Tempted by Blood (Sweetblood #3)

Reviewed by: Candace

Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars

One of these days, I’m going to review a book for VBC that I’m not going to like and I’m going to have to give it a really bad review. Thankfully, today isn’t that day.

A bit of a history lesson is in order. I’ve had a cold that has come complete with watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing to the point of my cat making an appointment for me to get a distemper shot. It hasn’t been pretty. I’ve just wanted to sleep. But I had a book to review. So I opened Tempted by Blood and started reading…and could not stop.

After meeting brothers Dominic and Alfonso in the first two books, we come to Jackson Foss, a vampire from the American South with a body, smile and swagger to die for. The accent is icing on the cake. Jackson is the ultimate bad boy. His piercer can undoubtedly attest to that. Jackson is a Guardian protecting Sweetbloods, humans who have the gross misfortune of being born with blood that is exceptionally addictive. The Darkbloods are the faction of vampires in the Sweetblood world who believe that vampires coexisting with humans and not draining them as a food source is a waste. They prey upon Sweetbloods.

Enter Arianna Wells. She’s no Sweetblood, but her cousin who she has temporary custody of is one. Unbeknownst to Arianna, Darkbloods have already had the girl in their custody once. Krystal (with a K), the young cousin, was rescued by Jackson and the Guardians from a brutal Sweetblood harvesting ring. Now Jackson appears back on the scene, securing an unwilling spot in Arianna’s life to keep both her and Krystal safe.

Now the complicating factors. Arianna runs a blog, which led Jackson back to her house after he wiped her memory. The pictures taken from her camera phone of a vampire attack she did not remember made it to her Paranormalish blog and the Guardians were not happy. Arianna also works for a company that’s a public face for a Darkblood organization. Jackson also feels himself reverting to the old ways, with an increasing need for energy and blood and a surge of violence that makes him realize leaving the agency may be his only option. Guardians who revert don’t receive a retirement package, they receive an execution.

A human with a Sweetblood relative who is apparently immune to Jackson’s ability to wipe her memories is now stuck with the vampire, all to keep Krystal safe from Darkbloods. Jackson wants to appear more human for her. Arianna could care less that he’s a vampire and wants everything he has to offer.

Nefarious co-workers, overzealous vampire supervisors, nosy friends, a Cadillac that has received more hits than a month of UFC matches all add to the story. It’s a vampire and a human, can they make it? Same story, different day, right?

Wrong. You want these two to work, just as much as everyone around them does. Every character in the Guardians’ world is endearing, even Santiago, who is not the favorite vampire of many in the Guardians.

Do they get their happy ending? It’s a paranormal romance novel; of course they get their happy ending.  I would absolutely recommend this series. Tempted by Blood promises intense action, moldering broody vampires and women who can bring them to their knees.

Sexual content: Moderately intense sexual situations

My Princess,

I was asked to write this letter.

A LOVE letter it’s apparently called.

<sneer>

Hey, you know how much I enjoy sharing my feelings – about as much as I enjoy stabbing myself in the eye with a stick.

<heavy sigh>

But then again, it’s you.

You.

Shit, I’d stab the hell out of myself for you, I’d bleed out for you – and I’d trip over my idiot self to tell you how much you mean to me and how you’ve changed me.

How you’ve both changed me…

I suppose I don’t deserve you. I’m a jackass with a time bomb where my heart should be. My brothers, and frankly everyone

I’ve ever known would attest to that. But I don’t give a shit. I want you, Bron, crave you…damn, I need you to breathe.

So maybe I suck ass at writing LOVE letters, but I get what love is because you taught it to me, veana. I’m yours as you are mine. True mates without the mark – but branded all the same.

Crank the shower to blistering.

See you in a few hours.

<fyi> I’ll be the one who’s buck naked and desperate for you.

All my love, All my blood,

Your Asshole
<Lucian>

My Darling Daemon,

Even though you have forsaken all for Janelle, to the point of obliterating all those who seek to separate you from her, I find myself unable to let you go. From the first moment I saw you in Daughter of the Blood, I have watched you fight, seduce, be spell, and destroy all those who seek to subjugate you…all in hopes of meeting your dream hundreds of years in the making.

“He would never submit. Seven hundred years of waiting, watching, searching, hoping. Seven hundred heartbreaking, exhausting years. He refused to give up, refused to wonder if she’d been mistaken, refused because his heart yearned too much for that strange, wonderful, terrifying creature called Witch. In his soul, he knew her. In his dreams, he saw her. … Simply, he believed he had been born to be her lover.”

How would it feel to be the object of that single-minded purpose? To be the one person for whom you would go to hell and back to be with? To be loved so completely that that someone would fill the streets with blood at the hint of violence against you? I watched you rise to the killing edge in after the carriage mishap in Amdarh. I saw the dark promise of violence in your eyes as smell of sulfur and ice coated my tongue; the taste of blood and death. I waited for the promised vengeance that never came.

Your loyalty is single minded. Absolute. I see the extremes you go to for your friends and family. I understand the despair you feel when you unleash the Sadist. I feel your pain when you look into the eyes of those you love and see the fear and uncertainly your actions have caused. You have had to be a friend who had to become an enemy to stay a friend.

Your beauty, an intricate web of poison and deception, ensnares me as I watch you from a far. I find myself relishing the spikes of fear that race through me, making my heart pound and my palms sweat; the fear of what will happen to me should you realize I am there watching you. Your light brown skin, black hair, and gold eyes make you the epitome of beauty, outlined with a razor-sharp sexual edge of your mercurial personality that washes over me in an unmatched sensual haze. I find myself bathing in your glory, wanting to be at your mercy. Your a feast for the eyes, a heavenly banquet that hides death beneath it’s glorious delights. Should you choose to unleash your deadly power upon me, I would gladly embrace death knowing that in that instant you noticed me.

My love forever,
Your anonymous admirer,
smexys_sidekick

Haven’t met Daemon?
We first meet Daemon in the first of Anne Bishop’s The Black Jewels novels, Daughter of the Blood, and as mentioned above it’s quite memorable.

Dear Atticus,

I first experienced your hotness when I saw you on the cover of Hounded, sword on your back, curls in disarray, and chiseled features looking intently into the distance. You knew bad mojo was coming, and you were ready for it. I could tell. You stormed onto the urban fantasy scene with your laid-back ways and stole the hearts of so many readers, but it can’t compare to how you stole mine.

Yes, I realize you’re a 2,100+ year-old Druid, and you might wonder how compatible you’d be with me. We don’t need to worry about that right now. You need a strong woman that can handle 2,000 years of baggage, weird neighbors, Viking vampire and werewolf lawyers and the myriad magical menaces that come your way. For that, I’m your girl. I’m also a sucker for a man that loves his dog, and I’ll be happy to groom your Irish Wolfhound Oberon and take him for long walks while you’re away fighting all sorts of baddies. Stand by your man is my motto, and I take it very, very seriously.

But I’m not a stalker, oh no! Jealousy issues? Not me! I realize that during your adventures, you may come across all manner of fae beauties, but I know you’re a one woman man, so I don’t have anything to worry about, right? I mean, the devastatingly beautiful death goddess Morrigan, and the fiery huntress Flidais have nothing on me. Yes, they’re blindingly beautiful, long lived (old) and know how do all that magic stuff, blah blah blah, but it’s really a mortal that you want, and I know that you only have eyes for me.

So, what do you say? We can soak up the Arizona sun, drink a few pints at Rula Bula, and I’ll hold your sword anytime you want, ‘cause I realize all that magic slinging sometimes requires a hands free approach. You can certainly save the hands on approach for me, my strong, handsome Druid.

With lots of love
Your sweetheart,
Kristin
My Bookish Ways

Haven’t met Atticus?
As the protagonist of the Iron Druid Chronicles, you meet Atticus immediately in the first novel, Hounded.

GIVEAWAY: SIGNED, EARLY COPY OF
TRICKED BY KEVIN HEARNE

Kevin Hearne is a great guy. As proof, he’s offered to sign an early copy of his fourth Iron Druid novel Tricked for one VBC reader. Now, the winner won’t get the book until early April, but it’ll still arrive before the release date signed by Kevin. Pretty awesome, right? Make sure to fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Contest closes March 4.

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I had to know what she has in store for the second book Chaos Burning, which hits store June 5. Lauren was kind enough to give us a bit of insight into her hero Simon by letting the leading man write a love letter to heroine Lark. He loves her and knows she wouldn’t want him to get too sappy. We like the strong ones, don’t we, VBC readers?

Dear Lark,
My Dear Ass-Kicking Little Witch,

Yeah, that’s better. Normally I wouldn’t open with dear mainly because you’re not an old woman who gave me a butterscotch at the airport or a relative. In the end I went with Dear because despite the way you come home with bruised knuckles and the blue hair dye you leave on my towels, you are dear to me. Dear and precious and all manner of important.

To say I never expected you is an understatement. No one could expect to find another person who comes to mean what you do me. You are fierce. You are soft and gentle with those you love. You are everything a male like me could ever dream of.

I could continue to get romantic but you’d get that look on your face and look at me warily. Probably punch me in the arm and reassure me I was totally going to get some so stop being mushy. But we both know you like it.

For today and the rest my life you will be my valentine. My heart’s mate and my fashion-challenged other half.

I love you seems a pale tribute to what you make me feel, so I also got you a new handgun.

Simon

WIN HEART OF DARKNESS BY LAUREN DANE

We have one copy of the stellar and sexy Heart of Darkness for a VBC reader with a U.S. address. Enter by March 4, 2012.

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My Dearest Eric,

From the moment I met you, I was yours. Sitting there at Fangtasia, you had every girl’s eyes on you. You were captivating, like no other man, like no other immortal.

When you searched the faces of the adoring women who only wanted to be near you, I knew that it wouldn’t be me that drew your attention. But I still hoped. I still dreamed.

I longed to feel your eyes lock with mine. I longed to feel every inch of your tall, broad-shouldered, sculpted body. Every. Single. Inch. Right there in the bar. You were sex personified. And I wanted to know you, if even for just a moment.

I longed to hear you tell me of your past. The life you had before you became a vampire. And I wanted to learn of the centuries that changed you from who you were then to the powerful, calculating vampire you are today.

And even though I’ve only gotten to know you from afar, I feel as if I do know you. You may not be mine now and you may never truly be mine. Not completely. But when the day comes that I won’t have you in my life any longer, at least I will have my memories of you. Memories that will keep you in my heart for years to come.

You claim to be ruthless. You pretend as if you care for nothing and no one, but I know that not to be true. The choices you’ve made show me just how much you do care, how connected you can be to another. I only wish it was me that broke through your icy exterior and captured your heart.

You’ve offered your blood to save the life of someone you care about. You’ve been there time and time again to be the hero even though you say you aren’t one.

This is why I love you. This is why I’d be willing to give up everything for you. For me there is no other. Only you.

When you lost your memory, you showed a different side of yourself. A side that was hidden underneath all the layers you built up over the centuries that hardened you, made you cruel, and left you very much alone. You revealed to me a gentler side. A tender and passionate side that made my heart melt even more than it already had.

And while I love the side of you that is strong, that is sure and powerful and merciless, just knowing that there is this other part of you makes me ache knowing that you aren’t mine.

I know you’ve been with many, many women over the centuries and even a few men. I never imagined it otherwise and never thought you could be exclusively mine. I only ever wanted the chance to be one of those lucky enough to catch your eye. I dreamed of the day I’d be able to feel your cool body against mine. To feel your penetrating gaze. To taste your lips. Your skin. To let my hands trace the path of your muscles. To feel the strength beneath them. To feel your rock hard…abs.

I worry about you my love. I know I’m not one to question your decisions, but I sense danger headed your way. A danger that maybe even a man, an immortal, as powerful as you can’t stop.

Just know that I am here for you, if ever you should decide to change your fate, to choose a different path, to leave the woman who refuses to give herself to you completely as I would.

I would give my very last heartbeat to you, Eric Northman, my Sherriff, my viking, my immortal.

Yours for all of eternity,
Fiktshun

Haven’t met Eric?
For those of you who want to meet Eric, you have got to start at the beginning with Dead Until Dark. It would be a travesty if you skipped. But if you just want to meet Eric when he was vulnerable, lost, confused and totally sexy, then Dead to the World is that book.

Dear Woman I Will One Day Ravage Every Which Way,

If you’re reading this, then you’ve found my locket. The good news is that you have a soul mate, and I’m him, which makes you a very lucky lass.

My name is Criminy Stain, and I’m the proprietor of a traveling clockwork caravan that you’re sure to love, especially since my wagon is the biggest. We transverse Sangland on a train, stopping far outside of each town’s walls to entertain the dullards therein with magic, a clockwork menagerie, and death defying acts of skill. I’m a magician of no mean talents myself, which is how this book came to find you.

The bad news, at least if you’re a Pinkie, is that I’m a Bludman, albeit a very civilized one. I’m over a hundred years old and well-able to control my hunger for blood, although when I meet you, I hope you’ll be luscious enough to tempt me. But don’t let any differences we might have alarm you. I’ve been looking for you for a long time, and I trust the spell that’s drawing us together. Whatever you are when we find each other, I know we’ll have the thing we need most: love. Hopefully we’ll also have passion, as I very much look forward to making you squeal.

So here’s what to do. Open the locket, making sure the liquid within touches your skin. Say the words engraved inside as you look at my devilishly handsome picture. Do those three things and the spell will be cast. We’ll soon be together, and I’ll teach you how to conjure a butterfly. Right after I roger you.

With hope,
Criminy Stain

GIVEAWAY: WICKED AS THEY COME

We have one copy of Delilah S. Dawson’s Wicked as They Come for a lucky VBC reader. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Contest open to U.S. addresses only, and ends on Feb. 29.

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Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer #1)

Rating (out of 5): 3 stars

The Cassandra Palmer series has a ton of potential. Karen Chance creates a unique world with powerful conflicts and a heroine forced to come into new abilities. This first book was hit-or-miss for me, but the tone and characters make me want to continue the series.

The world-building was unique to the point I kept thinking, “That’s a nice twist on supernatural politics.” Vampires and ghosts have more in common in this series, too. Both feed off energy and it was nice to see vampires who could choose to feed by bite or simply by calling the energy to themselves. Really, a refreshing change.

However, the overall plot was uneven. Parts of the novel I adored and others felt tedious. Cassie is a clairvoyant experiencing some new, enhanced abilities. Before she was an observer of the past in her visions, now she’s an active participant. Often times she’s in another’s body and may drag a non-clairvoyant being along with her. The visions were tense, graphic and scenes that pulled me in. Each of these moments — which are evenly paced throughout Touch the Dark — brought a sense of urgency to the book and made me want more. But the confusion in present day paled in comparison.

While this is an urban fantasy book, I’m going to specifically call out the romantic elements here. While there is sex of a sort, and a few very sexual scenes, the book is far from romantic. These moments are purposely false and ring more as results of magical interference. They’re still hot, but if you’re expecting a romantic relationship story arc (which is hinted to a bit at the beginning of the book), you will not find one.

Time travel, characters you can’t trust and some seriously whacked supernatural politics make Touch the Dark worth the read. I have high hopes for Cassie’s character and the series as a whole.

Sexual content: Sensual scenes

Touch the Dark is VBC’s group read for February 2012. You’re welcome to leave your thoughts on the book in the comments here (we’ll respond), but please denote any spoilers so we don’t give anything away to those who have yet to read the book.

Dear Zsadist:

*pets pretty picture of Z, lovingly tracing my name across his chest*

My love for you is well known among my peeps, but many don’t understand the attraction. I mean, I’m cheerful and almost perky… with the exception of mornings, which doesn’t count. And you are… *bites lip and tries to find an appropriate, not hurtful word* well, sometimes you are a wee bit grumpy, and it can hide the utterly squishable teddy bear you really are inside. So I think it’s time to explain all the things I love about you.

From your first appearance in Dark Lover and your oh, so succinct suggestion to Wrath that he, er… slow his roll, your inner bad boy was showing, and like a moth to a flame I was drawn in. I loved how you refused to explain yourself when you were accused of doing the unthinkable. There is something incredibly sexy about a male who refuses to cave to others’ opinion of him. It takes a great deal of strength to stand firm and be sure of yourself when everyone you care about constantly doubts you. And you are such a good sport, not rubbing anyone’s *cough* Wrath’s *cough* nose in the fact that they were completely wrong about you.

Then in Lover Eternal, when your past rears its ugly head in the tomb, your refusal to be party to hurting one of your brothers, your desire to never see anyone else suffer what you had. *sniffles* The care you showed Rhage, staying with him and singing to calm him. Your kind heart showed through. And though you are *makes overly dramatic air quotes* rumored to be a woman hater, in truth you show all of the shellans respect from the moment you see they are true to their males. They have your loyalty just as surely as your brothers do. *thinks Wrath should put that in a taco and munch on it*

In Lover Awakened you underwent a total transformation, becoming the male you were always meant to be. Bella is perfect for you. *grumbles about super model pretty vamps getting all the hotties* She challenges you to step outside the dark little world you’ve become so comfortable in, dares you to build a life, to do more than just exist. And you accept the challenge with your usual charm and grace. *shakes head, recalling the skank-tastic bimbo in the alley and your suggestion that Bella hook up with your twin*

Over time your actions make it clear that you are a true male of worth. But in the beginning I think it was a little less clear that your continual use of the F bomb was just your way of saying ‘Hi!’ and ‘Have a nice day!’ Though those of us who loved you from the beginning always understood the Z speak.

Hugs and kisses and oodles of snuggles,

Your most devoted female fan… who just happens to be a blue-eyed brunette perfectly willing to wear heels high enough to make her almost 6’ tall should Bella ever find herself unable to fulfill any of her shellan-y duties,

Louise
Between the Covers

Haven’t met Zsadist?
What are you waiting for?! As Louise mentions above, you first meet Zsadist in the first Black Dagger Brotherhood novel, Dark Lover. It’s in Lover Awakened that you’ll truly fall for this vampire antihero.

Maybe you’re swooning over one of the guys we are — Barrons or Rehvenge, perhaps? Or maybe like Terrible from Stacia Kane’s Downside series? Your call.

How to enter

Write your best “let me count the ways I love you” post to the fictional character you love the most from a book. Tell that hero why he makes your knees weak, why you wish he’d ditch his current heroine for you or just tell him why you love him. (You can write to a heroine, if you prefer.)

Once you’ve got your letter ready, post it in the comments below. This is your entry into the contest. If you’re a blogger, you’re welcome to post the love letter on your blog and add the link to that specific post in the comments instead.

What do you win?

• Two one-of-a-kind Black Dagger Brotherhood jewelry items from Cemetery Cat Designs. First, a pair of earrings featuring black daggers and throwing stars, the latter in honor of Wrath. Second, a BDB book thong (aka metal bookmark) with dagger, fangs and a black rose.
• Your choice of any book featuring one of the Character Love Letters characters (any character listed on this page)
• Your choice of any book in our recommendations section

CONTEST DETAILS AND RULES
1. To enter, you leave a comment on this blog post with your love letter to a book boyfriend.
2. You do not need to follow Vampire Book Club to be entered, but we sure do like it.
3. This contest is open internationally.
4. Contest closes at 11:59 p.m. CST on Feb., 29, 2012.
5. The winners will be selected using Random.org. Then each will be contacted via email and given 48 hours to claim her prize. If we do not hear from the winner(s) within that time, a new winner will be selected.
6. Entrants must be at least 18 years old or have their parent’s permission to enter. Please review our privacy policy, if you have any questions as to how Vampire Book Club uses your information. (Short version: we’ll only use it to contact you for this contest.)
7. Though unlikely, Vampire Book Club has the right to change or cancel any giveaway at any time without prior notice.
8. Vampire Book Club is not responsible for prizes lost or damage in transit.
9. Big thank you to Cemetery Cat Designs for providing the jewelry.