Review: Bonded by Blood by Laurie London

Title: Bonded by Blood (Sweetblood #1)
Author: Laurie London
Publisher: HQN Books
Publication Date: January 2011
Pages: 384
My Copy: NetGalley

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…

This book has been sitting on my TBR pile for a while now. I don’t know why it took me so long to get to but am I ever happy I did! Bonded by Blood is a nice easy read with a great story that will have you finishing the book in no time. Laurie London manages to put a new and interesting twist on a genre that shelves are overcrowded with. As a result, this vampire book really stands out and is definitely worth a read. There’s just the right balance of action, character/plot development and, of course, toe curling goodness. I loved it from beginning to end.

In this tale there are two distinct groups of vampires: ones that feed to kill and ones that don’t. Pretty standard, right? In this case, it’s the humans who are different. There are the standard blood types, pretty much everyone falls into this category. But, then there are the “Sweet Bloods” who are rare and who’s blood is irresistible to these predators. Not only that but consuming their blood also gives vamps a temporary power boost. Needless to say, every evil vampire and their dog wants to get their hands on one of these rare humans. I really enjoyed Laurie’s thinking-outside-of-the-box approach to this book. Not only is it original but it’s easy to understand and grabbed my attention immediately. The whole plot revolved around this little tidbit and for me that made all the difference.

Mackenzie is a strong female character. I loved her grab life by the horns attitude. She may have had it hard and expects her life to end sooner rather than later but neither fact dampens her spirit in the least. One of my favorite parts of this novel was when one of Dominic’s buddy’s was setting up roadblocks to divert her route only to have her knock them down with her motorcycle. And Mackenzie doesn’t just hit them; she does it with a style that’s all her own. Her riding skills are awesome and would probably put many guys to shame. I kept cheering her on: “Yeah! You go girl!”. Her leading man Dom is a total hunk and he can cook! My kinda guy! The combination of him being a nice guy and of struggling to control his hunger around a girl who’s blood is like crack to his kind is intense.

This book also incorporates the “destined mate” type love story. MacKenzie and Dom are drawn to each other like magnets. They both have their excuses why they can’t be together but of course, they can only ignore their inexplicable attraction to each other for so long. The hopeless romantic in me eats this stuff up. But with this type of relationship there’s also usually mind blowing sex action which I also admittedly enjoy. So if you like a little spice in your books, Bonded by Blood won’t disappoint!

Great writing, captivating characters and an original storyline make this novel an essential read for all paranormal romance lovers. There’s so much more to the story than what I covered in my review so don’t make my mistake by continuing to delay reading this book. Bump it up to the top of your TBR pile now!

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This book counts towards my goals in Book Chick City’s Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge and Parajunkee’s View’s Vampire Challenge.

       

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