Back in April, I featured a book by Cassandra Lawson that I absolutely loved. For today’s post, I am reposting my review for Raven’s Blood. I hope you like my review enough to pop over to amazon or wherever you buy your books and pick up a copy for yourself! And just to encourage you a little more, it’s on sale for the month of January! And by on sale I mean FREE!
Also by this author: Raven's Blood, Vampires Prefer Blondes, The Vampire Will See You NowFollowing the death of her wood nymph mother at the hands of vampires, Raven worked hard to build a life for herself in one of the few remaining human settlements. Her life takes a frightening turn when she finds herself an unwilling guest in a vampire settlement, but things are not anything like she expected them to be. Still, she cannot help but feel that her attraction to the vampire leader is a betrayal to her mother’s memory and her human friends.
From the moment Connor first laid eyes on Raven she has thrown his entire world off-balance. In order to prove his strength as a leader, he has no choice but to take her up on her offer to trade her freedom for that of her human friends. Having begun his life as a slave, he has no interest in keeping the wood nymph captive. As a man, he has no desire to feel this overwhelming attraction to a woman who hates him and his kind.
As Raven spends more time with the vampires, her feelings for Connor grow even stronger and Connor finds that she may be the one thing he cannot live without. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges that could threaten the survival of vampires and humans alike. As Connor struggles to unravel the mystery of the attacks from a new species of vampire, a madman will go to any lengths to get Raven’s blood.
Melanie’s Review:
Raven’s Blood is one of those books that I thoroughly enjoyed, and couldn’t put down. It was engaging, exciting, and had that bit of something truly different from many of the paranormal romance books I have read recently.
In Raven’s Blood, vampires are created in a whole different way than we are used to. It was created by a pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately, I can completely see something like this happening in real life due to greed and the lack of respect for human life found in society today. After creating this virus to do one thing, and it doesn’t go as plan, we are taken to a post apocalyptic type world where humans and vampires are definitely not allies. However, hope is not lost. There are some out there who are trying to make things better.
Each of the main characters really has their own important role. If I were to break each one down, this review would be days long. They are each so unique and in many ways relatable, that I really look forward to reading more in this series. I found myself really hoping for things to go well for this character or that, and I couldn’t wait for Raven and Connor to get their brains on straight and see what was right in front of them!
I really can’t think of anything I didn’t like about Raven’s Blood. The story drew me in and didn’t let me go until it was over. There was enough action to keep it from being too mushy, there was angst, there were characters who surprised me, and characters who were definitely the pieces of crap I thought they were who had no redeeming qualities and I couldn’t wait for them to die. I enjoyed the way it was written, and I really liked the use of humor that some of the characters displayed. It lightened the mood when it was necessary and helped them all to seem human, even when they weren’t.
I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a vampire book with a different spin on creation, with some pretty intense sex stuff that doesn’t overpower the story and has a rising conflict that makes you wonder just what will happen next.
Excerpt:
Connor was shocked when Raven took off. She skipped the overgrown trail and headed straight into the trees. He followed her, awed by her graceful movements. If he’d been human, he never would have been able to keep up with her. With each step she seemed to gain strength.
Connor finally caught her arm. “Slow down some, little nymph.”
“Why?” she asked with a radiant smile. “Are you having trouble keeping up with me?”
Connor stepped in closer to her body and leaned in until she was trapped against a tree by his much larger body. Her gasp made him smile. She had obviously noticed his erection pressed against her belly. “Vampires get excited by the chase,” he said. “It weakens my self-control.”
Her eyes widened. “I thought you said you didn’t want an unwilling partner.”
“I don’t,” he said. “That’s why I would have to lay you down on the ground and lick every inch of your sweet body until you begged me to take you.”
Her pulse quickened and Connor couldn’t resist the temptation to lean forward and run his tongue across it. That made him even harder and he hadn’t thought that was possible.
Damn, but she seemed to be considering letting him do it. The green tint to her cheeks deepened. Never in a million years would he have guessed that green tinted flesh would be a turn-on. This hadn’t happened before so he assumed it had something to do with her proximity to nature. He suddenly wondered if other parts of her body flushed green when she was excited. Damn, he really would love to strip her naked and find out.
Finally, she let out a shaky breath. “Sorry, I’ll move slower.”
He released her and adjusted his jeans. “We need to stop for a minute so I can get things under control,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she said nervously. “I wasn’t trying to do that to you.”
“You never are,” he said mostly to himself.
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