Thirst (Ava Delaney Series Book 1) by Claire Farrell

 Ava Delaney looks like a normal girl.  She lives in a small apartment by herself and sells stuff online.  Some would say she's a hermit.  But she would say she's avoiding humanity.  It's best for her and for everyone else.  Avoiding humans means keeping them safe.  She isn't exactly human.  She's a half breed. A species thought to be nonexistent.  Part human.  Part Vampire.  Ava has a beating heart like other humans, but the thirst of a vamp.  It's this reason that she is hiding out from humanity.  She doesn't want to be a monster.

If I didn't help then it meant I was as bad as the vampires.  I couldn't conquer the thirst, but I could keep my humanity, even if I did my best to avoid humans. 

   One night Ava encounters a human being toyed with by a vampire.  She doesn't want any other vampire to know she exists, since she isn't supposed to, but she isn't about to let the human die either.  By saving Carl, she unknowingly enslaves him to herself.  He is not himself anymore.  He wants to be with her constantly and "feels" her need for things such as blood.  He is a willing sacrifice, so to say.  She, however, is not willing to drink blood.  Since Ava can live on human food, that is what she does. She has to figure out a way to send Carl back home before she loses control.
   After fighting within herself, Ava calls the only person who might be able to help her: her grandmother.  They were not on the best of terms due to how her grandmother raised her.  She had tried everything to get the vampire side of Ava out of her, including exorcisms and beating.  She wanted nothing more than for Ava to be a normal girl. And after all these years, that is what Ava really wants too.  But to save Carl she is going to have to start embracing the vampire side to deal with the odds.  Now she is on the grid for two very powerful vampires at odds with each other and they both want her.  And even though she has found some help, she doesn't know exactly who she can trust.

 
   I love how Claire Farrell made a blended  human/vamp with unknown powers.  And we still don't really know all of what she can do after this first book.  We are just starting to get a glimpse at her loner-type life she is living.  She doesn't live really among the living or the dead.  She is alone.  Death and war in the vampire world is normal.  But they are two things that Ava tries her best to avoid.  Although she identifies more with the human side of her, she is forced to bring out the vamp in her to survive.  And in order for her new "friends" to survive as well.  Her worst fear is becoming a bloodthirsty monster.
   After living alone for so long, Ava doesn't trust anyone easily, and with good reason.  Between the past, and everyone after her now, how can she?  But sometimes you have to do what you really don't want to in order to protect those around you.  Ava thinks very little of her own self-preservation.  In the end, she has to make a deal with the devil.

Can't wait to see what else is in store for Ava Delaney!

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*image via Claire Farrell
*quote via Claire Farrell