Review: Break Out by Nina Croft (Blood Hunter #1)

Break Out (Blood Hunter #1)
Nina Croft
Published: September 30, 2014 (St. Martin’s)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for and honest review

Reviewed by: Jannelle

Rating (out of 5): 3 stars

In the year 3048, humans, genetically modified aliens and even vampires have already left Earth in search of a precious mineral known as Meridian—known to elongate life and prolong death. For vampires, this isn’t much of a necessity but where the humans go, the vampires go as well. With all this Meridian is highly expensive and only available to a few select individuals.

With this brief history of Break Out’s setting before turning to the first page, we meet a Collective officer, Skylar Rossaria, who is placed on a mission to break into a maximum security prison—right next to a black hole—and break out murderer Jonathon Decker. With the help of vampire/pilot Ricardo Sanchez and his team on his spaceship El Cazador Skylar embarks on a journey through space on a mission she is unsure of due to difficulty and just why she was placed on it to begin with. Add some romance, action and plenty of sexual tension to this life-changing mission and you have the basis for Break Out.

Break Out was interesting (to say the least). Just look at that brief synopsis—vampires and aliens? If there was one component of Break Out that kept me reading until the very end was the creative and unique storyline/setting of the novel. I have never read anything like it. Usually I don’t read much science fiction (much less sci-fi romance), but you can set this novel in modern-day America and I believe it could still achieve the same outcome. The space aspect of this novel just adds a bit more drama and dimension.

The characters were where the novel fell a bit flat for me. Ricardo, for example, is known around space for his love of beautiful women and mystery. So of course, Skylar uses that to her advantage when she picks Rico and his crew to help aid her in her mission. It just felt a bit too easy. And honestly, it frustrated me a bit because Rico has the potential to be so much more than this women-loving sexy Spanish vampire in space. While we did get brief glimpses of that, we only really saw what Skylar had been told to expect—the sexy Spanish vampire.

I was also expecting a lot more action from a group of rogue space pirates with an illegal ultimate goal as great as this one. There is action throughout the novel, but I just expected more. It does, however, really pick up towards the end and got me so excited to keep page turning that I was upset to realize it was over. But that’s a good thing, right?

If you’re not sure if science fiction romance is your thing or you would like to try some out, I would definitely recommend Break Out as a starting novel. The world building isn’t too intricate and is fairly simple in comparison to other sci-fi novels. The romance and thick sexual tension also feel more like a paranormal romance novel than a sci-fi romance but it definitely works.

While it had its ups and downs, Break Out’s exciting and unique storyline and overall setting was intriguing enough to set a decent foundation for the upcoming novels in the Blood Hunter series. Also, there’s a vampire in this one—you’re welcome.

Sexual Content: scenes of a sensual nature