When it comes to the balancing of a story, I find that most books either have a lot of romance and a little action. Or a lot of action with a small amount of romance. Rarely do I encounter a book whose story is equally as involved in the romance as it is in the action. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I read Blood Born by Linda Howard and Linda Jones.
When the human and the vampire worlds collide, there will be hell to pay.
Luca Ambrus is a rare breed: 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.
Really, the balance of the story and characters was quite impressive, if not a tad confusing for me when trying to label this as either Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance. There’s the romance between ancient blood born vampire Lucas Ambrus and warrior conduit Chloe Fallon, and then there is the fight between vampires that want to take over the world and immortal warriors charged with protecting humanity. If they added anymore to the story I might have very well been overwhelmed, but as it is I was actually quite enthralled with Blood Born.
In continuing with the balance of Blood Born, there are a lot of characters. The point of view was constantly shifting, and when not done right this sort of thing could have easily been confusing. However, when done right, multiple points of view have the ability to give a dimension to the story that would’ve been unattainable had Ms. Howard and Ms. Jones only had a singular point of view. The way Blood Born was written allowed me to see everything from different perspectives and that, in turn, made the story all the more enjoyable.
As for the character’s themselves, I honestly loved most, if not all, of them. Sorin, a vampire trying help his kind rule, wasn’t someone who I thought I would like. At first he seemed to be clearly evil. Then, as the book progressed, I started to understand his motivations for what he was doing. Nevada was another one of my favorites. Because her ancestor was a powerful witch, she’s been kidnapped by the vampires in order to remove the spell that doesn’t allow them to enter a home without being invited. She and her family have been kept for years because she knew nothing of witch craft, and has had to learn from the beginning. I thought that Nevada was brave and smart. She could have easily succumbed to how hopeless her situation seemed, but she kept on learning, and used the knowledge that she obtained to fight in little ways against her captors.
Overall, I really liked this first book in the vampire series. The concepts in it were as classic as they were unique. Evil vampires trying to take over the world is nothing new, but Blood Born by Linda Howard and Linda Jones managed to make the story fresh with the idea of these immortal warriors. Anybody who has a love of vampires and romance stories should be captivated by Blood Born. I know that I was.
Also reviewed by:
Fiction Vixen
Book Junkie
All Things Urban Fantasy
Book Lovers Inc
Escape Between the Pages
I really enjoyed this book =) I look forward to the next one.