Blood Guilt

by Marie Treanor

Publish Date: June 5, 2012

My Rating (3.5 of 5): 

The first of a new vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She’s taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems – two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex – and maybe even happiness.

My Review:

Marie Traenor is a new-to-me author, I have not read the Awakened by Blood series that is a prequel series to the Blood Hunters series.  However, even without the background of the Awakened by Blood series, I enjoyed reading Blood Guilt, a book where vampires and the vampire hunters are sometimes on the same side.

In Blood Guilt, vampire hunter Mihaela is on vacation in Scotland when she comes across a group of vampires targeting a young boy.  When Mihaela hurries to the fight, she rescues not only the boy, but also Maximilian, a vampire whose loyalty is uncertain.  Mihaela and Maximilian must team together to save the boy and stop a group of vampires from causing devastation to the earth and to the humans.  Throughout the book, Mihaela must face the monsters of her past and come to terms with the strong attraction that simmers between her and Maximilian.

I enjoyed reading Blood Guilt, it is the start to a promising new vampire series.  I think that I would have enjoyed it even more if I had already been familiar with the world and the characters.  There are a lot of references to previous occurrences that must have happened in the Awakened by Blood series, and while I was fully able to enjoy the story, it would have been easier to get into if I had already read the earlier series.  it took me awhile to get acclimated with everything that was going on between the vampires and the hunters.

My favorite part of Blood Guilt would be that I really liked the characters.  Maximilian is a vampire who has made bad decisions and paid for them in suffering.  He is trying to find new footing in the world, and he is attracted to Mihaela.  Mihaela is a vampire hunter with issues towards vampires.  Vampires killed her family, and she was raised to hate them.  However, as she gets to know more vampires, she realizes that they do have feelings, and they aren’t all monsters.  Mihaela and Maximilian’s relationship is full of ups and downs, neither of them knows what the attraction between them really is, and Mihaela is terrified of it.  It takes them time to figure their relationship out, and I found their relationship believable.  I will say this for you romance fans, the chemistry between them is very hot, and the sex scenes are smoking.

While I enjoyed the story, there are a few places where I had some issues.  The flow of the story felt a bit choppy at times, and some transitions between paragraphs and sentences felt abrupt.  This may be in part due to my lack of familiarity with the story.  Also, the book revolves around the idea that some vampires and humans have psychic abilities.  I did not really understand this throughout most of the book, and I have no idea if this was a subject that was in the earlier books.  I was confused as to what the abilities were and how they worked and could have used a clearer explanation.  Because of these issues, I rate Blood Guilt 3.5 of 5 stars.

Overall, Blood Guilt is a good vampire romance story and a promising start to a new series.  I enjoyed the characters and the world, and I would continue reading this series in the future.  I recommend Blood Guilt to readers who enjoy paranormal romance and vampire novels.

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