Lauren Blackwood

THE DANGEROUS ONES by Lauren Blackwood reimagines the American Civil War by adding vampires and vampire hunters to the mix. Her story revolves around Jerusalem, a former enslaved person who escaped her vampire enslaver and found her calling fighting with the Yankees against the South and their vampire allies. Jerusalem fights alongside one of the few vampires who don’t side with the South. The rest of the story follows pretty much as you can guess. In fact, there are no major surprises here. The story is formulaic and filled with tropes. Jerusalem and Alexei are great together. Their chemistry is perfection, and Ms. Blackwood takes care to highlight their friendship before moving on to other aspects of their relationship. Individually, both are engaging characters, flawed and better for those flaws. Together, they make sparks fly.

That being said, THE DANGEROUS ONES is cute but ultimately forgettable. It is the type of book you enjoy reading but put aside once finished and never think of it again. In fact, I had to read the synopsis before I could recall what the book was about before writing this review. It is a fun book in that vampires in the Civil War is a premise I always love. Ms. Blackwood keeps the gravitas and pain that is necessary and deserved when Jerusalem thinks about her time as an enslaved person; you can tell she aches for all of the enslaved and takes the pain of generations upon her shoulders. But, there is nothing that makes the story stick in my mind, and that is okay. Not every book can be profound or life-altering in some way. Everyone will come across a read-and-forget book at least once in their life. THE DANGEROUS ONES is the latter for me.… (meer)

Wildblood is an epic tale about a young woman---who was enslaved as a child by a tourist company on the island of Jamaica due to her genetic abilities to shape blood into weapons---leading a tour group through the perilous jungle she once called home.

To receive her promotion to tour leader, Victoria must make her ex, Dean, look good to this new group of rich gold miners. One of those gold miners is a young man, Thorn, who immediately becomes infatuated with Victoria and vice versa. Along the way, they will become closer as they face more and more dangers of the jungle.

In my opinion, this is a fantastic book---the imagery is vivid, the concept is inventive, it handles PTSD from rape and abuse in a digestible manner and is rich with Jamaican folklore. My only drawback is that Wildblood is to be a YA book and there is some mature content in a later chapter. Other than that, it is a wonderful and fierce story of healing and returning home despite what your heart may want right now.… (meer)

This was not what I was expecting so I feel tad disappointed. I don't think 'an Ethiopian-inspired fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre' is a very accurate description of this book. I would have loved that book! It was yearny relationship heavy with quite an unlikeable 'Rochester' and instalove. Seriously guys, I thought I had accidentally skipped ahead in the audiobook because for me the romance came totally out of the blue. The horror parts were kind of intense in terms of their speed and ferocity but then they abruptly stopped and we were back in the love angst again. There are lots of positive reviews so this must be a case of not for me.… (meer)