I was drawn to BLOOD RIGHTS because it sounded like an interesting spin on the vampire/dhampir mythos, with the heroine as a member of a high-status slave race whose blood is especially attractive to vampires. Chrysabelle is wrongly accused of murdering her master after spending 100 years in his service and goes on the run partly to escape justice but partly because she wants a taste of freedom.

A character we never actually meet and have no reason to trust suggests that Chrysabelle seek help from Mal, an outcast vampire of noble descent. He's living with a couple of pretty horrific curses which are slowly driving him insane, so who knows why the off-stage helper thought Mal would be a great go-to guy, but it doesn't matter because Chrysabelle and Mal never get around to doing any of the things you'd expect: they never go hunting for the actual murderer, and they don't run anywhere, either. Actually, they spend the first half of the book - HALF, literally HALF - just fighting about whether or not he's actually going to help her.

The lack of forward momentum is maddening. Chrysabelle can't decide if she wants to go or if she is going to stick around and demand Mal's aid. Mal can't decide if he's going to toss Chrysabelle out or lock her up and keep her. They're much too busy having dumb fights to cooperate. Here's a prime example: Chrysabelle goes a little crazy if she doesn't drain her blood regularly, so she's frequently after Mal to drink from her. Mal tries to resist the temptation, though it's very strong. And yet, at one point, Chrysabelle gets all mad and accuses Mal of thinking of her as food. What? She spends most of her time REMINDING him that she's food!

The only thing worse than Chrysabelle and Mal's stupid drama are the many scenes written from the perspective of BLOOD RIGHTS' one-note villain, Tatiana. Man, Tatiana is annoying. All of her thoughts are like this one, which is taken from a scene where she's made her boy-toy perform some difficult task on her behalf, and she leads him off to bed with this bit of internal monologue: "He deserved a reward for his efforts, and what was better than being allowed to pleasure her." How...very...boring. I can handle a one-note villain but I'd bet that at least 20% of BLOOD RIGHTS is written in Tatiana's POV and I cannot stand THAT MUCH one-note villain. She's arrogant and power-hungry and she kills people without remorse, I get it, enough already.

The really cool thing about BLOOD RIGHTS is the mythology. I really dug the different houses, the curses, and especially the culture of the comarré, the vampire blood-slaves. Everything about them is meant to remind vampires of daylight - they're pale, blonde, they wear white and decorate themselves with gold tattoos, they even have summery, floral scents and glow to supernatural eyes. I like the contrast between how wealthy the comarré can be as a group and even individually, and yet how powerless they are. Painter went deep with her worldbuilding and I think the results could have been awesome, if she'd put even half that effort into crafting a decent story. Unfortunately, the story is awful.