Review of Blood Born

Blood Born
Linda Howard and Linda Jones
Ballentine Books
466 pages
Blood Born is the first novel in a new paranormal romance series.
For as long as the earth has been populated by humans there have also been vampires, some created by turning, others the rare form of being blood born. Someone has decided to end the status quo and start a revolution so the vampire race can finally come out of seclusion and gain their rightful place at the top of the food chain. The immortal warriors trying to come into this plane of existence need help by their conduits, the only trouble is that the vampires know this too and are systematically taking them out.
Luca Ambrus is one of those rare blood born vampires and he’s been the chosen executioner for the vampire counsel for ages but there’s trouble afoot or afang and he’s uncertain which side to fight on. Chloe Fallon has been having strange dreams that seem all too real, she thinks she may be going nuts until one fateful night when everything that only lived in her nightmares became all too real.
Ms’s Howard and Jones each have a rich following and that will certainly increase with their foray into the wonderful world of paranormal romance. It’s hard to start a new paranormal series when they seem to be everywhere, but have no fear because these talented women keep it fresh with subtle twists to the legends. If you like the kind of novel where there’s cover to cover hard edged dialogue you will love this one. The characters really shine as there is a very thin line between the villains and the heros, they’re all full of malfeasance along with redeeming qualities. The hero and heroine Luca and Chloe are unlikely lovers and the authors have brilliantly brought them together in-spite of it and made it work because their audience will definitely be pulling for this couple. The love scenes are physical and visceral and include very descriptive scenes, so keep this on a high shelf but bring it down often to enjoy a truly good new paranormal series.
So with vampires exploding off the screen and pages of many books you might be asking yourself why should you try this one. I’ll say try it because you know the quality writing that preceded this work by these gifted storytellers and accomplished authors and stay tuned for the next installment In the series when Warrior Rising will be out in Spring of 2011.