Title: Bonded By Blood
Author: Laurie London
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Sweet Blood #1
Publisher: Harlequin
Number of Pages: 384
Source: Library
Movie location scout Mackenzie Foster-Shaw has always known that she's cursed to die young. No one can protect her from the evil that has stalked her family for generations—vampires who crave her rare blood type. Until one afternoon in a wooded cemetery, she encounters an impossibly sexy stranger, a man she must trust with her life.For Dominic, a man haunted by loss, Mackenzie satisfies a primal hunger that torments him—and the bond they share goes beyond heat, beyond love. She alone can supply the strength he needs to claim his revenge. But in doing so, he could destroy her….(from goodreads.com)
I think I'm the only one who didn't love this book, and I'm still trying to figure out why. The writing was excellent, the characters were likable, the hero was hot, but I still didn't get pulled into the story like I wanted to. In this world there are two types of vampires-the good ones who follow the rules set up by the council and don't feed off of humans and the bad ones-Darkbloods who feel like they should be allowed to feed off of humans like their ancestors did and will do anything to get the blood known as SweetBlood. Sweet Bloods are rare, and used to be killed by the Darkblood vampires for their blood types.
Bonded by Blood is the book that started my recent foray back into the world of vampires. It's one of those books that I think of as a comfort read-great for when you want to lose yourself in a book. In this world vampires are still hidden, but have been divided into two groups: those who follow the rules and those who follow the old ways and don't mind killing humans for their blood. Dominic works for a group that goes after those known as darkbloods-those are the ones who break the rules and will do anything to get the blood type known as sweet blood. He gets hurt chasing a group of them, and MacKenzie stumbles upon him while shooting photographs in a cemetery for her job.
Dominic is hurt really badly and needs her blood to survive. He ends up taking to much, and has to heal her...in doing so he accidentally creates a bond between them, so when he goes to erase her memory, it works except she can hear him in her head and he can hear her. The two meet up again at a fundraiser, and are immediately attracted to one another. They both try and fail to ignore the attraction they have. It turns out that MacKenzie has the rare sweet blood type and isn't sure why people in her family keep disappearing when they hit a certain age, so has been super careful about her personal life and when she was younger her family moved around a lot to keep the unknown people who kidnapped her people in her family from finding them.
I really enjoyed the reactions Mackenzie and Dominic had to each other-even though it was the typical must-not-love-each-other strife, it just worked in this book. They both fought for what they knew was right. The major problem I had with this book, and to be honest it almost kept me from finishing it was all the talk of the different types of blood types. I know this was done to say what sweet blood was and to differentiate between the good vampires and the bad vampires, but by the second half of the book it got to be a little repetitive. All in all though, this was a great escapist read. Come back tomorrow when I review book 2, Embraced By Blood, which I loved a lot!
Curran Crush Meter: Low
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Low
Martini Sigh Meter: Medium
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Medium
