Seduced By A Book: Chosen By Blood (Para-Ops, #1) by Virna DePaul

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Chosen By Blood (Para-Ops, #1) by Virna DePaul

Title: Chosen By Blood (Para-Ops, #1)
Classification: Adult Fiction
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Berkley (May 3, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0425241548
ISBN-13: 978-0425241547
Author's website: http://www.virnadepaul.com/
Link to free prequel to the Para-Ops series entitled 'Wraith's Awakening': http://hipwritergirls.typepad.com/files/wraithsawakening.pdf (Includes excerpts of 'Chosen by Blood' & 'Chosen by Fate'.)

     "According to the crazy dream he'd had two week ago, the fate of the world, or rather of it's inhabitants, actually rested more his hands than anyone else's--on his ability to choose the right combination of six individuals, humans and Otherborn, to serve on a new type of special ops team--a Para Ops team.
     Talk about pressure.
     If it had been up to him. a Para-Ops team would have been formed years before, as soon as the President and all the Otherborn leaders had signed the Humanity Treaty. Instead, the U.S. government had left things up to local law enforcement agencies, which, while usually well intentioned, were simply unable to deal with the lingering prejudice and suspicion that naturally followed half a decade of civil war. Another five years had passed since peace was declared, yet the nation and its citizens were still recovering. Some days, Mahone doubted they'd ever find peace again. For that to occur, he knew the United States people needed help--a team dedicated to ensuring the rights of humans and Others alike, both domestically and internationally."

One of the keys to the team's success, was for Mahone to secure Knox Devereaux, a dharmire, for his team. To persuade him to join the unit, he had two tempting things to dangle before the Vampire leader. The first was that their next mission was to find the antidote to reverse the affects of the Vaccine which altered human blood to no longer carry the nutrients vampires need. It had been administered to the world population years ago and the affects were starting to take their toll on the vampire population causing their health to decline. The second, equally tempting item Mahone had to dangle in front of Knox, was Felicia Locke, an agent for the government whom Devereaux considered his soul mate. Felicia, however, tried to keep her distant from the extremely handsome and compelling dharmire. If he had to pick between duty to his clan or her, she knew he'd choose his clan and marry a vampire in an attempt to keep the vampire population from dying out. Being a dharmire, half vamp/half human, made him somewhat immune to the effects of the vaccine.

Now the race was on to find the cure which had been stolen from the very scientists who had created it. The group will need to set aside their differences and work together as a team to accomplish the task at hand. The future of vampires depends upon it.

I thought this was an interesting take on the paranormal romance genre. I liked the main and the secondary characters Virna created. The world was well defined and sucked (pardon the pun) me in. I liked Knox, although at times I felt he needed some sense smacked into him. I enjoyed the drama created by Knox coming to terms with both sides of his heritage--human and vamp. He seemed to grow as a person throughout the book. I'm not sure what to make of Noella, Knox's defunct wife who was Felicia's best friend. Her role in the book was somewhat different. I'm not sure I liked it. I really liked Felicia, she was a strong female character and didn't get involved with Knox while her friend Noella was alive. The chemistry between Knox and Felicia was sizzling when the relationship finally took off.

I liked the twists at the end and learning about the Dome, the sanctuary the vampires created for their kind. I liked the side attractions, so to speak, between the secondary characters. My favorite secondary character being Wraith. She's a tortured soul and thought it was quite creative that when a wraith is born they do not remember their former human life. I can't wait to read her story.

I must confess, I was partially drawn to the book because of the cover. I just adore the guy on it. I also like that the artist didn't reveal the character's face. They say beauty's in the eye of the beholder and that is true when it comes to book covers too. Beauty is in the eye of the reader. Sometimes the face on a book cover isn't to my liking or what I'd envisioned. I like it when the face of the model used isn't revealed.

On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale, this one gets a Steam rating - too hot for a fan, but you still have a handle on things. You should use extreme caution when reading a book with this rating in public. People may inquire as to why you looked flustered and flushed. Overall, I gave this one 3 1/2 out of 5 roses. I felt it was fast paced and look forward to reading more of the series. Can't wait to see where Ms. DePaul will go with this one.