Tuesday 20 August 2019

REVIEW - BLOOD BOND - BLOOD BOND SAGA BY HELEN HARDT

Title: Blood Bond
Series: Blood Bond Saga
Author: Helen Hardt
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Vampires
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Release Date: 21st August 2018

BLURB from Goodreads
Vampire Dante Gabriel is starving. What he craves is red gold—human blood. After being held captive as a blood slave to a female vampire for years, he has finally escaped. Unchained at last, he follows his nose to the nearest blood bank to sate his hunger. 
ER nurse Erin Hamilton expects just another busy night shift…until she finds a gorgeous stranger vandalizing the hospital blood bank. Though her logic tells her to turn him in, she’s pulled by stronger and unfamiliar emotions to protect the man who seems oddly infatuated with her scent. Chemistry sizzles between them, but Dante, plagued by nightmares of his time in captivity, fears he won’t be able to control himself…especially when he discovers a secret she doesn’t even know she’s hiding.


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REVIEW
As I hadn’t read a book with vampires for a while, I decided to give the Blood Bond Saga a go, especially when I saw there was a prequel novella. I think a prequel novella usually gives you just enough to make the decision whether to read on into the series.
The cover is red, representing the blood vampires consume, and has a couple on the cover whom I would presume are Dante and Erin the two main characters in the novella.

In the prologue we immediately meet Dante, who is being held against his will by a woman calling her self the ‘Vampire Queen’. Though she keeps Dante ‘comfortable’, it is her version of comfortable as he is tied up and not allowed to leave. He is fed, and given plenty of water to replenish his blood supply. When the Queen visits him she drinks his blood, hinting at it being very powerful and precious.

Dante, manages to escape, or maybe he was allowed to escape he just can’t seem to remember clearly how he got out, but he is thankful he is out. He is so ashamed at being overpowered and held against his will subjected to tortured and other acts he doesn’t wish to remember. On his release or escape Dante is naturally hungry for blood, he ends up in a hospital emergency room blood bank where he meets Erin. Dante is immediately drawn to her, wanting her physically and wanting her blood too. He describes how her blood calls to him, and that she has an addictive, unique scent he basically cannot get enough of. Dante needs to find his family, though he is unsure if there will be any of them still living in the area as he is unsure how long he been held captive. When Dante moves into his Grandfather’s house, they reveal he has been gone ten years and that those that went searching for him never returned. Dante is confused and his emotions and desires are all over the place. His grandfather tries to tell him he still has so much to learn as he was still at such a young age when he went missing. 
His grandfather, Bill, asks Dante to tell him what was done to him whilst he was missing, but Dante feels too ashamed to retell anyone, let alone his strong pure bred vampire Grandfather. Bill allows him time to settle in but assures Dante there is nothing he can say that will change how he see’s him. That he seriously needs to talk about it. Bill also explains to Dante that he has yet to learn control and advises him to stay away from relationships, that he needs to open up about what happened to him whilst he was held captive. The trouble is Dante just can’t seem to stay away from Erin, and if he can’t have her yet, then nobody will have her either!

One of my favourite characters other than Dante and Erin, was Steve who is a hospital orderly, who is very bright, cheery and a great gossip, knowing everyone’s business and secrets. The character I loved to hate was Dr Bonnaville, or rather Dr Bitchville as she is called behind her back in the ER. I’ll be honest I have my suspicions about her, I think maybe she could be a vampire, or at least someone who knows about the supernatural beings in the area.

I did enjoy the novella. It got a little steamy and perhaps graphic wording but it fit with the plot and wasn’t so explicit that it put you off reading the book. I enjoyed the history of the Gabriel family parts and as for the romance, well I am already pairing characters off. Perhaps Erin’s brother Jay & Dante’s sister Emilia that’s presuming she isn’t in a relationship, I kind of get a hunch she could be pregnant too! I would also possibly pair Lucy, Erin’s friend in the ER with Dante’s cousin, and vampire River. There are so many ways this book series could progress, I mean there’s the woman who held Dante captive and made him call her the ‘Vampire Queen’. Why did she want Dante? Does she have anyone else hostage? Who is she? 

So, to sum up the book did become a little slow paced for my taste in a couple of places, then I was a little surprised about how descriptively steamy things got lol but by the end I was hooked and would like to read more. I felt like this was a good introduction to the characters, and revealed some of their back stories. I have been left with SO many question, theories and thoughts!!

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