Saturday, February 9, 2013

Review - Half Blood

Earlier this week I adopted the fabulous Lauren Dawes for the adopt an author event being run by the Young Adult and Teen Readers facebook page. And I knew as her adopter I wanted to read and review her books. Lauren was sweet enough to give me copies for my honest review and below you'll find my thoughts on the first from her series Half Blood.

Synopsis: *WARNING: This book contains graphic scenes and sexually explicit content.*

"Swallowing her pained sounds, she forced the fear from her eyes. ‘You killed me,’ she breathed, swallowing down on the hard lump in her throat. It wasn’t often that someone got an opportunity to come face to face with their killer."

A battle for werewolf territory and rights has Rhett fighting for his life and for the survival of the pack. The last half blood—a half human, half vampire hybrid—has been found and Rhett has been chosen as her unlikely Guardian. The pack’s survival hangs on her completing her transformation, but a Sicarii—a vampire assassin—is hunting her to ensure that never happens …

Indigo’s hard exterior is nothing compared to the dark secret she carries within her. Her haunted eyes alone tell of her struggle and desire to live. But what she doesn’t know is that she is hard-wired for survival; the very blood in her veins and the legacy of her father demands it. But when her life takes a violent turn, her heritage and her fate may be the very thing to get her killed.

My Review:

Oh. My. Gosh!
 

I have to say I normally go for much lighter reads (I’m a big chicken when it comes to the darker stuff), but the world this author created was too well crafted for me not to love.  She unfolds the characters pasts one piece at a time instead of giving it to you all at once, which had me aching to click to the next page faster to find out what the next reveal would be. And trust me there were some biggies, her twist on the rapist completely surprised me.  And her spin on vampires and werewolves is a breath of fresh air that takes you back to when they were creatures to be scared of not cuddled up with.  That being said I’d still cuddle up with Rhett anytime. *sigh*

 
Anyway, back on task.

 
Indi is a broken soul, but underneath all the damage she’s taken in her life is a strong female lead you have to cheer for. She lets few people in (she doesn’t even give her real name out to the customers), but the one’s she does, she fights for. My favorite example of her unwavering loyalty and protection of the people she loves is when her brother Jerry asks, “Are you going to protect me Indi?” and she simply vowed, “Until my last breath.” There was no doubt in my mind the girl would give every last piece of herself to follow through with that vow.


Then there’s Rhett the hot, protective, dominant wolf chosen to be Indi’s guardian. Like Indi, he has his own demons, and they’re what keep him from pursuing something with Indi (even though it’s clear they have something special). The fact that she trusts him when she trusts few others should be enough to prove that. I so want these two to get together. They’d be a badass couple.


That all being said I’d highly recommend this to any adult looking for a good paranormal book.

About the author:

Lauren Dawes is a part-time ESL teacher, part-time promotion worker, part-time proofreader and full-time author. She put pen to paper when she realised that books like Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight' were ruining the vampire genre Anne Rice so meticulously built.

She lives in Victoria with her husband and her cat, Oscar. She is currently working on her next book.




Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/authorlaurendawes?fref=ts

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lauren-Dawes/e/B007UWWNDI/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6425337.Lauren_Dawes

Website: http://laurendawes.blogspot.com/

There is also a facebook event page set-up from now until the end of April. There are bookmark giveaways and if you review one of Lauren's books and post the review there you'll be entered for a chance to win a signed paperback. Find out more by joining the fun at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/596074003743460/.









2 comments:

  1. Wow! Just wow! Thank you so much, Michelle. I loved the review. It means so much to me. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete