If you’re a fan of Supernatural or Kerry Adrienne’s Shifter Wars series, you will love Blood Instincts by Marie Lavender. It’s an adventure of self-discovery, fantasy, parental love, world-saving and vampire romance that left me beyond breathless!
This was my first of Lavender’s vampire romance books, and she totally delivered with a mild-mannered office worker heroine who’s far more powerful than she knows. For her long-lived vampire, what his observations indicated would be an average night’s feeding on an average human female leaving an average establishment alone after dark, turns into a one-of-a-kind love so strong, he’s hard-pressed to get his needs met by another ever again. That’s hard on vampires.
The beauty is in the details, and to me, Marie’s hallmark as a vampire romance book author is research and how she applies it as a painter uses their palette to blend and add color, depth, highlights, shadows and character to a portrait, still life or landscape, which gives her stories that memorable sparkle that makes me smile long after I’ve finished the last page.
If you have kids, you’ll fall right into the first chapter. Blood Instincts opens with Myah’s parents, a financier and author, on the run and her mom experiencing dreams and visions about certain harm coming to their only child. How do you protect your grown daughter who’s making a decent, if lonely, normal life for herself as a single professional when she thinks you’re dead – as do the rest of your family and society?
Like Ranger and Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich’s One For the Money, reclusive artist Oliver King is tutor, companion, and protector to the naive and lovely Myah, who just wants her normal life back. Her level of knowledge and mastery and the development of their love drive the plot. It took me about a week to read it, because life was going on, but it was an engaging respite that I eagerly returned to at every opportunity. The sex scenes are all fabulous, increasing in intensity, but the final one is a twelve-alarm panty melter!
So if you’re stocking up on vampire romance books for adults, grab Blood Instincts.
EXCERPT
From out of nowhere, a dark figure materialized at the foot of the bed. For a moment, it
grasped the iron rail with black claws. At least, she thought they were. The shadow was tall and through the darkness, she could detect a pale gaze. Impossible. She shut her eyes tight, sure it was her imagination screwing with her head. Or at least a dream’s remnants. When she opened them once more, the figure was gone. Like it had never
been. Her breath whooshed out in a relieved half-laugh. “Been hitting the vodka again, Myah?”
A masculine chuckle nearby made her body freeze.
She gasped, scrambling back against the headboard. Scanning the room, she couldn’t see
the intruder. “Wha…who are you? What do you want?”
Duh, Myah. What else could a man want if he broke into her apartment? Money or use of
her body, willing or unwilling. Then she saw him again, the dark figure closer, standing beside the bed. She opened her mouth to scream, but was tackled across the mattress. Before her mind could track the motion, a hand clamped over her lips. He’d moved so fast. Terror propelled her movements and she bucked, trying to throw him off. Only it was impossible. He was too strong, and a corner of her mind informed her it wasn’t just because he was a man.
“Shh. Relax, darling. Don’t scream. I won’t harm you.”
Yeah, right. Let me take your word on that one.
I swear I won’t hurt you, a low, masculine tone echoed in her brain.
Even in the darkness, his eyes seemed to burn into hers. “I mean it, you know. I can’t hurt you.”
Though her chest rose and fell beneath him with panicked breaths as he pinned her, she
heard his grave vow. “If I move my hand away, do you promise you won’t yell?”
Maybe, but I won’t promise not to bite.
Her teeth ached, and she dismissed it as the fact that his hand was fastened across her
mouth. She managed a tight nod in reply.
The intruder eased his hand off her. With legs split open beneath him, his hard weight
registered. His scent was unusual, like an orange and spices, and when his solid form urged up against her, she shook her head. Deep inside her was a strange quiver. In fact, her entire body was tingling like some internal warning system. She knew no matter what happened tonight, she might not escape this alive.
“I really won’t hurt you, Myah Sullivan.”
“I can’t be sure of that,” she rasped. “Perhaps you’ll murder me and no one will ever
know.”
She saw the shadow as his head shook. “I cannot harm you. You have my vow and the
pain it causes me to even imagine it.” His voice was deep, yet it had an achy pitch, and she couldn’t help wanting to believe him.
Stop it, she scolded herself. There was no way to know what he intended. Myah wet her suddenly dry lips. Keep him talking and don’t piss him off. That was the smarter move here. “H-how do you know me?”
He shrugged and his mouth caressed her cheek.
Had he been stalking her for a while? Her breaths sped up – a combination of what he
was doing to her as well as the thought that he’d planned this for a reason other than theft. When his lips brushed her throat and the cold air he released through his nose whispered over her ear, she wanted to moan. His tongue traced the soft depression beneath her lobe, then his lips traveled the curve of her neck. Her body warmed. Mouth agape, it took a second to recognize she wasn’t repulsed. Far from it. Little by little, she realized her fight-or-flight response had turned to desire.
He still held her immobile though. As she resisted, kicking out at him, he slipped into the
softness between her hips. A bulge that shouldn’t have been there, pressing into her again.
Instead of incapacitating her wrists on the mattress, he held her hands in his. She clutched his larger ones in return and had no idea why she experienced such a response to him. Suddenly, she was willing, felt urgent.
“You want me,” she stated. Why it’d spilled from her mouth, she had no idea. It wasn’t
like she had any intention of encouraging him, his impressive erection aside.
His laugh was self-derisive. “But that’s not why I came.” He used his teeth to scrape
against her neck gently.
Myah shuddered with a foreign anticipation. “Please,” she whispered. Her entire body
grew increasingly warm beneath his ministrations. What on earth was happening? She should be fighting back, or at least bide her time until she could locate a weapon. But the flashlight inside her bedside table wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, it wasn’t like she could reach it with him holding her down. Damn it.
The man groaned when he inhaled hard, his face in her neck. The sensation tickled her
skin. Welcome warmth moved through her body. As he nuzzled her, her eyes automatically closed, head tilting in response as if to supply him better access. Part of her, the sensible half, stiffened in horror. No! What was she thinking, letting him do God knew what to her? “Pl- please,” she found herself saying once more.
“Please, what? Please stop or would you like me to continue?”
Her brain seemed to stall out. “I…ah, I don’t know.”
He chuckled. “It appears we’re in the same strange mess.”
She couldn’t manage a reply.
He lifted his head to stare down at her. “I’m going to ask you an important question,
Myah. Will you answer me?”
She nodded, returning to her conversational plan. That was best. Probably for both of
them if her reaction to him was any indication. “If I can.”
“Fair enough. Do you know what you are, Myah? Who you are?”
“I don’t understand. You know my full name.”
“But do you know what are you? A part of you, somewhere inside, knows you’re
different from everyone else. I smell it on you.”
She frowned, tempted to ask what he smelled exactly, other than her perfume. She was
meticulous about bathing. Gazing up at him, she felt she was on the precipice of comprehension, something monumental. But his words were foreign. They didn’t make any sense to her addled brain. Especially when combined with the fact that she understood she wanted him closer, much closer. But, she wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. Hell, maybe the guy was crazy.
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DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy of Blood Instincts in exchange for an honest review.
About Marie Lavender
Multi-genre author of Victorian maritime romance/family saga, Heiresses in Love, and 18 other books. Reached the Top 10 Authors list on AuthorsDB.com for the last 4 years. Listed as one of TOP 5 Authors Who Write Compelling Romance on Wiki Ezvid. BLUE VISION made the TOP 10 on the Science Fiction and Fantasy category of the 2019 Readers Poll, and also reached TOP 10 status in the Romance category. Featured interview in the January 2018 issue of Womelle Magazine. BLOOD INSTINCTS reached TOP 10 status in the Romance category of the 2018 Readers Poll. DIRECTIONS OF THE HEART reached the semi-finalist round in the 2018 AuthorsDB Book Cover Contest. Voted TOP BLOGGER for 2018 on the Romance Lives Forever Blog. TOP 20 Authors of 2018 on Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews blog. DIRECTIONS OF THE HEART was nominated and made it past the first round in the 2018 Author Academy Awards. UPON YOUR LOVE and THE MISSING PIECE placed in the TOP 10 on the 2017 Readers Poll. DIRECTIONS OF THE HEART was nominated for the 2017 Reader Choice Awards. The I Love Romance Blog became a finalist in StartDating DK Romance Blog Awards of 2017. ILRB landed on Feedspot’s 2017 TOP 100 Novel Blogs and TOP 100 Romance Blogs. DIRECTIONS OF THE HEART placed in the TOP 10 Books of 2017 on Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews blog. TOP 20 Authors of 2017 on Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews blog. Mystery Blogger Award for 2017. A to Z Blog Challenge Survivor in 2016. March 2016 Empress of the Universe title – winner of the Broken Heart themed contest and the I Love You themed contest on Poetry Universe. SECOND CHANCE HEART and A LITTLE MAGICK placed in the TOP 10 on the 2015 Readers Poll. Nominated in the TRR Readers Choice Awards for Winter 2015. Poetry winner of the 2015 PnPAuthors Contest. The Versatile Blogger Award for 2015. Honorable Mention in the 2014 BTS Red Carpet Book Awards. Finalist and Runner-up in
the 2014 MARSocial Author of the Year Competition. Honorable mention in the January 2014 Readers Choice Award. Liebster Blogger Award for 2013, 2014 and 2016. 2013 and 2014 Amazon Bestseller Ranking for the first edition of UPON YOUR RETURN. Winner of the Great One Liners Contest on the Directory of Published Authors.
Marie Lavender lives in the Midwest with her family and two cats. She has been writing for a little over twenty-five years. She has more works in progress than she can count on two hands. Since 2010, Marie has published 21 books in the genres of historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, dramatic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, mystery/thriller, literary fiction and poetry. An avid blogger on the side, she writes adult fiction, as well as occasional stories for children, and has recently started some young adult fiction. She also contributed to several anthologies. Though she has some standalone titles on the market, her current published series are The Heiresses in Love Series, The Eternal Hearts Series, The Magick Series, The Code of Endhivar Series, The Misfits Series and The Blood at First Sight Series.
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