Chosen by Blood by Virna DePaul
Series: Para-Ops #1
Publication date: July 7th, 2011
Pages: 384
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Leader of an Otherborn clan, half-breed vampire Knox Devereaux would do anything to find a cure for the anti-vamp vaccine slowly starving his people into extinction. When the FBI contacts him about leading a team of hand-selected Others on a mission to reclaim the stolen antidote, Knox accepts. His new assignment places him in direct contact with Special Agent Felicia Locke, the beautiful human he's craved since their very first meeting.
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Review:
While checking out books at my local library, I found this little gem. I had thought I had a book for review by the author and that I may need to read this in preparation for the review copy, but turns out I was wrong. Either way I chose to read this book to try out the author's style and also so I could read something for enjoyment purposes only.
Knox has always loved Felicia but has kept his distance out of respect for her. But when his wife dies his main goal after mourning her is to win Felicia over. The problem is his people want him remarried and producing children again as soon as possible. Knox is determined to make the time he is single count and win Felicia over to the fact that they can be together even if he does have to marry someone else. As the leader of the vampires in their town, it's a tough place to be to have to choose between the woman he loves and the duty to his people.
Felicia is a hostage negotiator for the FBI. She is used to talking people off ledges and calming them down from intense situations. But when she is around Knox she could use her own hostage negotiator. She feels an unspoken connection to Knox and she knows they are soul mates. The problem is Knox is married to her best friend, oh, and he's a vampire. Vampires are not permitted to marry humans because an anti-vamp vaccine has gone worldwide and the vampires are a dying race. The vaccine makes the nutrition value almost zero in humans who have taken it. To keep the race going, vampires must only breed with vampires. This leaves Felicia as either playing the role of the other woman or staying far away from Knox. She chooses the latter... up until the FBI gets wind of a cure to the anti-vamp vaccine.
Now Knox and Felicia are thrown together to participate in a mission to steal the cure and save Knox's people. With a motley crew of Otherborns and humans alike, it is up to the couple to save vampires and combat the attraction they feel for each other.
I was a little put off by the whole "other woman" thing in the romance portion of the story. It is no secret that I like monogamy in my stories and I could see why Felicia wouldn't want to be involved in that sort of twisted three-way action. I found Knox to be a bit pretentious at times and Felicia a bit of a wimp. He is the leader of his people, yes, but does he have to be so snooty at times? And she's a big bad FBI agent, can't she stop the sniveling over her tough romantic situation? But, it seemed to work in the end. I liked the world Virna created and I liked the scientific aspects of the story. It was new and different and that's rare in books today.
Chosen by Blood is a unique take on the war between vampires and humans. This is a story of the after effects of fear and the struggle to make things right to save a race from going extinct.
