Title: Descended By Blood
Series: Vampire Born, Book 1
Author: Angeline Kace
Published: 2011 Accendo Press
Format: personal purchase
Brooke Keller is a high school junior who has never spent much time living in one place. She is finally in a town long enough to almost snag the boy of her dreams, until her life is threatened after killing a fanged man in his attempt to kidnap her. Brooke begins a dangerous journey in an effort to find out who is after her and how to stop them. In a world with powerful and prejudiced vampires, Brooke must tap into the side of her that she never knew existed at the risk of losing her life in order to save it.
I’ve had this book on my kindle for I don’t know how long. A long time. It’s always been one of those, “I will get to it when I can” books, even though I’ve seen rave reviews about it from other bloggers I follow. Then an opportunity came up to review the second book in this series, and so I had to start on the first one. I’ll be honest – I’d estimate that in the first third of this book or so I had thought about DNF’ing it. There were some parts that seemed a bit cheesy, and I thought it read a bit younger than I really was in the mood for.
But I hung in there. And I am SO glad I did. This book morphed into this fantastic urban fantasy tale with a ton of action, a love triangle, and relationships strong enough to build houses on. So the slow start really became irrelevant to me. I’m even writing my review early, which is something I never do, so I can make sure I remember where book one ends and book two begins.
Brooke is a highschool aged girl. Everything seems to be going her way. She’s dating Jaren, who is one of the most popular guys in school. And her best friend, Kaitlynn, is now dating Jaren’s best friend, David. It’s like the dream team of dating when you are in highschool, right? And then Brooke notices someone is kind of stalking her. Ok… there is no kind of about it, he is after her. And one night, the stalker shows up at Jaren’s door and demands Brooke come with him. This is a catalyst to change her entire life.
That night she finds out she is part Pijawika, which is a Croatian vampire basically. There are different types of Vampires, and a whole class system. Then she meets other people, and even discovers she has some supernatural abilities. She isn't thrilled about this information, which I thought was unusual. If it were me I would have been ecstatic. e
Brooke’s adventure, for lack of a better word, of being on the run from whomever is hunting her turned this book into a kick ass story. Her mentor of sorts, Mirko, is charming and tenacious, with a bit of a smart ass side. And there develops a love triangle with her, Jaren, and Mirko. I won’t tell you how that turns out, but for the record – I think she made the right decision in the end. I can only hope the decision stick.
The story travels through several states, and there is so much that happens in a short amount of time. I really loved watching Brooke develop and learn about her Pijawika side and history. If you like books with a bad ass heroine, tons of secrets and lies, and a bit of romance, then this would definitely be a good pick for you.
Fine Angeline Online
