Customer Reviews

Alliance In Blood (Partnership in Blood)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The concept was good. The pairing of a vampire and a wizard to fight an evil wizard of black magic. I think the story could have been fleshed out a bit more.

eg. For the first time in over 200 years, the vampire Orlando saw Paris in the daylight!He and Alain spent the whole day together exploring the city...yet little more than a small paragraph was devoted to this new joy for Orlando! They saw a couple things (two sentences) and then they were back at the apartment.

The author has already told us she lived in and loved Paris so I think she could have taken the time to show Orlando and Alain having a good day. She didn't give the reader anything.
Everything seemed to happen too fast.

Every paragraph was a new idea instead of fleshing out the places, people, feelings.(just like this!)

The attraction and feeling Orlando and Alain had for each other was very sensuous and erotic and I'll give the author her due on that point.
But the battle between good and bad wizards was not fleshed out enough.

This reader felt that there was not enough descriptive narrative in the story. It felt rushed.I just wasn't caught up in the story.
Of course, I am always wary when I see double-spacing and large fonts...that's also a sure sign of not much content.
Not interesting enough for me to buy into the series.

I can't believe i bought all 4 of these books .Alliance In Blood is one of the sorriest books I've ever read ! Alain and Orlando were a joke.Why would and abused and tortured person tell his lover that if he really loved him ,he would let him brand his neck with the very ring his abuser and torturer wore as proof of his love and Alain does.This book was nothing but dribble about Alain and Orlando .I gave up trying to finish it , it just wasn't worth it and after glancing through the others they aren't either . Wow man , BUMMER ! I gave it 1 star because I couldn't give it a 0 ! This author really needs a break ! I really , really HATED this book and the other 3 that went with it .

I plowed through the first book of this series, thinking it was pretty interesting, but confusing since there are SO MANY character introductions that were unneeded. The main relationships were good and the premise was interesting (warlocks teaming up with vampires), so I thought I would give book two a try. I should have left it alone. A new character is introduced almost every few pages, and the main characters are kept in limbo for so long that you tend to forget who they are. I had to keep looking at the back cover to read the synopsis in order to remind myself of their names. To the author, I'll skip book three. You've already got too many of my hard earned dollars for what is, essentially, something that could have been done in one book (minus all the added characters). Buyer, beware!

Ariel has hit this one right out of the park. Just when you think you have read every different take on vampires, Ariel comes along and gives us a new and different approach to this age old tale. The fact that there is a reflection of the real world in the characters as two of them at least are gay, just makes it more endearing. Highly recommend this work to anyone who loves gay fiction or things that go bump bump in the night!

What a great story - suspense, romance, love, sex, vampires.... the baddies want to take over the world, mages and vampires must band together, ebem though reluctantly, and ... best yet, the book is a first of a sequel!
Worst thing about the book is that I have to wait till 2009 for part two.

The story started with a bang. There is a war going on between good wizards and dark wizards - a war that threatens the very balance of nature. Cool. Unfortunately, the good guys are barely holding their own and need a new weapon to shift the tide in their favor. It's decided to approach the vampires as potential allies. But vampires have been discriminated against in the supernatural world; why should they fight for those that perpetuate that inequality? It is up to wizard Alain to meet with a vampire representative and persuade him or her to that it's in their best interest to intervene.

The premise of the story is strong, and Tachna offers some unique takes on the age-old vampire story. When Alain and Orlando meet, sparks fly almost literally. Vampires can taste truth in someone's blood. When Orlando bites Alain to see if he is lying about the alliance, he learns that wizard blood has some other very special benefits for vampires. Benefits that could go beyond incentives to join the alliance, but also help win the war. Yet, this is where the author falters. The plot suddenly falls to the wayside in favor of Alain and Orlando's love at first sight romance - in particular the sex between them. I agree with reviewer Jane on that point - suddenly the narrative becomes rushed, without being fleshed out, and so does the romance. Orlando has horrors in his past that make it difficult to trust, especially during sex. By glossing over the time the two lovers spend getting to know each other (exploring Paris) it makes their dedication to one another less believable. And, the other characters introduced are left wanting. Alain's best friend, and Orlando's mentor are both interesting and potentially dynamic characters and they become irrelevant until the very end. I expected this book to be more of an erotic romance when I bought it, but the opening tantalized with something more and that's what I want now.

Overall, I will say that I was caught up enough to want to read more and I do recommend it. This was a short novel, and ended quickly, but that is often the case with the first of a series. Fortunately, book two looks to be twice the size, and will hopefully dive back into the plot that was so enticing, and more of other characters. Alain and Orlando's bond is romantic, tender and steamy - it should enhance the story, and I think the author will follow through on that.

A group of dark wizards are rebelling against the established order. In France, the Millice (the group of wizards that are on the side of the government and the established groups) fights against them, trying to restore the equilibrium of magic in the world - the imbalance has caused all sorts of chaos in the world, in the forms of storms and other disasters. Marcel, the leader of the Millice, has contacted the Chef de la Cour of the vampires of Paris to join with them against the dark wizards. Alain has volunteered to be the one to initially meet with a vampire in order to discuss the alliance. Alain is fearful but determined to help cement the alliance. What he doesn't expect is the instant attraction to Orlando, the vampire with whom he meets that night. Nor does he expect how enticing Orlando's bite would be. Wizards and vampires have forgotten what they once knew about each other, however - will they be able to overcome their instinctive distrust and work together to make this alliance a success?

M/m-based romantic-suspense vampire novels are a genre I only recently discovered, and I'm finding that I quite enjoy them, even if some of the more ... explicit scenes make me a bit uncomfortable. This has a great story, which I am enjoying a great deal. I like the world that Tachna has created, her versions of vampires and wizards, and particularly the interaction and bonds she has come up with. I particularly like the fact that her "good guys" are open-minded and non-judgmental as a whole - while there are certainly some who are jerks, taken as a whole they want the best for the world without being overly controlling. If you like vampire stories and interesting plots and ideas, this is a great book for you to read. There are four books in the "Partnership in Blood" series, and 2 spin-off books which I am in the process of reading. Watch for my reviews!

I love this series. Wizards and vampires are mortal enemies, but there is a civil war amongst the wizards, and the good guys aren't doing very well. Their leader decides on a radical idea, an alliance with the vampires. Alain, a wizard, is sent to meet with Orlando, the representative of the vampires, and the two of them stumble upon an ancient connection that makes each of them stronger than they were before and more complete than they ever thought they'd be again. It's a lot of work trying to overcome the bigotry and discrimination on each side, and it's written wonderfully. Don't hesitate to buy this one any more than I hesitate to recommend it.

Wow. I just finished reading this whole series. Just incredible. I balled like a baby at the end (I won't spoil anything here!). The only disappointment I had was that Ms. Tachna spent way too much time on the sex scenes and not enough of fleshing out Orlando and Allain's relationship. She fleshed out their individual backstories, but their whole relationship seemed like it was based on sex and nothing else.

If this were made into a tv series, I'd really love to see the relationship growing as they discover Paris together once Orlando is able to withstand the sun. Even some of the other characters needed fleshed out a bit more. It was not until the end that the backstories of many of the characters are revealed - where they worked, where they lived, etc before the war. The rift between Jean and Sebastien was not clearly explained either. We learn that Sebastien met Thibaut and made him his avoue a week later - before Jean could. But why did Thibaut leave Jean for Sebastien? There must have been a reason behind this and it was not clearly explained.

Getting a little nit picky - but I still loved the whole series. I plan to re-read it all again. I sort of filled in some of the blanks on my own as I read - the magic of imagination. I'm definitely going to put Ms. Tachna's other books on my reading list!

I heard many good words about these series and I have had more hits than misses buying the books written by this writer, but I kept postponing buying it. I am just very very choosy about vampire stories, they could be a big hit or a very big miss for me. So I decided I will buy the first one in e-book format and my goodness I am glad that I did. Intense powerful attraction between the main characters, sex scenes that I did not feel the need to skip, intersting sophisticated plot, a lot of secondary characters, which are just as interesting as leads and for the most part very well incorporated in the plot. And there are wizards and vampires fighting dark wizard together, what's not to like!

I am definitely buying second one as e-book and if I like it just as much, will get the others and may even go for paperback.