Book Review: Descended by Blood

By: Angeline Kace

Published by: Accendo Press

Released on: August 26th, 2011

Source: book from author to review

3 stars- It's A Good Read

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Brooke Keller's a high school junior who never spent much time living in one place. She's finally in a town long enough to almost snag the boy of her dreams, until her life is threatened by a fanged man in his attempt to kidnap her. Brooke begins a dangerous journey to find out who is after her and how to stop them. Thrown into a world with powerful and prejudiced vampires, Brooke must tap into the side of herself that she never knew existed, at the risk of losing her life in order to save it.

This is a fast paced debut with action, vampires and a lot of sizzling chemistry. I was really intrigued with the story from the get go and looking forward to finding out more about Angeline's vampire lore. Though I had some problems with Brooke, I felt that overall this was a good read with an exciting plot, and complex world of vampires that I'm looking forward to finding out more about.

Brooke, the story's protagonist, was a hard character for me to like. I liked her at the very beginning of the story, but after a turn of events I felt she became a bit selfish, and I grew frustrated with her. Brooke has the potential to be a strong character as the series goes on, but in this storyline I didn't see the character growth I expected from her. On the flip side I adored her best friend who was a well written supporting character. The supporting characters are good, and some of them I liked more than others. There were times I felt like the dialogue and the relationships were a little forced between a couple of them, which made it hard for me to connect with them on a level I had wanted to.

There's a lot of sizzling chemistry laced into this story with two completely opposite love interests fighting for Brooke's attentions. Jaren is the all American boy next door, charming, blonde hair, blue eyed star lacrosse player and Mirko, well that's just say he's been around for a long time so his cockiness is expected and it fits his strong personality. He doesn't sugar coast anything and he'll tell you what he thinks, which I liked. The most frustrating relationship for me was between Brooke and Jaren. I felt like their chemistry was more forced than it was with Mirko. Don't get me wrong, I adored both guys, and I understood why Brooke had the hots for both of them. They're great guys, but I didn't buy into how quickly Brooke was able to fall in love with both guys. I'm hoping that with the sequel Angeline will develop the relationships with Brooke and the guys a little more, because I felt like I missed out on watching both relationships really develop.

The story's world building is what made this an exciting read for me. Angeline created an intriguing vampire world, and layered it with mystery and action. I was fascinated with the complex vampire world that exists and I liked the little bits and pieces I was able to learn about it through out the story. Though I liked the idea behind story's vampirism, I was left wanting more of the back story on Brooke's vampire heritage, and the vampire politics that came into play, and I like that Angeline didn't give me everything at once. She's definitely got my interest and being that this is the first book in the series, I'm guessing there's a lot more world building, character growth and action to come. This was a good read and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Don't miss our blog stop with Angeline! You can read our interview and enter to win her fabulous giveaway HERE.