Review: Blood Born

Blood Born is a Paranormal Romance from authors Linda Howard and Linda Jones and a Ballantine Book.

Book Blurb:

When the living and undead worlds collide, there will be hell to pay.

Luca Ambrus is a rare specimen of his breed: He is a vampire from birth, begotten by two vampire parents: blood born. He is also an agent of the Council - the centuries-old cabal that governs vampirekind, preserving their secrecy and destroying those who betray them.

When a cryptic summons leads him to the scene of the brutal killing of a powerful Council member, Luca begins the hunt for an assassin among his own people. But instead of a lone killer he discovers a sinister conspiracy of rogue vampires bent on subjugating the mortal world.

All that stands in their way are the conduits, humans able to channel spirit warriors into the physical world to protect mankind. Chloe Fallon is a conduit - and a target of the vampire assassin who's killing them. When Luca saves her life, an irresistible bond of trust - along with more passionate feelings - is forged between them. As more victims fall, Chloe and Luca have only each other to depend on to save the world from the reign of monsters - and salvage their own future together.

Blood Born was submitted for review and I retain my copy.

Luca Ambrus is a blood born vampire which makes him very rare for his kind - and an unknown commodity. Even the other vampires are not certain of his vampire abilities - or their limits. This makes his job as an agent for the Council somewhat easier. As the vampire who hunts rogue vampires - having a reputation as a stone cold killer can only work in Luca's favor.

When Luca's only friend on the Council calls and tells him that a band of rogue vampires are planning to 'come out of the closet', Luca heads in to assess the situation. What he finds is murder - and a plan to take away the one thing that has prevented the vampires from overtaking the human population - the curse of sanctuary.

For years Warriors have existed on an alternate plane to help mankind through troubling times. When a Warrior is needed he or she may be called forth by an ancestor - a conduit - to help fight.

Chloe Fallon is a conduit and the vampires do not want her to call her Warrior forth - the more Warriors the humans have to help them fight - the harder it will be for the vampires to win.

Blood Born is the first book I have read by these authors, Linda Howard and Linda (Winstead) Jones - and I absolutely loved it.

In addition to the story of Luca and Chloe we also have a side story about Nevada, a young witch who has been kidnapped by the vampires to work on lifting a curse that was placed on vampires long years ago. And Sorin, a vampire who has been tasked with the job of killing conduits and seeing to it that Nevada does what she is told.

Blood Born is a fast paced read with memorable characters and plenty of action. :) I give Blood Born 5 out of 5 stars and can't wait for the sequel - Warrior Rising, coming in Spring of 2011 from Ballantine Books.

M