Blood and Ghosts

Book two in the Blood series and I was on the edge of my seat. This book was incredible. I was so enthralled I dared anyone to interrupt me while reading this. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. This installment was much faster-paced than the first, so you really have to pay attention. This book will start tying things together that happened in book one. The time travel can be a little hard to follow at times. There’s just so much happening that a few times I had to go back and reread a page or two so I didn’t get lost. The storyline again in this is fantastic. The world building and the character development is top notch.

Adrien is now an immortal hunter. Secrets about his family history are beginning to be revealed. Adrien is starting to discover truths, and it’s only a matter of time before he breaks from all the changes that are being thrust at him. He has matured a lot in this book. He’s a jealous lover but also becoming his own man. He understands Nicolas’ need to follow the path he set for himself but did it have to come at the price of Adrien’s heart? While Nicolas is spending time with his betrothed before the blood bond that will tie them together for eternity, Adrien is training with his former hunter mentor, Roland. Roland is trying to get Adrien to learn that he has powers beyond his soul sword, but Adrien is struggling. He’s lost faith in his abilities and with the upcoming nuptials, he has no reason to continue as a hunter.

Francois is Adrien’s brother whom we met briefly in book one. He’s traumatized by what happened at the hands of the hunters. The nightmares haunt him, and all he wants is for Charles to let him go. Charles is finally learning that he deserves happiness and Francois is it for him. He knows he’ll seek revenge on those who hurt Francois… he’s just biding his time.

Nicolas, that sweet, sweet vampire. He believes in sacrificing his happiness for the good of the clans and the vampires as a whole. Bringing the two rival clans together for the sake of peace he feels is his duty. Secrets not only unfold for Adrien but for Nicolas as well. Nicolas discovers who he really is and about a past that only his brother Jean and his enemies are privy to. We don’t see a lot of Nicolas in book two. Not the way we know him in book one, and that’s where the time travel comes into play. He’s still formidable as an ancient, but he’s not the same Nicolas we’ve come to love.

This book has a lot of twists and turns. The characters and plot are getting more complex, but the way the author expertly weaves it, you’ll be hooked. Definitely a page-turner and I couldn’t wait to get to book three. Highly recommend. This book is not a stand-alone. You most definitely need to read book one first. Happy reading.

Review by Barb
4.5 Shira Anthony has created another masterful tale of adventure and intrigue. I found it hard to believe, but this story was even more complex with intricate subplots, action, drama, and romance than the first in the series, “Blood and Rain”.
As the story opens, the wedding of Nicolas Lambert to Rosina Rousseau is set to take place in a few weeks. Adrien Gilbert, who has vowed to protect Nicolas with his life, is training with his former teacher, Roland Günter. He’s also challenged by, and working with, his brother Francois, who is now a vampire, and François‘s creator and lover, Charles Duvalier With their help and advice, Adrien learns more about the power within himself and how to wield it to maximum effect.
Adrien believes that Verel Pelletier will show up at the wedding and will try to harm Nicolas in some way. It was Pelletier who nearly killed Adrien in the first story, and he seems to be taunting Adrien at every turn. Adrien is starting to believe that Pelletier has wanted him ever since his mother died while defending him when he was a child, and he’s willing to do everything in his power to prevent Pelletier from getting the upper hand.
Unknown to Adrien and Nicolas, Nicolas’s brother Jean Lambert has been keeping a secret for two hundred years and after finally sharing it with Rosina’s brother, Blaise, who happens to be Jean’s former lover, the two decide that they must prevent the wedding from happening. Just as the secret is revealed, Pelletier shows his hand and chaos breaks out between the vampires and hunters. Pelletier and Adrien battle nearly to the death but it’s Nicolas who gets mortally wounded, and Pelletier wins when he steals away with Nicolas in tow.
Adrien has been searching for him ever since—over a hundred years. When the Council of Hunters decides to meet to elect a replacement for Pelletier who hasn’t shown himself during that time, Adrien convinces Jean Lambert as well as Roland, Charles, and François to come with him to the meeting. They believe that Pelletier will show up and, in an effort to taunt Adrien, will bring Nicolas with him. What happens at the meeting is catastrophic, and Adrien, pushed beyond his last reserve by the taunting voice in his head, a voice he’s been hearing for years, discovers that he can bend time. The voice, which Roland later assures him is his demon, seizes control of him and hurtles him back to the year he was seventeen and hadn’t met Nicolas yet. There he does something which changes the course of their lives and when he later sees Nicolas in a different time and place, Nicolas is no longer his soulmate. But, of course, the story doesn’t stop there, and there’s another trip to another time, this one in a parallel dimension, and the Nicolas he meets this time doesn’t know him but senses they mean something to each other.
The back and forth time travel occurs on multiple levels throughout the story and, although the author explains through Adrien’s self-reflection just what year it is and what time-plane he’s on, I still found it extremely confusing.
It was, however, devilishly good. This is a completely new approach to tales of vampire lore, and it poses more of a challenge to follow than solving a Rubik’s Cube! One sad note—there’s no HEA, just a HFN. There’s apparently one more book in the series, and I’m certainly hoping that these two ill-fated lovers finally get their eternity together.
One more thing: the first book should be read before this one in order to fully understand the relationship dynamics of the principal characters and the power struggles between the vampires and the hunters.
I’d recommend this one to lovers of fantasy in which the world-building is highly detailed, and as I stated in my first review, provides a different twist on the “same old, same old” vampire stories. If you enjoy time travel and complex drama with heroes whose love survives the test of time, this is for you.

I liked Book one much better. This was VERY hard to follow all the timelines and time travel and got very confusing. I was upset the first time learning only AFTER I bought it that there would be a continuation in this book, Book two. This seems to be the same. I assume there will be another book as it really doesn't seem to end fairly well. There was no hoorah or anything. No climax, nothing really. I hope there is another book that will fix everything and everyone. While apart from the time travel changes and everything it was an amazing book. Love the characters.