She never regrets this or thinks it was unjustified.

Yes there are changes later but I w...more

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Jan 08, 2012 VampireNovelFan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, vampires, urban-fantasy, favorites, comedy

Tons of fun and tons of funny

Sometimes you really need a fun Urban Fantasy series that checks all of the usual drama and headaches at the door. When you're in the mood for that then you should check out the Cheshire Red Reports by Cherie Priest. Bloodshot (Book 1) introduces us to vampire Raylene, a very independent, efficient, and hilariously neurotic professional thief.

Her skills catch the attention of Ian Stott, a fellow vampire who needs her help. He hires Raylene to locate top secret files...more Tons of fun and tons of funny

Sometimes you really need a fun Urban Fantasy series that checks all of the usual drama and headaches at the door. When you're in the mood for that then you should check out the Cheshire Red Reports by Cherie Priest. Bloodshot (Book 1) introduces us to vampire Raylene, a very independent, efficient, and hilariously neurotic professional thief.

Her skills catch the attention of Ian Stott, a fellow vampire who needs her help. He hires Raylene to locate top secret files about an experimental program that caused him to go blind. This requires her to travel throughout the country, eventually landing in Atlanta where the fun really begins. It turns out Raylene is a potential target for this program as well, so she must evade this organization as well as the Feds who want to take her down. This of course makes her job a little more difficult.

She ends up meeting a peculiar drag queen named Adrian. There’s definitely more to this character than meets the eye and he ends up partnering with Raylene. It turns out he’s an Ex-Navy SEAL and he’s searching for his sister, who he believes was also a part of the experiment. I can tell you right now that I totally loved this character, even more than Ian. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d say one of my favorite characters is an Ex-Navy SEAL who moonlights as a drag queen, but there it is. Normally humans are boring, but I enjoyed his chemistry with Raylene even more than Ian.

There are other supporting characters as well that I liked, including a kid brother and sister team who live with Raylene. They are orphans but they’re pretty crafty at times, making them useful to Ray. They’re also at the center of a number of hilarious lines.

There’s a great mix of action, comedy and mystery that makes this a fairly quick read. Raylene’s not the typical self-loathing and emo vamp (like many that have begun to saturate the genre), making this series a breath of fresh air. I actually ended up reading the second book first, but I enjoyed that one so much that I went back to see how it all began. Based on the structure of the story, it seems as if the books in this series can work well enough as a standalone.

Overall I recommend this book if you keep in mind that it’s not to be taken that seriously. Sometimes you don’t need that for a good read.

*Review also posted to Amazon (less)

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Mar 31, 2011 Maja rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy, glistening-fangs, reviewed-in-2011

Cherie Priest should rewrite the first 20% of her book. It wasn’t boring exactly, but the MC was incredibly annoying and unlikeable. I was just about ready to give up on Bloodshot and go read something else when I said to myself: “Hey, this is UF, and you’ve been playing hide and seek with good UF novels for far too long. It deserves a second chance.” So I decided to read another chapter, and in that chapter, the weirdest thing happened: Raylene and the story did a 180. It all suddenly became ve...more Cherie Priest should rewrite the first 20% of her book. It wasn’t boring exactly, but the MC was incredibly annoying and unlikeable. I was just about ready to give up on Bloodshot and go read something else when I said to myself: “Hey, this is UF, and you’ve been playing hide and seek with good UF novels for far too long. It deserves a second chance.” So I decided to read another chapter, and in that chapter, the weirdest thing happened: Raylene and the story did a 180. It all suddenly became very interesting and I started to care. It was a real page turner from that point on. I loved it.

Here are some of the things that bothered me in the first part of Bloodshot:

The narrator (Raylene) addresses the reader directly and conversationally. I would absolutely love that if the said narrator wasn’t incredibly annoying, selfish and cold, even for a vampire.

Humor often makes an extremely important part of urban fantasy. Even more often an author will try so hard to make the MC funny that the only thing he/she will accomplish is sounding incredibly stupid and annoying. Trying to be funny and failing miserably is the main reason I didn’t like Bloodshot at first.
Here’s how it goes: a human guy breaks into Raylene’s storage building, she catches him, feeds on him, drains him dry and then eases her conscience with the fact that his name is Trevor, and you know, she’s never known a Trevor who isn’t a total douchebag, so it's „Raylene: 1/Trevors of the world: 0.” Through this entire torturous experience, she's doing her very best to be funny, but only succeeding in irritating the hell out of me with sentences like:
I folded Trevor like a clean shirt and inserted him into the muddy slot like a pizza going into an oven. Yeah. Not funny. And I don’t ever want to eat pizza again.

Also, I didn’t like her name at all. It’s a pretty ridiculous name for a vampire. I’ve been thinking that someone should introduce Raylene to Disco the vampire from Dead, Undead, or Somewhere in Between. They would probably hit it off right away.

So after all this, how did it all change? Well, for one, she stopped trying to be funny. Once that heavy burden was lifted from the narrator, she became more likeable. She also stopped being cold and selfish. She abandoned the ‘me against the world’ attitude and started caring about others.

I LOVED the almost-love story. I can’t emphasize this enough. It wasn't in my face all the time - it was actually very subtle. I loved the fact that he was blind (yep, a blind vampire) and very dependent on others. He was a strong character, but not physically threatening. I also loved that they didn’t jump each other right away. The love interest developed gradually from a business relationship, and it didn’t develop fully, at least not yet.

The next installment is called Hellbent and it will be released this summer. I will definitely read it.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars. It would be 4 without that first part.
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Aug 27, 2011 Mlpmom (Book Reviewer) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-books

Okay so I will admit, I wasn't sure how to rate this book after I got done reading it. I mean I liked it, it was different than other UF out there right now, way different in fact but yet I couldn't decide if that was a good thing.
I mean, I enjoyed the writing, Preist is a good writer, I just wasn't sure if I felt like I connected with any of the characters. I didn't really feel like I became invested in what happened to them. Did I like them? Sort of.
Raylene has a very dry sense of humor, whic...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Sabrina marked it as did-not-finish · review of another edition

I don't do actual reviews for the books I haven't read: this is just a brief explanation about why I gave up on this, just past the first two chapters.

Raylene is an absolute bore.
The book is written in first-person and in these first chapters there are so few spoken parts that I feel like I'm reading a journal or a chronicle. That's not what I look for in a novel.

Everything is overly detailed and overly descripted. It takes five pages for Raylene to subdue an intruder in her warehouse, just beca...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Barbara ★ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: zzcover-blue, female-lead, first-in-series, paranormal-vampires, paranormal-warriors-guardians, set-in-usa-washington, urban-fantasy, h-h-abused-tortured, h-h-disfigured-handicapped

I don't know what it was about Raylene Pendle that I disliked but something really irked me. I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Covert government agency kidnapping and experimenting on vampires. Art and jewel thief, Raylene Pendle asked to steal secret documents to help vampire Ian Stott regain the vision they stole from him. Enter a power-hungry scientist (bad guy), a drag queen and a ghoul (good guys) and man what's not to love! I just didn't like Raylene and just wasn't feeling the romance betwe...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Alliehef rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Bloodshot" by Cherie Priest was pleasure from cover to cover. The action rarely slowed, the patter was intelligent, the plot gripping, and the characters unique yet believable, if you believe in vampires.

The story is of Raylene Prendle, a vampire-cum-private detective living (or not) in Seattle. Her latest case involves an attractive male vampire who has been robbed of his vision after a stay in a top-secret military prison, where experiments were performed on him and others. His wish to know...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Denise rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have heard great things about Cherie Priest, so I was delighted to discover this book. I'm not a big fan of zombies, so I've shied away from her other acclaimed series (Yes, I'm shallow that way). And I have to admit that of all the books I've devoured in recent months, her opening line is by far the best:

"You wouldn't believe some of the weird shit people pay me to steal."

Yep, I was hooked.

Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red) is a professional thief and a vampire. She's lived life on her terms a...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Miss Anne Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In questo libro c'è di tutto e di più, ma in senso buono.
C'è un giallo da risolvere.
Ci sono agenti segreti (in)degni di James Bond.
C'è una vampira ladra che per necessità – o forse per vocazione – si tramuta in una detective pronta a tutto e con licenza di uccidere (sì, ritorniamo sempre al caro, vecchio – neanche tanto – James =D).
Ci sono un vampiro cieco e un ex Navy Seal determinati a scoprire la verità.
C'è un complotto ordito da un essere sconosciuto che fa esperimenti su vampiri e altre cre...more In questo libro c'è di tutto e di più, ma in senso buono.
C'è un giallo da risolvere.
Ci sono agenti segreti (in)degni di James Bond.
C'è una vampira ladra che per necessità – o forse per vocazione – si tramuta in una detective pronta a tutto e con licenza di uccidere (sì, ritorniamo sempre al caro, vecchio – neanche tanto – James =D).
Ci sono un vampiro cieco e un ex Navy Seal determinati a scoprire la verità.
C'è un complotto ordito da un essere sconosciuto che fa esperimenti su vampiri e altre creature della notte per conto del governo, mascherando il tutto da ricerca scientifica per potenziare i soldati.
Mescolate il tutto e avrete la trama di Ladra di sangue.

In realtà la trama della Priest è molto più complessa e articolata di come l'ho descritta io, ma questi sono i punti salienti che vedono protagonista Raylene Pendle, vampira ladra con l'avversione per i propri simili, Ian Stott, vampiro non vedente, e Adrian deJesus, ex Navy Seal con qualche segreto e tanta voglia di vendetta.
Il libro mi ha incuriosita fin dal primo momento in cui ho letto la trama sul blog di Glinda, perché, nonostante la presenza dei vampiri, stra-abusati nel panorama fantasy degli ultimi anni, ho subito avuto l'impressione che fosse diverso da tutti gli altri libri che si trovano sugli scaffali al momento. E infatti avevo ragione.
Non ci sono vampiri che sbrilluccicano, la protagonista non è una ragazzina idiota con la mania per i belli e dannati – in tutti i sensi... ok, per i dannati forse sì –, i co-protagonisti sanno il fatto loro e non si lasciano intimorire dagli eventi (tranne un raro caso verso la fine del libro, ma è normale), e la trama è avvincente, non lascia nulla al caso e ti tiene col fiato sospeso fino all'ultima parola.

La storia è dal punto di vista di Raylene, è lei che parla... o forse sarebbe il caso di dire che scrive, perché sembra veramente che la protagonista tenga un diario, raccontando ciò che è accaduto dal momento in cui ha conosciuto Ian in poi.
Questo è indubbiamente il primo libro di una serie, lo si intuisce dal finale aperto e dal fatto che il colpevole sia semplicemente stato nominato, ma che dev'essere ancora tutto spiegato più a fondo. Intanto le vite dei protagonisti continueranno come se nulla – o quasi – fosse successo.

Continua... su Veiled Mirror (less)

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Jul 05, 2012 Ste80 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Da www.sognipensieriparole.com
Ladra di sangue è il primo romanzo pubblicato in Italia di Cherie Prest e appartiene alla serie dedicata al personaggio di Raylene Pendle, vampira e ladra professionista, attraverso cui l’autrice statunitense ha raggiunto il successo e pubblicato lo scorso 24 maggio dalla Casa Editrice Tre60.

Raylene è un personaggio davvero molto curioso che personalmente mi ha ricordato quello di Lisbeth Salander nella trilogia larssoniana di “Uomini che odiano le donne”, sia per l...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Shannon rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

I'm currently in a reading mood and after seeing this in the library instead of "Boneshaker," I decided to read it. I'm not completely into all of the urban fantasies. I'm a bit picky. I started this book and after the first page, I had to take a break. I read another book instead and repicked it up. I still couldn't stand it and read a different book. Two books later, I finally forced myself to finish it. The entire time I read it, I couldn't get into it. I didn't feel completely engrossed in t...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Leigh rated it 2 of 5 stars

A Different Concept, But Nothing Original..

I was really looking forward to this book, but I was a little disappointed..and I'll try hard to tell you why without any spoilers. I picked it up tentatively, but was trying to get some new vamp book blood into my system. This book kept my attention WITHOUT crazy sex scenes, and it had a good plot and storyline that was mysterious enough to keep me turning the pages. However, it really wasn't a *new* story or plot, it seemed very generic but with new c...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Tia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ray is a vampire kick butt girl. She takes on cases as a thief and does many other things as well. She takes a case from Ian, whom is a vampire like herself. Ian is blind, when he was younger he was captured by the government and experimented on. They took his ability to see because the government wanted to use his night vision as an implant in humans.

During Raylene's investigation, she comes across another person, a young seventeen year old girl that was in the experiment with Ian. She hasn't...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Tim Hicks rated it 3 of 5 stars

First things first: I read Hellbent first and it's better than Bloodshot. So if you thought Bloodshot was only OK, read on and be rewarded.

Second, I am not one of those folks who have read 287 vampire novels and can debate the nuances of each. But I am fully familiar with the rules of vampirism.

As others have noted, Raylene is a very human vampire in some ways. At times she reminded me of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, except that Plum is physically useless; perhaps Ian and Adrian suggest M...more

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Dec 19, 2011 LL rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

This was my first Cherie Priest book. It started off a bit shaky, because for the first two chapters, I found myself wondering what the heck the main character, Raylene, was meant to be doing. In fact, nothing that she “said” (since she narrated and explained her own story in present tense) caught my attention for long. The prose was supposed to be humorous but instead I found Raylene extremely annoying with her self-humour.

I almost decided to put the book down after two chapters.

Then suddenly,...more This was my first Cherie Priest book. It started off a bit shaky, because for the first two chapters, I found myself wondering what the heck the main character, Raylene, was meant to be doing. In fact, nothing that she “said” (since she narrated and explained her own story in present tense) caught my attention for long. The prose was supposed to be humorous but instead I found Raylene extremely annoying with her self-humour.

I almost decided to put the book down after two chapters.

Then suddenly, the plot picked up quickly thereafter and the entire book became so much more involved. I became much more engaged with the story and I actually finished the book relative quickly after the torturous slow start.

Raylene was the main character and a lone vampire who didn’t belong to any House. She worked alone as a “treasure hunter”. I honestly couldn’t remember what she called herself, but I thought the more suitable description of her occupation would be “thief-for-hire”. Anyway, she took immense precautions with having multiple safe-places, accounts, identifies handy in case she got in trouble and had to flee at moments notice. Given this, you’d think she was an organized and well-planned undead, right?

That’s where you’d be wrong.

She never planned. In reality, she often flew by the seat of her pants. Even after she teamed up with Adrian (or Sister Rose), who was a majorly kickass ex-SEAL drag queen, to investigate the abduction and experimentation of kidnapped vampires (one of whom was Adrian’s sister), she’d lead the game not really knowing how she was going to achieve the goal. She portrayed an air of confidence, but really, she was a fake.

Oh gawd, she was annoying!!! Her continuous monologue about self was totally uninteresting and often repetitive. I believe I only enjoyed her scenes where she started taking actions and had to give-it-all-or-die-trying.

On the whole though, the story moved along very nicely and I really liked reading about Adrian. Even parts about Ian Stott, the blind vampire who hired Raylene to investigate the details of his abduction and subsequent experimentation, were engaging.

So yes, I’d read the next instalment sometime in the future, but I’d like to see some improvement and character development on Raylene, as I believed her to be the weakest link to the story.

I give this book 3.5 stars.
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Oct 27, 2011 Laurian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: vampires, mystery

Cherie Priest lives in Seattle. So while on my Seattle trip it was pretty easy for me to convince myself that picking up a few of Priest's books would be a great idea.

I picked up this book, which appears to be the first in her new vampire private investigator series. All in all, the series is pretty much what you'd expect. It is well written, covers a bad ass woman with super natural power who is paid to investigate strange occurrences, and kept me going to the end.

In this book those strange o...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had picked this book up a couple of times to read it, but each time decided I wasn't in a vampire mood. However, the other day I decided it has been lying around long enough, I had bought it as I read a review of it and it appealed, so time to dive in.

So glad I did, I really enjoyed the book, I liked the character of Raylene, vampire and thief, as well as the various characters she met along the way on the case. The case being a fellow vampire who had been the subject of various experiments l...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

While Priest is mostly known for her steampunk efforts but this is an urban fantasy. Chesire Red is a former flapper turned vampire, who is a professional thief. Vampires in this world are not as cliche as many novels out there, which is refreshing. For example, Raylene (aka Chesire Red) is superior physically to humans, but only a bit. She has just a smidge of a psychic ability, rather than the the traditional "snare a human in my eyes/mind". [return][return]Anyway, Red is hired by a blind vamp...more

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May 10, 2011 Rhiannon Ryder rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jumping from one genre to another and not missing a beat, Cherie Priest has developed a reputation I'm now always going to officially equate her with... Rockin' great books.

Meet Raylene, vampire, thief and a character who's so much all around fun I want her to subsist in a huge series of books. Something like Miss Marple and Poirot. I won't lie, I want you to read this book so Cherie can sell more of them, so I can read more of them, because she's left me wanting so much more.

In this rollicking...more Jumping from one genre to another and not missing a beat, Cherie Priest has developed a reputation I'm now always going to officially equate her with... Rockin' great books.

Meet Raylene, vampire, thief and a character who's so much all around fun I want her to subsist in a huge series of books. Something like Miss Marple and Poirot. I won't lie, I want you to read this book so Cherie can sell more of them, so I can read more of them, because she's left me wanting so much more.

In this rollicking mystery/hardboiled detective novel, Cherie mixes the paranormal with military conspiracy theories, drag queens, and Parcour enthusiasts. Sounds weird right? Without a doubt, but it all goes together so seamlessly when you read it that I defy you not to love it. Couple it with such a great overlying mystery that I sense the next crime/thriller sensation has just taken off. After all you thought the concept behind Dexter was weird when you first heard about it right?

Ok, so the short blurb is Raylene, professional thief and vampire, is hired by Ian, fellow vampire, to recover paperwork from a military experiment he was kidnapped and subjected to. It seems straight forward enough, until she's suddenly being subjected to parcour snoops, a plethora of FBI type men in black and on the run herself. What has she gotten herself into? Obviously not a straight forward case, but what would the fun in that be? Also, how would you ever fit a Drag Queen into a run of the mill theft? Nowhere, that's where, and that would be our loss for sure.

He lowered himself through the hole, hanging by his hands, and allowed me to support his feet and knees, then his thighs and his midsection, as he slipped down onto the landing between the sixth floor and the fifth.
I'm not saying I didn't cop a feel, but I will cry plausible deniability.
And furthermore, I will add that he was a goddamn magician to get that whole package tucked. I suspect a space-time portal. Or a least I would suspect it, if i weren't denying everything. Which I am.
He flashed me a look that said at the same time, Hey, I felt that... and I choose to believe it was accidental. For now.
See I told you it was fun.
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Apr 26, 2011 Dark added it

Cherie Priest, who is better known for her sci-fi and steampunk material, ventures into new territory with this vampire novel, but does so in an authentic voice for the compelling Raylene, who has shades of Anita Blake in terms of her no-nonsense “don’t mess with me” voice, but she has the same endearing qualities as other urban fantasy heroines like Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson all while retaining her tough exterior.

Raylene was refreshing to follow as a protagonist, not only because her voi...more

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Apr 08, 2011 Tricia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bloodshot by Cherie Priest

I have been eying up this author for awhile. I noted her other series, Eden Moore and Clockwork Century, have gotten rave reviews.
I was glad to have this opportunity to try this new series, Cheshire Red Reports, by her.
Raylene Pendle, AKA Cheshire Red, is renowned in thievery of rare artifacts, jewelry, and other items desired by the very rich and eccentric.
Raylene also happens to be a vampire, off-the-radar and on her own, not associated with any other vampire hous...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Carissa added it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, vampire

BLOODSHOT by Cherie Priest

“Bloodshot” is a kind of mixed genre novel combining urban fantasy, mystery and just a little bit of romance. All these elements are flawlessly blended into a literary concoction you’d love to just stay at the bar and knock back with.
And Ms. Priest’s main character, Raylene, is definitely the kind of character you’d like to have a drink with, if she’d accept it.
It’s almost a staple of the urban fantasy genre that the kick ass heroine must in fact kick some ass, and tha...more BLOODSHOT by Cherie Priest

“Bloodshot” is a kind of mixed genre novel combining urban fantasy, mystery and just a little bit of romance. All these elements are flawlessly blended into a literary concoction you’d love to just stay at the bar and knock back with.
And Ms. Priest’s main character, Raylene, is definitely the kind of character you’d like to have a drink with, if she’d accept it.
It’s almost a staple of the urban fantasy genre that the kick ass heroine must in fact kick some ass, and that’s something Raylene does with aplomb, ranking right up there with Anita Blake on body count (a compliment to both authors, by the way).
Raylene is hired by the mysterious and blind fellow vampire Ian to hunt down and steal his medical records from the government that experimented on him. A blind vampire…that’s pretty cool, we so seldom, if at all, think of vampires as having any kind of real “disabilities”, being immortal and having special powers and everything.
Raylene, as some other reviewers have noted, is not your typical vampire, and might I venture to say, that is SO refreshing. She might be rich, filthy rich in fact, but that’s where the similarities end as far as vampire stereotypes are concerned. She doesn’t really like hanging around other vampires, she likes her solitude, revels in it even, and doesn’t sit around bemoaning her vampire fate or waxing philosophical about life and death.
Raylene is a professional thief, which is why Ian hires her in the first place. Known as “Cheshire Red” in international thieving circles, she knows how to get what she wants, or what her clients want, without being caught. She’s the perfect candidate to figure out why the government experimented on Ian and other vampires, and nothing gets in her way of finding out, despite being chased by Men in Black and the mad scientists who funded the who experiment.
Not to mention Raylene has a somewhat (at first) reluctant sidekick, an ex-Navy SEAL dude who can also rock a glittery silver thong and high heels.
Raylene’s sarcastic sense of humor had me both cheering for her and laughing out loud. It takes talent to write a character that can be both caustic AND sympathetic, and Ms. Priests can do both.

When the vampire genre is so full of weak females needing to be saved by some dreamy hunk, I can tell you not only does Raylene not need saving by some dude, she’d break off the offending male’s most favorite body part and burn it. She doesn’t NEED love, NEED tenderness and understanding, or a guy to complete her or make her happy, she needs a good mystery, adventure and an adrenaline rush of thieving and spying.

I began reading the story with interest and I followed along, appreciating Raylene’s “fuck you” attitude, but the moment I truly jumped on her bandwagon was when she escaped from the military compound in the middle of a Minnesota winter, defeating and defying the government tools trying to capture her. As she sprints across the snow, papers tucked securely away, she exclaims “Fuck those guys and all they stand for!” and I have to tell you, I was right along with her, along for the ride, with the full confidence of knowing that whatever she faced, she was going to get hers, no matter what.

Raylene has a number of great quotable lines in this book, but I have to say that “Listen, punk, when you get to the end of the street, I want you to go into that coffee place and buy some hot chocolate,” had to be one of my favorites.

This is the first book I read by Cherie Priest, and I can tell you it won’t be the last, since after finishing “Bloodshot” I had to go and put “Boneshaker” on my Kindle. Not wanted to. HAD to. “Bloodshot” is the first in a series called the “Cheshire Red Reports”, and I’ll be marking down the calendar until I can read more about Raylene.
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Mar 22, 2011 Miriam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure

Cherie Priest has created a very human vampire. Raylene may be stronger and faster than a normal human, but she isn't smarter or sexier. Becoming undead cures your health problems -- including, in this case, allergies -- but it doesn't change your personality or give you super powers. Raylene lies to herself as much as the average gal and her judgement and foresight aren't always great. In fact, she does some fairly dumb things, especially for someone who is supposed to make a living as a thief...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Nicholas Olivo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bloodshot is the first book in a new series by Cherie Priest. Our main character, a vampire cat-burglar named Raylene Pennington, has just taken a job to "recover" some classified documents from a secret goverment facility. Her client, another vampire named Ian, was kidnapped and experimented on some years earlier, and these experiments resulted in the loss of his sight. It is Ian's hope that recovering the files may help him reverse the process and restore his vision.

I thought this was a great...more Bloodshot is the first book in a new series by Cherie Priest. Our main character, a vampire cat-burglar named Raylene Pennington, has just taken a job to "recover" some classified documents from a secret goverment facility. Her client, another vampire named Ian, was kidnapped and experimented on some years earlier, and these experiments resulted in the loss of his sight. It is Ian's hope that recovering the files may help him reverse the process and restore his vision.

I thought this was a great book and there were several aspects that I particularly enjoyed.

For starters, we get a good insight into how Raylene works as a thief. We see how she performs research and her thought process as she considers her options. Priest does this concisely and efficiently. We aren't subjected to lengthy explanations and extraneous details; Raylene tells us what she's doing, why she's doing it, and that's it. Raylene's methods of preparation are both obsessive and amusing. She carries a bag that's loaded with everything including the kitchen sink, even though she herself admits that there's no way she'll ever need all that stuff.

While the insight into her life as a thief is good, the insight into her life as a person is even better. Her moments of introspection and reflection aren't the "Oh, I'm a vampire, I lost my humanity, woe is me" type of thing. Instead, she has moments of fear around losing her vision, like Ian did. The anger and hatred she feels at the people responsible for this is palpable; it makes her all the more convincing and relatable as a character.

I especially enjoyed how Priest handled Raylene's vampiric powers. Raylene is extremely strong, super fast, and has the accelerated healing abilities that we all know and love. However, Raylene is not invincible. She gets in over her head several times, and is forced to run away as often as she stands and fights. Another thing is that Raylene has no qualms about feeding on humans. That said, she mainly feeds on unlikable characters, which gives the reader a certain grim satisfaction. I thought this made Raylene all the more likable. Other bits of vampiric culture are woven into the story - there are vampire familiars called ghouls, clans of vampires in various parts of the world, and we get a hint of Raylene's back story, but all this is done casually; Priest's world building is subtle, not heavy handed.

Priest has also put together a great supporting cast in Bloodshot. In particular, there are Pepper and Domino, a pair of orphans that Raylene has inadvertantly taken under her wing, and Sister Rose/Adrian, an Ex Navy SEAL/Drag Queen Raylene picks up along the way.

All in all, Bloodshot is a fun story with a great cast. I'm looking forward to future books in this series.(less)

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Mar 13, 2011 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Bloodshot is Cherie Priest’s first foray into urban fantasy, a genre that in my opinion has become more and more difficult to be taken seriously. The biggest problem along these lines is the fact that romance writers of the bodice ripper strain discovered not too long ago that if they simply turned their male love interest into a vampire, or a werewolf, or a chupacabra they would be able foist their crimes against interpersonal relationships under the guise of a independent heroine who just happ...more Bloodshot is Cherie Priest’s first foray into urban fantasy, a genre that in my opinion has become more and more difficult to be taken seriously. The biggest problem along these lines is the fact that romance writers of the bodice ripper strain discovered not too long ago that if they simply turned their male love interest into a vampire, or a werewolf, or a chupacabra they would be able foist their crimes against interpersonal relationships under the guise of a independent heroine who just happens to hunger for hot vampire/werewolf/chupacabra/etc. wang upon a sympathetic audience. While I won’t begrudge anyone making a buck even if the gods of good taste have forsaken them, I do take exception to having to use my UF-loving friends as canaries in the coal mine to see if a book I’m interested in is just thinly veiled bad porn or not. Leather pants and a tramp stamp on the cover should not set off warning bells, this is America dammit.

Bloodshot does not suffer from this. It’s just a good, straight ahead story. Bloodshot is told from the standpoint of Raylene, a roughly hundred year old vampire living in modern day Seattle, whiling away her nights as a professional cat burglar for hire. She takes on a case for a fellow vampire that, despite maintaining her professional detachment, plunges her into an almost Tom Clancy drama that threatens her home, her friends and her ability to keep walking around and relatively living.

While I still favor Priest’s alternative history stories like Boneshaker and Dreadnought purely on genre preference, she’s undeniably done a fantastic job entering the urban fantasy arena. A key factor in this is that Priest is great at writing believable people, regardless of genre. Raylene is a vampire, but Priest relies on the character’s personality and intelligence to carry the story and doesn’t fall on any sort of cliche vampire pathos when things get tough. Sure, being a vampire and the whole drinking thing can cause some problems. It also has some perks, like other things in life. Raylene’s vampirism isn’t the interesting thing about her, Raylene is the interesting thing about her.Priest’s characters are complex without being overwrought and drive the story nicely while adding plenty of twists of their own. Are you ready for an Ex-Navy SEAL drag queen? You better be.

If I had to point out one criticism of Bloodshot, I’d have to say that the story seemed to be more about being a prequel to future Cheshire Red novels than being a story unto itself, the ratio of plot points resolved to plot points left wide open tended to be a tad imbalanced. If this means more Cheshire Red stories of Bloodshot’s caliber are in the future and resolutions will occur there, that’s just fine by me.
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Mar 09, 2011 Vicky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Raylene is a much-in-demand thief. She is famous for getting what the client wants without getting caught. Plus, she just happens to be a vampire, but there are no sparkles here. She’s got attitude. She’s got aptitude. She’s got a problem.

Hired by handsome fellow vampire, Ian Stott, to steal documents concerning the experiments done to him that took his sight, she discovers a much larger conspiracy. On the run from the government, mercenaries, and other vampires, Raylene has to figure out all th...more

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About Cherie Priest

CHERIE PRIEST is the author of twelve novels, including the steampunk pulp adventures Dreadnought and Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; it was a PNBA Award winner, and winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie also wrote Fathom and the Eden Moore series from Tor (Macmillan), and her novellas Clementine, Dreadful Skin and Those...more

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Quotes from Bloodshot

“I gave three quiet cheers for Minnesota. In Seattle a dusty inch of anything white and chilly means the city lapses into full-on panic mode, as if each falling flake crashes to earth with its own individual baggie of used hypodermic needles. It’s ridiculous.” — 10 people liked it

“I was getting the hang of arson. It really sends a message, you know? Not only will I kill your dudes and steal your shit, but I will burn your place down behind me.” — 9 people liked it

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Bloodshot (Cheshire Red Reports #1)

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