Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy #2) by J. R. Ward-a review

BLOOD VOW (Black Dagger Legacy #2) by J. R. Ward-a review

Blood Vow

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / BAM /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 6, 2016

The Black Dagger Brotherhood continues to train the best of the best to join them in the deadly battle against the Lessening Society. Among the new recruits, Axe proves to be a cunning and vicious fighter—and also a loner isolated because of personal tragedy. When an aristocratic female needs a bodyguard, Axe takes the job, though he’s unprepared for the animal attraction that flares between him and the one he is sworn to protect.

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REVIEW: BLOOD VOW is the second installment in J. R. Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER LEGACY paranormal, romance series-a spin off from Ward’s number one selling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. BLOOD VOW follows two separate paths that converge and overlap throughout the story. This is BDB recruit Axe, and aristocratic female/ psychology major Elise’s storyline, as well as Mary and Rhage’s struggle to keep their small family together.

NOTE: If you have NOT read THE BEAST there may be some spoilers in my review.

Told from several third person points of view BLOOD VOW looks at family, friendship, brotherhood and love. Axe, a BDB warrior in training has lost everything in his life. Alone, unmated and angry at the world Axe finds himself in need of a quick influx of cash and when an opportunity presents itself our hero ‘volunteers’ to be the personal bodyguard to a member of the glymera. Enter Elise, an aristocratic female vampire, who is struggling for her independence from an over protective father following the recent murder of a female cousin. What ensues is the back and forth developing relationship between a woman of wealth, and a man who believes he is not worthy of love, and the Legacy trainees dangerous encounter with the Lessening Society.

Rhage and Mary couldn’t be happier now that their family has grown with the addition of Bitty- the young, pre-trans female vampire whose earlier years were marked with neglect and abuse. But Rhage and Mary always knew that Bitty was not completely without blood relations and their worst fears are realized when someone answers their social media search. What ensues is Rhage and Mary’s struggle to keep strong facing the possibility of losing the little girl everyone has grown to love.

BLOOD VOW is an emotional story line that divides its’ focus between the The Black Dagger Legacy, and the original BDB characters but I felt that Mary and Rhage’s story line would have been better suited to the original series as it continues the premise started in THE BEAST. Mary and Rhage are NOT part of the Legacy and yet their emotional battle to retain the child that they love takes up a good portion of BLOOD VOW.

All of the previous story line characters play secondary and supporting roles-Paradise, Peyton, Craeg, Novo and Boone, as well as the introduction of Ruhn who may or may not have caught the eye of the BDB’s legal counsel Saxton. Several (if not most) members of the Black Dagger Brotherhood have cameo roles throughout the story including our resident fallen angel Lassiter whose Christmas plans are left hanging in the balance.

BLOOD VOW is a remarkable story line; an engaging, creative and spirited look at one couple’s struggle to keep their family together; and one man’s desire to be accepted by the woman that he loves. The premise is dramatic and heartbreaking; the characters are colorful and energetic; the romance is passionate and intense. J. R. Ward’s BLOOD VOW is a revealing and intense story of family and love.

Reading Order and previous reviews
Blood Kiss
Blood Vow

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

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KISSED BY A VAMPIRE by Caridad Pineiro-a review

KISSED BY A VAMPIRE by Caridad Pineiro-a review

KISSED BY A VAMPIRE by Caridad Pineiro (release October 16, 2012)

BOOK BLURB: For two thousand years, vampire elder Stacia has roamed on her own, haunted by the betrayal that turned her into a creature of the night. Her nights looming empty and eternal, Stacia longs for love, but settles for quick bites and sinful pleasures in South Beach. Until she comes face-to-face with the unforgettable DEA agent she once brought back from the brink of death.

Alex Garcia knows that demons exist—the real kind, the kind that are kidnapping women and selling them into slavery. Finding those victims is his focus—not a beautiful seductress whose otherworldly abilities can’t possibly be real. But when Stacia summons all her powers to prove what she really is, Alex will summon all his to believe in the vampire’s kiss.

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Alex (Alejandro) Garcia knew death intimately. As a DEA agent he had faced the scenario on many occasions including the time he lost his ex-lover in a failed mission tying to prevent a terrorist attack in New York City. But Diana is still ‘alive’ with her vampire mate and Alex believes that those demons continue to haunt his nightmares. With his recent move to Miami, Alex is hoping to get back in the saddle, but his commander and the psychologist may have another thing to say. Still on leave, Alex will find himself enmeshed in the seedy underworld of white slavery when his friend calls in a favor. And the ‘demon’ from his dreams will figure prominently in his nightly stakeouts where he hopes to find a missing girl. Only this demon is a vampire and the one that saved his life.

Stacia is an ancient vampire. With her powers stronger than most, Stacia continues to lament her lonely existence. After suffering years of abuse at the hands of the man who turned her, Stacia believes that love has long passed her by. But stranger things have happened, and finding Alex Garcia in the same bar where she was trolling for food, clicked something inside Stacia that she had long thought died.

Their connection is immediate. Both realize the unnatural pull between them, but it was Stacia who feared that once Alex realized who she was, she would once again find herself alone and unloved. To ensure that she would never be hurt again, Stacia sabotages her relationship with Alex at every opportunity. But when Alex is closing in on the people involved with the missing women and girls, Stacia knows there is only one thing she can do, and that is to help the man with whom she has fallen in love.

KISSED BY THE VAMPIRE is a wonderful and emotional storyline of suspense and romance. Betrayal by someone you love is one of the hardest things to overcome, and it is no different in the world for an ancient vampire who believed that loved had passed her by. And to be accepted for the person you are, is one of the most surreal events in a long and lonely existence. Caridad writes an amazing story where the HEA is well deserved for everyone involved.

LINKS TO ORDER: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / The Book Depository

Copy supplied by Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

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