Tempted by Blood by Laurie London
My rating: 4 of 5 flames
I really love how easy it is to slip into Laurie London’s writing. Her Sweetblood series is easy to pick up in the middle of the series. I’ve read all of her other books, but I don’t feel anyone would feel lost at all by reading them as stand-alones. That includes this one, Tempted by Blood.
In Tempted by Blood, we read about Jackson, the agent who thinks he’s on the edge of reverting. That means he thinks he’s getting closer and closer to becoming what their kind has evolved away from-an all blood diet, and killing those they drink from. His kind now, takes sips, or drinks from bags, and they can absorb human energy as well. Those vampires who revert to the old ways are called Dark Bloods, and as an agent, Jackson has spent the past century hunting them down. While I do feel Jackson waxed a wee bit melodramatic over his possible demise, it was understandable. This is what he fears, and he’s seen what happens to agents if they revert. They are killed. Ruthlessly, violently. No trial. So, he is right to be scared.
The heroine is a blogger whose parents were killed by shadows. That might not make sense, but what she saw were Dark Blood vampires who stepped from the shadows. Since no one ever believed her, to the point her relatives told her she was in league with the devil, she started blogging. At first it was just cathartic. Then it became about realizing that she wasn’t alone, and all those people who followed her blog needed the validation that they weren’t alone either. But blogging on her X-Files meets Ghost Hunters type blog isn’t a paying gig, so she works at Xtark gaming. We found out in previous books that they are fronting a Dark Blood operation.
All in all, this is a fast-paced and easy to read book. It’s enjoyable, and has a super sexy hero, with green and blue highlights that I find so sexy. The heroine has a moment where she’s frozen in fear, but once she realizes her cousin’s in trouble, she is able to suck it up and help. She doesn’t venture into TSTL territory but she’s under no delusions that she can kick vampire arse, either. She knows her limits and makes wry comments about taking self defense classes in the future. Hopefullly everyone else will enjoy it as much as I have.
Loves:
I love that in this series not every human can have their mind altered by vampires. It just doesn’t stick on some. Makes it more realistic, I mean it makes sense that not every human would be so easily manipulated. It turns out she’s only immune to him.
I love that the heroine is a blogger and I love how seriously she takes her blogging
I love that *snicker* Arianna’s profile pic is Alexander Skarsgard and Jackson’s giving her a hard time about Askars
On the whole a good story that was easy to get into and enjoyable to read.
***ARC provided by the author
