Bloodlust by Michelle Rowan

MRowen-BloodlustA few months ago,  I picked up Nightshade by Michelle Rowan on the recommendation of a friend whose reading taste is very similar to mine. I flew through it. It was awesome and left you wanting more.  Well the sequel, Bloodlust, finally came out the beginning of July, so of course, I had to buy and devour it *G*.

ONE TASTE IS ALL IT TAKES

For those who feast on blood, Jillian Conrad is a fatal attraction. After being injected with a serum that made her blood both irresistible and deadly to vampires, she was used as a pawn to assassinate the vampire king. Now, the vampires want her eliminated.

Hunted and unable to return to her old life, Jillian desperately seeks to prevent the poison in her veins from killing her. And she must find a way to help her dhampyr protector, Declan, whose exposure to the serum has split his personality into one part uncontrolled desire, and one part stone cold killer.

But an even greater danger is rising. The Amarantos – a secret society of vampires – is seeking the infant daughter of the slain king to complete their quest for true immortality. And if they succeed, no one, living or undead, will escape the darkness.

It didn’t take very long to get through Bloodlust. It was shorter than Nightshade and Ms. Rowan’s pace is quick and the action stays pretty consistent. These are traits I really like and look for in an author. I don’t like when things get too slow and the plot can wane.  However, overall, I felt a bit cheated with Bloodlust.  At the end of Nightshade, you’re left on a cliff…with a major character’s fate in the balance, and it seems like the heroine, Jillian, may be torn in a love triangle.  To Ms. Rowan’s credit, you don’t have to wait too long to find out the resolution to either of these plot threads.  Jillian is still determined to figure out how to save everyone, including herself. You see, her blood is killing her and is poison to vampires and kills them literally in a flash.  So, she’s being used as a pawn in the vampire world between two brothers who both want to be king of the vampire world.  However, Jillian just wants to find a way to keep this formula that was injected into her blood from killing her and doesn’t consider herself a killer and is none too happy about the attempts both brothers make in trying to assassinate enemies.

Then we have our main hero, Declan, who is a dhampire who is slowly either going insane and/or becoming more violent and out of control.  His main focus is trying to protect Jillian and help her find some way to rid the poison of her blood.

As I mentioned, overall I felt a bit cheated. Maybe that is more because I didn’t realize this would only be a two-book story and not a longer series.  Ms. Rowan does an excellent job, even though in a pretty short manner when it comes to book length, of tying up all loose ends and plot threads.  I just really enjoyed her world and the characters that I want more, I wanted it to last longer, over a couple more books.  Her writing is excellent, easy to follow and she keeps the plot driving forward.  I guess I’m just going to have to check out her other series ;). I know…such a hardship, he he.

Read Order:
Nightshade
Bloodlust

Also reviewed by: Dark Faerie Tales, Wicked Little Pixie, Book Savvy Babe, Reading with Tequila and Love to Read for Fun

About Nicole 146 Articles
Attorney by day, Publicist for Barclay Publicity and reviewer/LE (assistant) editor by night. I'm a huge book nerd and love to read. I have 2 dogs, both Labrador retriever mixed breeds, who are very rotten and think they run the house. Let's not lie, they totally do, I just can't them know it ha ha! My usual genre is romance or urban fantasy. I love all things having to do with paranormal, with the occasional good contemp/BDSM/erotica thrown in to spice it all up.