6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blood & Sex Vol. 1: Michael, April 27, 2009
Detective Victoria Tyler is investigating Collins Bay's new serial killer, one of the city's vampires. Since they have marked her as a human to be killed or conquered, Tori knows that Michael is her only hope for survival. But she hasn't spoken to him since the night she tried to kill him.
As the enforcer for the Italian vampiro cosca, Michael expects a certain amount of cooperation from his boss. That amount has been shrinking ever since their leader took a new sadist lover. So when the detective requests his help, it's just the excuse he needs to take control of the city--and the delicious human.
Risking it all, Tori agrees to let Michael take her neck and lead her on a journey through a world of bondage, domination and blood to stop the killer. But can she resist the dark lusts he sparks? Or will her weakness get someone else killed?
The first thing that crossed my mind when I started reading this was "whoa, Dracula meets The Godfather". But let me tell you, I never enjoyed either of those books as much as I did this one. Once the scene opens on the first murder, it's a case not so much of whodunit, as how are they going to stop the one whodunit. Cameron's characters are clearly defined, but there is a fine line between evil and EVIL. The good guys and the bad guys are all, or at least mostly, vampires. What makes them different from each other is the basic premise that our hero Michael states in talking to Tori: a vampire is only a magnified version of the human that he or she was before being turned. If they were bad as humans, they are really bad as vampires.
Tori starts the story not really trusting Michael, and there is some backstory there that gets revealed as we read. Suffice to say, she gets a few surprises thrown at her as she learns what happened to her and one of the reasons she is so attracted to Michael. But then, there's a lot to be attracted to. Tall, dark and handsome fully qualifies here. And the secondary characters are so much fun to get to know. I think I'd like to meet Jonas (stage name Vlad)(yeah, exotic dancer) at the club. As good vamps go, he's a great one to have your back in a showdown. By the way, very hot dude too.
Some of the twists, I didn't see coming, but they fit well with the storyline, and made sense to the plot. Castillo, the evil dude, and his "scion" Damon were not as predictable as bad guys go. Castillo did show his sneaky side, and played the bad boy to the end. Once again, Ms. Cameron gives us a strong female character that is central to the story. Tori makes her own decisions, and faces the bad guy more than once without flinching (well not too much). The heat between Tori and Michael is intense, and the love scenes are five alarm scorchers. I found a touching sense of sympathy, though, when she showed a vampire funeral for one of the characters. I don't think that has ever been touched on in vampire fiction before. Usually, they die, and dissolve or turn to dust and thats it. Not here, but then I've come to expect that for this author.
I'm not sure if the ending would be called happily ever after, but it fit the story, and there was some resolution to all the various threads in the book. Once again, Ms. Cameron has provided an excellent reading experience, set in her alternate reality, where vampires and other creatures live, and live well. She gives new life to an old topic, and twists it to her advantage.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable book, July 27, 2009
This review is from: Blood & Sex, Volume 1: Michael (Paperback)
When I first started reading Blood and Sex, it took me a minute to get into the story, a little longer than what I like. Eventually, Cameron's words drew me in and I was intrigued enough to keep reading.
Angela Cameron penned a good vampire romance. She has a well developed plot in Blood and Sex and overall, I found the book enticing enough to read other works by Miss Cameron.
As for rating this book, it's very hard to decide how to rate a book when there are a few places where the plot was almost slow enough to throw the book down and other places where I couldn't read fast enough. Rating this book a three, I still enjoyed it and plan to read others by Angela Cameron.
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