Synopsis:
Enter a world of immortal danger and desire—and discover an incredible fate borne of blood.
Tendra:
One minute, I’m a bartender in gritty Mission City; the next, I’m whisked away by a vampire named Athan who tells me that I’m the lifeblood of his clan. It sounds unbelievable, but he’s got evidence I can’t deny. Turns out, Athan belongs to an underground society of vampires who feed only on humans with their consent. Their enemies have no such qualms, and they want me dead. The only thing standing in their way is strong, sexy Athan. And the closer we get, the more tempted I am to let Athan feed. . . .
Athan:
How could I have known when I snatched this snarky, beautiful human off the streets that she would change my destiny? As a loyal soldier, I must deliver Tendra to our future king—my brother. Empowered with the blood of ten generations of the Gregorie breed, she is fated to rule as our queen. But there’s something between us that’s so intoxicating, so carnal, I can’t help wanting Tendra for myself . . . even if it’s treason.
Review:
With Blood Guard, there was a lot of I like this, but... going on in my head–really, that about sums it up. Still here’s some specifics:
The worldbuilding is interesting, and I’ll definitely keep my eye out for the next book in the series, which will feature Idris, Anthan’s brother, and the half-vampire, half-human daughter of a higher-up in a rival vampire clan. Tons of potential there, and we saw just enough of the brother here (not a lot, but what I saw I liked) to stoke my interest. There are still some questions about this world, though, and a big ol’ oh really??? still ringing in my head at how quickly Tendra’s human BFF accepted the existence of vampires in the world. I just think that most people wouldn’t quite be so quick to believe it, at least not without prior clues and/or proof.
A definite plus: shapeshifters exist here, and we didn’t see any…yet. Probably. Maybe? There is a question about one of the characters being something more than they seem which isn’t answered definitively by the book’s end. Fingers crossed that shifters come up later in the series…
I liked Ten and Anthan, and thought they were good together. The reason why they could get to an HEA even though for most of the book they think they can’t I thought was pretty obvious. There was a bit of a twist with exactly who was behind everything that was going on, but really, even that wasn’t a huge shock…we pretty much knew that that particular individual wasn’t going to be winning any awards for their benevolence, well, ever.
Though I chuckled every time Ten made a modern pop reference (especially a Disney one, which most of them were–as they should be) and Anthan gave her a blank look, there really wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of evidence of him and the other vampires being 40+ years older than they appeared to be…it felt like opportunities were missed to make more of a case of their otherness like we usually see in books with characters who are supernaturally older than they seem. Instead, they came off as just slightly different guys who drink stuff that frequently tints their teeth red.
One of the best parts of the book is the relationships between characters–Ten and Anthan, Anthan and Idris, Idris and Ten, Brex the cat and pretty much everybody–and I look forward to seeing more of this in future books.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars / B
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
