This book got off to a rocky start for me. Let’s ignore the fact that the third page had the word realize written as realise and the word offense written as offence but we’ll come back to that.
It starts out with Caitlin Parish recklessly ignoring orders and blowing a stake-out by chasing after a master vampire into a night club, a master vampire who she describes as committing unsubstantiated heinous crimes and is so feared that no one will talk about him or report anything about him. And get this! She only has a tranquilizer gun! Her superior is warning her not to do it but she keeps going anyway. As she is running she is thinking about how she has wanted to take this vampire down since she was little and the years she has spent investigating him and then she starts thinking about his “sensual lips” and how she has dreamed of him and woke up in a “sensual heat”. When the vampire overtakes her, taking the tranquilizer gun away from her and pointing at her and pins her to a wall with his body, she then thinks about how this 300 year old vampire is too powerful for her. Uh Duh! But Wait! There’s more! While he has her in that position, she tells him he is under arrest. At this point, I’m seriously thinking that the vampire needs to break her neck and the author will insert a new heroine.
The vampire, Kane Malloy, says, “Delusional as well as reckless. Are you seriously the best they’ve got?”
I think that is what saved the book for me. At least someone was thinking she was out of her league. I never did warm up to Caitlin but I liked Kane the whole time. He had me guessing all the way up to the end. The premise of the book is interesting and I really liked the setting and the caste-system world that the author created.
Now, back to the weird spelling of words! The author spelled words like realize and tranquilizer with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’ which really threw me off and would distract me. Also, the words offense and defense were spelled offence and defence. Is it a British thing? I’ve read other British authors and have not come across this yet. Maybe the author didn’t have a ‘z’ on her keyboard. The other thing that bothered me was that there were a lot of typos and grammatical errors in the book. I can overlook the weird z thing but not the typos and grammatical errors. When I pay good money for a book, I expect them to be proof read.
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Great character & storyline development. Many unexpected twists and turns to keep you enthralled. Truths and lies are sometimes impossible to see through. ( )

This is strange, because I wrote the review few days ago, and now it's disappeared?
Re uploading it again.

Blood Shadows being a paranormal romance took me completely by surprise. Judging by synopsis I was expecting an urban fantasy... Well, sometimes it pays to be wrong.

This book was deliciously dark and scorching hot.



There is not much happening beyond some psychological games, terse conversations and a whole lot of intense sex, but whatever I could see of the world beyond that was really good, and the secondary characters were pretty intriguing as well.

Kane is a baddy, and he does it really well. He doesn't have a sadistic streak per se, more of a predatory streak, but what's important - he plays on it to build a certain reputation. He is clever, sleek and enigmatic. You can't be quite sure of his agenda throughout the whole book.

Caitlin is a bit more mainstream and really not as ruthless and tough as we are led to believe, but in this she reminds me of young Cat from Jeaniene Frost books - full of herself and sure that she is right, so when the betrayal hits she is forced to reassess her values really fast.

As a couple they feel real and powerful, there is a whole lot of insane attraction that leaps off the page. Kane pretty much gets into Caitlin's head and quickly starts figuring out what she really wants even if she doesn't realise it herself.

There is not much drama, but the only drawback of this book is way too much angsty reflection. You know? She is thinking (internal monologue on 2 pages), than he is thinking (another long internal monologue)... It's not bad, but it's repetitive, slows down the pacing and distracts the reader. So if/when they think, they should think faster! Good editing will take care of that. *wink*

Overall, it is simply too good to pass as a series. The author tries to avoid paranormal cliches, so there is no usual mess of soul mates and primitive possession while the female just rolls over and takes it. Instead it's fresh, heady and full of promise. Very much recommended. ( )

When a book - the first in a series - makes you fangirl about a genre you're practically against, you know that:
a) the author is definitely one you want in your to-watch-out-for list and
b) this series is gonna be gooooood!

Caitlin Parish is so close to delivering justice for the death of her parents. She just needs to capture Kane Malloy, a master vampire, and get him to cooperate. But there are many secrets hidden in the dark, concerning not only what happened to Caitlin’s family but also her own career and life so far. And capturing Kane is only going to make them all come to the surface. Suddenly, the creature after her soul is not the most dangerous thing around…

I admit I was afraid to read this book. Despite being an ARC, it had received some negative reviews that pointed out many of my pet peeves, and, worst of all, it had a vampire as a male lead. Those of you who know me well understand why I stress this little detail out. It’s because I’m not a fan of those leeches. They freak me out, and cannot even compare to shifters in my opinion – which is why I prefer shifter romances to vampire ones. But then I decided that I had to give it a try at the very least, and so I began.

It was hard to get into it, at first. Caitlin, while understandably on a tight schedule and scared out of her mind, was making one wrong decision after the other. Kane was trying to act seductive one moment, and good ol’ baddie (no, it wasn’t a typo, I didn’t mean buddy) the other. And there were so many things that kept piling up and I couldn’t get my head in the game. Not to mention those two really were annoying with their issues and sexual tension – and no, it wasn’t the sexual tension of the good kind!

Not to mention, they were each trying to get out of their comfort zone to achieve goals that would only hurt the person they claimed was starting to be really important (aka each other). Caitlin was trying to become a sinner, Kane was trying to become a saint….

Seriously, DON'T....

However, that only took place at some specific moments. Because the rest of the book was filled with mystery – the good kind – and clues (I mean, like, EVERYWHERE!!!) and hotness. While they still had their demons to fight, up until the very last chapter, those two managed to make it through it all alive, together, and most importantly, with their goals somewhat achieved. Success!!!! Also, after some point, the story kept giving us explanations for everything we had come to question, and filled the important gaps.

While I still don’t consider vampires to be my favorite creatures, and Kane with Caitlin were admirable but not my number one fictional couple, this book did manage to make me like the story. It made me cry, most of the time, but that showed it was amazing in driving its point home, because this series is not about sunshine and flowers and sweet romance. It’s about harsh reality, and people either on the dark side, or halfway to it, trying to make something in their world better, even if it seems impossible and unfair for the rest of the story’s universe.

I certainly can’t wait to read the rest of the series – and since you all know me as a shifter (wolf, lycan, whatever) extreme fan, you all know I’m dying to read Jask’s story, right?

Word of warning: Don’t take ANYTHING for granted in this book. You’re in for a ride full of plot twists, so just suck it up and enjoy!

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.*** ( )

Completed 02/28/18 ( )