Blood Born (Vampire, #1) by Linda Howard and Linda Winstead Jones

Published April 27th 2010 by Ballantine Books, Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages, ISBN13: 9780345520760

When the human and the vampire worlds collide

Luca Ambrus is a rare breed: He is a vampire from birth, begotten by vampire parents: blood born. He is also an agent of the Council—the centuries-old cabal that governs vampirekind, preserving their secrecy and destroying those who betray them.

When a cryptic summons leads him to the scene of the brutal killing of a powerful Council member, Luca begins the hunt for an assassin among his own people. But instead of a lone killer he discovers a sinister conspiracy of rogue vampires bent on subjugating the mortal world.

All that stands in their way are the conduits, humans able to channel spirit warriors into the physical world to protect mankind. Chloe Fallon is a conduit—and a target of the vampire assassin who’s killing them. When Luca saves her life, an irresistible bond of trust—along with more passionate feelings—is forged between them. As more victims fall, Chloe and Luca have only each other to depend on to save the world from the reign of monsters—and salvage their own future together.

**Review**

**Spoiler Alert!** If you plan on reading the book, do not continue reading this review. … Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Luca Ambrus, a vampire of over two thousand years old, is in Scotland, taking a little time off, so to speak. While he prefers the hussle and bussle of the city, at times, he needs the calming effect that his place in Scotland brings to him. The peace, the quiet. He’s lived a long life, a blood born, the son of vampire parents. Stronger than most vampires alive, he works for the Council, dispatching rogue vampires. Vampires who believe that humans are nothing but sheep, chattel, food, that they’re higher up in the food chain. Luca believes in leaving the world as it is: where humans don’t believe in things that go bump in the night.

But a war is brewing. A Rebellion has formed, and now they’ve found a descendant of the witch that cast a spell a very long time ago. This spell prevents vampires from entering a human’s home without an invitation. And once this spell is broken, the Rebellion will bring war with the humans in full force, showing the humans what they are truly meant to be.

However, the Warriors, spirits that lie in wait for each and every war, are whispering, talking, pleading with their conduits to bring them to their world. Conduits are descendants of the Warriors, and only the conduits can bring them across from their plain of existence.

Chloe Fallon is one such conduit. But she believes she’s slowly going nuts. Dreams, whispers are keeping her awake, for when she sleeps, the dreams and whispers grow stronger.

Luca is called by a longtime friend on the council, Hector. He’s certain that a Rebellion faction is forming, and asks Luca to come immediately. But Hector is murdered before he can arrive, but left enough clues with his powers to plainly show Luca his killer. But Enoch is only a foot-soldier to a higher power, and Luca plans to follow him, to see what Enoch can tell him.

The Rebellion queen, known as Regina to protect her true identity, has coerce Jonas’s help. He’s helped the council before, and she knows he has the power to do what she wants – find the location to all the conduits. If the conduits are killed, the Warriors cannot cross over, thereby ensuring the Rebellion wins the war.

But when Enoch attacks Chloe, and whispers to her, Luca hears it all, and defeats Enoch. But another surprise lies await for Luca – for Chloe can remember him. It is one of Luca’s gifts as a blood born vampire. No one remembers him the moment they turn their back. Only a very strong vampire can. It’s been a lonely life for Luca, but he’s accustomed to it. When Chloe remembers him, it’s a blow; even Glamour doesn’t work on her the way it should. There is something truly different about Chloe. The more time he spends with her, the more time he realizes she’s a conduit. The more information he gathers, the more he’s sure that there’s a Rebellion faction in the works, and the more he’s sure that the Queen, is none other than a member of the Council.

So now Luca’s job is two-fold. Not only does he have to stop the Rebellion to prevent a war, he needs to keep Chloe safe. For more reasons than one… Chloe has gotten under his skin. Even in the face of danger, she holds her head high, no matter how scared she is. She’s lived in danger all her life. A small aneurysm too dangerously close to her heart cannot be operated on, and the threat of it bursting is always there. Chloe is determined to live life to the fullest each day. Luca has never met a human like her before, and she’s gotten even more under his skin… she’s dangerously close to his heart.

**A great story, but could have used more.

I loved Luca in this story. To watch him see the world anew through Chloe’s eyes. Sure, Luca is a very old, very strong, very dangerous vampire, but Chloe is unlike anyone he’s ever met, vampire or human. Realizing what she means to this world, he vows to protect her at all costs.

Now, most who know me know I’m a paranormal nut. Paranormal in any form. There’s a mystery here, and it’s a good one. I sort of had an inkling of who the rebel queen was, but it wasn’t until one last clue is thrown to the reader do you really know who she is before seeing her real name. The mystery part is pretty good. So’s the action, the fighting. But one thing bugged the living daylights out of me.

For a paranormal-romance, I didn’t feel the romance. Luca and Chloe bonding together was an added measure for Chloe to be stronger, to help defend herself, even if only for a few seconds. While I felt a love start to grow, I felt no romance whatsoever.

And just once, I’d like to see the hero and the heroine declare their love for each other before the inevitable “about to lose the love of their life” confession happens. Just once. Anyone know of an author who can indulge me with that one?

Watching Sorin come to the realization that the queen would destroy even him, if he was in her way, was sort of bittersweet. I just wish he’d come to the realization a different way.

What I really liked was the difference in the play of the vampire world that Howard and Jones created. First, the old saying “a vampire cannot entire a home without an invitation” has been around for years/centuries, I liked how they tweeked it a little, but mentioning that it was a spell cast by a very strong witch a very long time ago. I liked that twist.

I liked how the young witch, Nevada, managed to outsmart the queen somewhat.

And I especially liked how Chloe managed to get a couple of good licks at the queen herself before and after receiving a strike from the queen that insured her death. Even while Chloe lay dying, she still managed to get one last “in your face” to the queen (ha! In your face… if you read the book, you’ll catch the unintended pun.)

The ending is a sure set up for book number two, which is what I’d expected. You can’t have a story end completely and expect to write a second book. Kudos to Howard and Jones on a book worth reading.

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Angels’ Blood (Guild Hunter, #1) by Nalini Singh

Published March 3rd 2009 by Berkley, Mass Market Paperback, 339 pages, ISBN-13: 9780425226926

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she’s the best—but she doesn’t know if she’s good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option…even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

Review: I had a very hard time putting down this book. Singh created an alternate world where vampires mix with humans and it’s just fact. But the twist is one I enjoyed very much. Angels rule over vampires, and archangels rule them all. The Quadre of Ten is made up of ten archangels, posted all over the world, and rule. Archangels are born, not made. Angels are one step up from vampires. Now, vampires aren’t ‘turned’. Humans petition archangels to be ‘Made’. Their lives are scrutinized, background checks, etc… to see if they qualify. If they are, then the process begins. Some make it through the transition, some die. Regardless, those humans who are accepted are made to sign a contract: they owe 100 years to their maker in complete subjugation. Should a vampire feel that they’ve served enough, they leave, effectively going ‘rogue’. And that’s where the Guild Hunters come in.

Hunters are hired by angels to go after the vampires that have taken off before their 100 years of servitude. Hunters find the vampires, bring them back to the angels and receive payment for services rendered.

Elena Deveraux is a hunter, and one of the best. Born ready, she can use their scent to track them down, making her one of the best hunters there are. She can tract wayward vamps anywhere. But being the best has its drawbacks; Archangel Raphael wants and needs the best, and has hired Elena through the Guild.

One of the Quadre of Ten has gone rogue; Uram has succumbed to his bloodlust, and if the world doesn’t want a repeat of the Dark Ages, Uram must be stopped – at all costs. Elena cannot scent archangels, but she can scent Uram – because he has gone rogue, he is emitting an acidic scent. But archangels and angels have an advantage: they have wings and can fly, making them harder to track.

Elena knows that failure is not an option, for failure means certain death. She may be scared to death of Raphael, of all archangels, but she cannot let a killing spree move forward.

But things become complicated, for Raphael finds Elena an enigma, and now he wants her for himself. And the more time they spend together, the harder it is to ignore what’s happening between them.

The author created a fabulous world that comes across completely believable, as if this is the way the world is now. Her writing fluid, you get swept up into the story and find it very hard to put down. The characters seem very real; the banter between Elena and Raphael is something I enjoyed the most in this book. The plot is great, with the subtle twists that get thrown in (like archangels having different powers; some being able to become completely invisible, etc…), watching all the characters interact make for very entertaining and sometimes intense scenes.

I did find a few things that got to be annoying, but it wasn’t overpowering enough to make me stop reading. Elena is a human-born tracker, and because she chose being a hunter as her profession, her father disowned her completely from the family, being told that she would have to crawl and beg to be able to return to the family. Elena refuses to back down or crawl for anyone, and constantly being reminded of it, including when she talks to Raphael about being no one’s toy, it got to be a little obnoxious. And no matter how you put it all together, you get glimpses of something that happened in the past, but not enough to really get the picture, to really understand her past, and it’s one that she refuses to talk about, no matter how many times Raphael asks. Those glimpses, without explanations, was getting rather annoying, and I hope we finally get the entire thing.

And still, even with the annoying parts, watching Elena and Raphael fall in love, the tracking of Uram, their final fight scene, what we believe to be Elena’s death – the book is fantastic! I balled my head off when I believed Elena to be dead.

An excellent first novel to a new series, and I absolutely recommend it.

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The Demon in Me (Living in Eden, #1) by Michelle Rowen

Published May 4th 2010 by Berkley, Paperback, 336 pages, ISBN-13: 9780425234686

Hell hath no fury…

Fate has led Eden Riley to become a “psychic consultant” to the police, even though her abilities are unreliable at best. Those paranormal powers are about to get her into a jam she couldn’t have predicted: After her hunky police detective partner guns down a serial killer in front of her, Eden realizes that she’s quite literally no longer alone. A voice in her head introduces himself as Darrak. He’s a demon. But not in a bad way!

…Like a woman possessed.

Darrak lost his original body three hundred years ago, thanks to a witch’s curse. This is the first time he’s been able to speak directly to a host, plus there’s a bonus: Eden’s psychic energy helps him to take form during daylight hours. He wants to use this chance to find a way to break his curse – finally. Otherwise, Eden’s going to have to learn to live with this sexy demon … like it or not.

But she thinks she might like it.

Review: Eden Riley has psychic abilities. Sometimes, she just knows things. Let me repeat that. Sometimes she knows things. Images or thoughts just come to her. And it was during one of these sometimes episodes where she caught the attention of Toronto’s chief of police. His wife’s dog had gone missing, and after calling her faithful psychic, Eden, the dog was found. And now the chief of police wants her help in finding a serial killer.

Going to the house of the last murder, along with the lead detective, Ben Hanson, she has this sudden weird vibe, a pull towards a coat closet. Sure enough, the killer had returned to the scene of the crime. When her life is threatened, Ben shoots the killer dead, and Eden watches as this black smoke rises from the corpse, hesitates, and makes a bee-line directly at her. No one else sees this black smoke.

Then she hears a voice; a male’s voice. At first, she believes there’s someone nearby. Then she realizes … the voice is coming from inside herself. Terrific – she’s been possessed – by a demon, no less.

Over three hundred years ago, Darrak’s body was destroyed, his spirit cursed, and has been living in humans bodies ever since. This is the first time one of his hosts can actually hear him and communicate with him. Not only that, but her psychic ability manages to help him take form during the daylight hours.

Now that he has a host who can not only hear him but can communicate with him, he asks for her help in finding the witch that cursed him. Once she desolves the curse, Darrak will be free, and will be able to leave Eden alone.

And now Eden is learning that the “bump in the night” beings are actually real. She pays for an exorcism that she doesn’t go through with, and now the Malleus, a group of people hell-bent (pardon the expression) on eradicating evil, won’t leave her alone. Finding the witch is beginning to look impossible, and she learns that if Darrak isn’t set free within a year, he will drain her energy dry, resulting in killing her. Oh, and as any demon, while he didn’t totally lie to her, he didn’t tell her the whole truth, either. He’s not just any demon, but an archdemon, and one of the worst kind.

What ever happened to her boring and monotonous life?

** A cute story, but not quite a paranormal romance.

Personally, I think this one should have just been put in the paranormal genre. While I saw the possibilities between Eden and Ben, the hot detective, I didn’t feel a spark between them. However, with Darrak, I could feel the pull, the attraction between them. And yet, it’s forbidden, for he can completely drain her energy if he’s not careful. And she can do worse without meaning to.

I found Eden to have a level head, even though she’s a “sometimes” psychic who completely doubts her own abilities. Can’t blame the girl – her abilities never worked when she wanted them to – they worked eradically at best. Even with all the paranormal information thrown at her, she kept her head, pushing aside her panic in order to deal with the problem at hand.

Darrak, although an archdemon, spent so many centuries possessing humans that humanity seems to have burned itself in him. He’s no longer the cruel, heartless, evil demon that he was. And he’s fallen in love with Eden. Now, more than ever, it’s important that they find someone to dissolve the curse.

At first, I found the story to be on the corny-cutesy side. Seemed it was a plot I’ve read before. But about halfway through the book, there’s a twist that takes the story in a new direction, and it improved from there. The characters are colorful, action scenes well played out, and the romance has just enough ‘zing’ to it that the reader can feel it. I may have rated it 3 stars (Goodreads does not have a half-star system), but it’s a 3.5′er for me.

Rating: .5

Street Game (GhostWalkers, #8) by Christine Feehan

Mass Market Paperback - 450 Pages - Published December 29th 2009 by Jove - ISBN-13: 9780515147605

Street Game

(GhostWalkers, #8)

by Christine Feehan

For Mack McKinley and his team of GhostWalker killing machines, urban warfare is an art. But despite a hard-won knowledge of the San Francisco streets, Mack knows from experience that too many things can still go wrong. Danger was just another part of the game—and now he’s come face-to-face with a woman who can play just as tough.

She’s Jaimie, a woman with a sapphire stare so potent it can destroy a man. Years ago she and Mack had a history—volatile, erotic, and electric. Then she vanished. Now she’s walked back into Mack’s life, as a spy with more secrets than are good for her. Against all odds, she’s hooking up with Mack one more time to take on an enemy that could destroy them both, or bring them back together in one hot, no-holds-barred adrenaline rush.

**Review: The past can haunt you.

A GhostWalker team, headed by Mack McKinley, heads to San Francisco after receiving a tip that an arms dealer has a cache hidden and waiting to be shipped. But the address can’t be right: only one loan occupant on the top floor of a three-story warehouse in the building? Tight security, but bypassable. Something’s not right. There’s nothing on the first floor, the second is high-tech, state of the art computers. But, discovering Jaimie, the woman he once had and lost, on the top floor, couldn’t be a coincidence… Could it?

Together since they were kids, the team is happy to see Jaimie again. She left a few years before, when Mack broke her heart. She’s determined to make it on her own. Creating her own software company, she on contract with the government creating high-tech software. But she has her own agenda: she’s hunting Whitney down. She wants to expose him, and those in the government who are backing him, to expose what he’s done, especially the experiments on children. She’s getting close, and they want her eliminated. However, they’ll only accomplish that over Mack’s dead body.

Mack’s ego and pride are what stopped him from going after Jaimie when she left. This time, he has no intention of letting her go. But can he convince Jaimie that he is what she wants him to be? A man who loves her?

**Another incredible book in the series! Strategy and adrenaline-packed action, it’s awesome to watch the play-by-play with all the characters. To see the comradeship between players who‘ve known each other since they were kids.

Mack, the strong, silent type, is a very intense man who will stop at nothing to keep Jaimie safe, and to bring her back with him. He refuses to lose her again.

Jaimie is determined to stop Whitney, to keep her team, especially Mack, safe. No matter how hard she guards her heart, she still loves him, even when he infuriates her.

The mystery continues, and you know the next book will receive top marks, just like this one. Action-packed, strategy-filled, with plenty of psychic energy between them all, you can’t help but love all the characters, and you can’t wait for their own stories. Two thumbs up, Ms. Feehan!!!

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Everlasting Kiss (Everlasting, #1) by Amanda Ashley

Mass Market Paperback - 384 Pages - Publisher: Zebra; 1 edition (February 1, 2010) - ISBN-13: 978-1420104431

Everlasting Kiss

(Everlasting, Book #1)

by Amanda Ashley

Desire Never Dies

Daisy O’Donnell doesn’t get the attraction some women feel for vampires. She likes her men with a heartbeat. And she’s just met one who’s full of life: Erik Delacourt, the unreasonably sexy man she keeps meeting at a popular L.A. nightclub called the Crypt. She barely knows him, but there’s no resisting the connection she feels. . .

There’s one important detail Erik hasn’t gotten around to telling her yet. He’s a powerful vampire out to hunt the Blood Thief who is draining young vampires all over the city–and who has just raised the stakes by destroying one of Erik’s friends. To Erik, Daisy is a bright spot of innocence in a world of darkness and menace. He’ll do anything–even lie to her–to keep her safe and pure.

If only he knew that Daisy has something of her own to hide. . .

**Review: With just a touch of magic!

Daisy is a Blood Thief. Using a charmed compass made especially for her by her grandmother, she can find vampire lairs, break in, and drain some of their blood while they’re sleeping, and sell vials over the internet. To her, this is a normal way of life, coming from a family of vampire hunters. Besides, vampires are moralless, soulless creatures who hunt and kill humans. Turnabout is fair play. But she can’t kill them – to her, vampires were once human beings, and she can’t stomach the idea of staking them.

She meets Erik Delacourt at a club and is instantly attracted to him. She doesn’t know what it is about him, but she can’t forget him. They meet each other a few times, even go out on a date. Nothing shocks her more when she goes out hunting for another vampire to fill in some of her online orders when she happens upon Erik’s lair. Not only is he a vampire, but a warlock. Now she’s in over her head.

Erik to Daisy immediately. There’s just something about her that’s refreshing to him. He’s falling for her, and doesn’t know what to do about that. And now that Rhys, the Master of the West Coast, wants the Blood Thief found and dispatched, what is Erik going to do? Hand over the one woman in centuries who has gotten under his skin, or hand her over, as vampire law and the threat of treachery demand him?

But as luck would have it, her oldest brother, Alex, comes to town. A price of $200,000 for Rhys’s head is too much to resist. Hunting him down, Alex is attacked, and Daisy takes Alex to the only person who can help him – Erik. Now Rhys wants them both, Alex and Daisy, dead. What is Erik to do? Should he help hide Alex and Daisy and face Rhys’s wrath, or should he hand over the woman he’s fallen in love with, and the person who means very much to her?

**Great read! Although I found the story slow at the beginning, I thought it was only going to be the usual romance. However, a twist in the story brings up the heartbeat while you’re rooting for Erik and Daisy. And just when you think the story’s over, another twist and you’re itching to turn the page to find out if it ends well. LOL, the only thing bugging me right now is I’ll have to wait until October 2010 for Rhys’s story! Oh, Ms. Ashley, can’t you make it sooner? LOL!

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