ORDER A COPY: Tempted by Blood (Sweetblood)
Publisher: Harlequin Paranormal Romance
Publishing Date: February 21, 2012
Paperback: 379 pages
Rating: 4 Stars
Deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the battle for supremacy rages on between two Vampire coalitions:
Guardian enforcers sworn to protect humanity, and Darkbloods, rogues who kill like their ancient ancestors….
He might be known for his effortless charm, but Guardian Jackson Foss is hiding a terrible secret. For months, he has battled the emergence of his dark nature—deadly urges that threaten to consume him. And those cravings only intensify when he meets Arianna Wells, the human he’s been assigned to protect. Smart and perceptive, Arianna doesn’t seem like a dangerous temptress. Yet she awakens in Jackson an unstoppable need that, if left unchecked, will brand him a traitor…a crime punishable by death.
But soon their bond may be Arianna’s only hope. For stalking her in the shadows is a merciless enemy—one who will stop at nothing to claim her completely.
Jackson Foss has got some big problems. First of all, Jackson fears that his increasing appetite for blood means that he is reverting to the ancient ways of killing humans for blood. A crime for a Guardian which means his death.
If his day isn’t going bad enough, now he’s allowed pictures to be taken of him fighting and killing a Darkblood (evil vampire). That’s bad enough, since they need to keep the fact that vampires exist a secret, but worse, she’s posted them on a website which proves paranormals exist. I guess that’s what you get for saving someone from a horrible death.
Arianna Wells knows that someone came out of the shadows and took her mother away when she was a little girl, but no one believed her. She now runs a blog Paranormalish where she hopes to prove supernatural beings exist. When she witnesses a man walk right of the shadows and grab her young cousin, she knows she wasn’t wrong about what happened to her mother.
Darkbloods have started grabbing sweetbloods (a rare blood type) off the street in record number, and the Guardians need to find out why before it is too late. Jackson has been assigned to protect Arianna and her cousin from the Darkbloods, but Jackson isn’t sure which is going to be more of a temptation to him, her cousin’s delicious sweetblood or Arianna’s sweet body.
This is my second sweetblood story. I read the short story Enchanted by Blood in A Vampire for Christmas, and I must say that Laurie London writes some very enjoyable characters.
It was a little slow in the beginning while we set up the story and explanation of sweetbloods and get caught up where the first two novels left us, which is a great help if this is your first sweetblood novel. Once we got into the actual meat of the story, it was really enjoyable.
I said this after the last short story, but I do need to move the rest of the sweetblood series up on my TBR list.
Received an ARC copy from the author. Thank you, Laurie.
Favorite Scene:
“I know what you are.”
“Ha. Believe me, I know that.”
He flashed her what he probably hoped was a disarming smile. Was that supposed to calm her down? Get her to go along with him? Thank God she didn’t see any fangs. “Stop. You can’t do this. Where are you taking me?”
“Tell me where Krystal is,” he said. He tossed his leather coat on the seat between them, backing the car out of the stall with a screech then jammed it into Drive.
Krystal? Why in the world did he want to know where her cousin was? “Like hell am I going to tell you that.”
“If you’re smart, you will.”
Huddled as far away from him as possible, she glared at him. On his biceps, the colorful snake tattoo—the one Krystal had mentioned—looked coiled and ready to strike. It was even more menacing given the man’s large, hulking muscles. Normally the Caddy felt huge, but with his presence soaking up all the available airspace, it felt like a teacup.
“Wh-why? I’m not telling you that. You have me now, so leave her alone. She’s an innocent girl.”
“If you want to hear why you and your cousin are in grave danger and what can be done about it, then you’d better tell me.”
She would’ve thought he’d have stopped by the house first. Maybe he had and Krystal wasn’t there. Maybe she was at her friend’s house. Hope sparked in the pit of her stomach. If only she could get word to her, tell her to stay away, call the authorities. “And why should I trust you? You’re a…vampire.”
“Because I’m the one who saved you.” There was that practiced smile again. “Remember me?”
Like a dope, she recalled the hard plane of his chest pressed against her, his demanding mouth, the feel of his muscular shoulders as she’d wrapped her arms—
“Yeah, I do. You tried to pull some mind-control thing on me and make me forget what I saw. In fact—“ His words still rang in her head as he kissed her that night. The rich, lulling tone. Intoxicating her. “In fact, you tried to charm me as you forced yourself on me.”
With a sweep of a hand, he brushed his hair from his face and she noticed it wasn’t pulled back like it had been before. “I do not force women. If you had wanted me to stop, all you had to do was step away.”
“That’s not what I remember. You made me…want you.”
He cocked an eyebrow, the one with the tiny scar. “I didn’t make you do anything. You wrapped your arms around me of your own free will.”
