Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Review: Demon Blood (Guardian Series, #6) by Meljean Brook

Long before she was transformed into a Guardian and trained to fight demons, Rosalia knew darkness all too well. Raised by a demon, Rosalia learned to guard her heart—and her soul—until she found a man worthy of her love. Once, she thought that man would be the powerful vampire, Deacon…until he betrayed the Guardians.

After losing everything to the lies of a demon, Deacon lives only for revenge—and is taken aback when Rosalia offers to help. A vampire who has nothing—who is nothing—isn’t worthy of her attention. But Rosalia wants to do more than just look, and the explosive need between them can’t be held in check. And when Deacon’s vengeful quest creates a dangerous alliance of their enemies, she will be his only hope…
Well... and my love for Meljean Brook's Guardian series continues. I loved the last book in the series, Demon Forged, where the overall storyarc moved forward quite spectacularly. In Demon Blood, Brook slows down the pace and focuses the story on the central couple's romance. Rosalia and Deacon turned out to be a great couple and I loved their story.

As in all the Guardian series installments, the plot in this book is quite involved. Brook develops the romance as Rosalia and Deacon agree to go after a group of Belial's demons that are infiltrating Europe's vampire communities in an attempt to exterminate them. They work as a team and in the process discover a more sinister plot involving Anaria and the nephilim. In the meantime, Taylor is not adapting well to sharing her body with Michael's consciousness. There are some horror-like moments as the dual personalities inside Taylor fight for control. I was happy with the way things ended because quite frankly for a while there Michael was not in my good books.

Throughout the centuries as a Guardian, Rosalia's spends her time among humans and vampires, not Guardians, and as a result she often pushes boundaries and comes close to crossing lines. Initially Rosalia seems to be a straightforward woman with a plan, instead she turns out to be a strong, complex character. More than once I thought her actions throughout this story were questionable, if not downright rule-breakers for Guardians. Her capacity for love and sacrifice are immeasurable. However, she's no sacrificial lamb, she's the type of woman who takes action and does whatever becomes necessary for those she loves. A strategic genius, Rosalia has great talent for manipulation and she uses that talent to her advantage. The more I read Demon Blood, the more I liked Rosalia.

As for Deacon, well... I liked him as soon as he was introduced. Though he initially appears complex, unlike Rosalia, his is a more straightforward character. Deacon is a vampire who loses everything -- his loved ones, his reputation and his self-esteem -- survives, and has nothing left to lose but his life. His plan is to take revenge against the demons that exterminated his family and lovers, or to take as many of them with him as he can before he dies. As far as he's concerned, no matter his positive actions in the past or the present, the fact that he failed to save his community makes him unworthy of love or admiration. Deacon wasn't counting on Rosalia.

My first impression of Demon Blood was that the story was all about the love. Rosalia and Deacon's love for their communities, love for the human race, love for vampire communities, mother love, and love for each other -- and of course sacrifice. Both characters, but particularly Rosalia, are willing to sacrifice a lot for those they love. But don't get me wrong, it's not all about love and sacrifice, this story is also quite sexy! Meljean Brook knows how to create sexual tension and chemistry between the couples and there's plenty of that going on in Demon Blood, as well as some sizzling hot sexual scenes between Rosalia and Deacon.

By the end, my qualms about Rosalia's questionable actions and how they affected Brook's worldbuilding were pacified and I was content with the resolution to the overall storyarc, although I do wonder what will happen with Anaria now, but we'll see how that plays out in future installments. I loved both the romance and the characterization in Demon Blood, and as always I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Guardian Series, Book 6
Release Date: July 6, 2010
Grade: B+

Visit Meljean Brook here.

14 comments:

  1. Wow, nice review! Glad to see the characters, world and romance are working so well for you, since I have this book in my hot little hands!! Interesting about Michael, too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really love the cover of this book. The heroine looks fierce. I am really getting into paranormal romances and this will definitely go on my TBR list. Thanks for the excellent review!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I apologise for skip reading your review...I'm hoping to continue reading this series at some point and I'm kind of behind.

    And I agree with firepages - beautiful cover! This series seems to be going from strength to strength!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carolyn, I'm hooked on this series. That happened after reading the 1st book, but it just seems to get better which each passing one. I loved the romance in this one. I loved what MB did with Rosalia's character. Hope you enjoy it!

    Firepages, I'm only reading a few PNR series at the moment, and this series is at the top of my list, together with Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling series. I hope you enjoy it too. :D

    Orannia -- I agree with you both! The cover is gorgeous! And yes, this series just gets better. Hope you catch up soon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This was definitively a great book :D and I agree with everything you wrote and your grade :D I loved Rosalia and Deacon... Rosalia was calculative, but in a good way.

    Hey, did you know the next book's hero is going to be St.Croix! I bet we all know who's going to be his heroine :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. Definitely a great book, Nath! Ohhh I knew we were going to see St. Croix again! That's great news, he's a cool customer -- and my first guess for his heroine would be Mariko. ;P

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm really behind on this series. I started to read the 1st book....and can't continue. :(

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Tabz! I'm sorry to hear that. :( Are you put off by that disjointed and confusing feel during the first part of Demon Angel? I remember that was a bit of a problem for me... although the book gets better as it goes along.

    I do remember I liked Demon Moon (2nd book) more & the series seems to get better with each book.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You think Mariko? I don't know... I was thinking about Rachel - the woman that disappeared at the same time as his "mother." Remember, he thought perhaps she has turned into a Guardian... I guess we'll have to see and find out :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nath, I thought of Rachel too, but then Alejandro said they didn't have new Guardians by that name & I figured he would know since he trains them? But who knows? I thought of Mariko because she was highlighted in Demon Blood. :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. I skimmed over most of your review, Hils, because I'm a book behind this one in the series, too. Ugh. I wanted to catch up this summer, too! Before her latest came out. I'm glad to see you liked it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oooh, Christine! Can't wait for you to read Demon Forged, that's a great book and then this is a great follow up to that book. You have some good reading ahead of you. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh sheesh. Scrap that. I'm TWO books behind his one. I've got Demon Bound next up on my Meljean queue. That's Jake's book, right? Ohmygosh How did I fall so far behind? Especially when I love her work!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yeah, that's Jake and Alice's book. :) Well... you have some great reading ahead of you, Christine. At least you don't have to wait a WHOLE year to read another book in this series. I'm suffering from withdrawals already. :D

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous Users disallowed due to large influx of spam.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.