Chasing Legends by Pippa Amberwine

Chasing Legends is the first in the Vampire Elixir series and is a fantasy book about vampires and dragons, aimed at the YA market.

Katie is a vampire—a rogue one at that. She and her band of fellow rogues are running from SCAR (Supernatural Crime Action and Rehabilitation) as they refuse to become one of the vampires infected by the virus forced to wear implants to control their thirst. Up to now they have been able to keep the thirst at bay with the help of dragon blood, but that has run out and it seems that one of their group is tapping into his primeval side. Not only that, but the virus is destroying human lives, including those not infected. So, what to do? Find another dragon of course! The group set about locating a witch to recreate the phenomena that brought the dragon through to Earth in the first place. What they didn’t take into consideration was the world the dragon came from...

The story did not delve very deeply into Katie’s character, and you only got to experience the tip of her emotions. You were often told how she felt, but never really shown. Jevyn (who came from the world beyond the rift), was a more complex character whose struggle with deep feelings for a friend and then a stranger and the internal battle of making sure his family remained on the throne while still keeping to his morals, played a huge role in his actions. The peripheral characters were essential to the story too, and I loved the description of the nerdy Derek’s outfit.

The writing style is extremely fluid and comfortable to read, with simple language and conversations that don’t become too involved, and it’s easy to absorb the book in a sitting. The editing was very good and no major mistakes interrupted the flow of reading. There were a few formatting issues which might have come up because of the eReader, and I did notice a backwards apostrophe and some capitalisation issues as well as an incorrect word or two.

While the book does not end on a cliffhanger per se, it leaves enough questions open that the story could go in a number of different directions in the second book. Will love prevail? Will friendship win the day? Will the rebel vamps be able to take on SCAR? What dodgy deeds is the witch planning? So many questions...

Thank you to Reedsy Discovery and the author for an ARC