Bonded by Blood

A Sweetblood Novel

By: Laurie London

Narrated by: Antonia Laury

Deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest, two vampire coalitions battle for supremacy—Guardian enforcers who safeguard humanity and Darkblood rogues who kill like their ancient ancestors.

Now, Guardian team leader Dominic Serrano will be forced to choose between the vengeance he craves and the woman he can’t live without….

Movie location scout Mackenzie Foster-Shaw has always known that she’s cursed to die young. No one can protect her from the evil that has stalked her family for generations—vampires who crave her rare blood type. Until one afternoon in a wooded cemetery, she encounters an impossibly sexy stranger, a man she must trust with her life.

For Dominic, a man haunted by loss, Mackenzie satisfies a primal hunger that torments him—and the bond they share goes beyond heat, beyond love. She alone can supply the strength he needs to claim his revenge. But in doing so, he could destroy her….

©2011 Laurie London (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Sweet blood indeed

The story of Dom and Mackensie is not an intense one, but it is entertaining. It is a good opening to vampiric series. The story moves along fast enough introducing interesting characters that you will want to know more about. There are parts of the story that are mushy but that should not deter anyone from giving this series a go. The narrator does a terrible job trying to give accents to the characters. And if she is kept through the series she'll have a hard time giving voices to the additional characters.

Good but ending is missing parts.

The last chapter is fragmented. Not clear what happened to the vampires brother. How did Dominica brother get free?

SURPRISNGLY GOOD VAMPIRE ROMANCE!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Bonded by Blood to be better than the print version?

NO

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bonded by Blood?

The end the Wedding!!

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I disliked the fact that the narrator was reading most of the story. She didn't have any action nor was she good at changing the sound of her voice for each character.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I would not make this book into a film

Any additional comments?

Bonded by Blood was surprisingly good. I almost stopped reading it. The beginning is a little slow but the story picks about 40% in. The lead characters Dominic Serrano head of the Guardian Enforcers in the Northwest has been attacked by the Dark Blood Vampires and shot with silver bullets. He is discovered in an old cemetery by MacKenzie Foster Shawn. She is there to photograph the cemetery as a possible site for a movie/TV show. MacKenzie has a special blood that vampires are lured to. She is called a Sweet Blood and when Dom smells her blood he takes it. Dom realizes he has taken to much and gives her his blood. They become blood bonded. MacKenzies has certain family members such as her father and her cousin who have gone missing all through her family's generations. She suspects she will be next. Dom is determined to protect her. Early on they fall in love. They also, find out what has happened to her family members over the generations.

The storyline between the Guardian Enforcer Vampires and the Dark Bloods is good. The fight between humanity and inhumanity is at stake. Dark Bloods have started a program to find and repeatedly take and track all Sweet Bloods. There scheme is soon found out to be more diabolical then they initially thought. I finally did get quit engrossed in the story. Once it starts moving it doesn't let up. The romance between Dominic/Dom and Mackenzie is sizzling hot and quite sensual. I will continue to read this series. I do like the fact that these are the real type of vampires of old. With one exception they can eat food, but other then that are like vampires of old, which is a good thing to me. I am sick of the new style vampires who eat drink an go out in the day time. Neither do they have any special skills that vampire of old had. I am really happy that the author Laurie London is writing Vampires the way they should be written!!

Promising as a series, but 1st book is only ok.

The narrator was great, easy to listen to. However, the storyline of the book was a little too formulated. Also I prefer to fall in love with the people in my book and I never quite got there. Some of the scene changes were very abrupt too. but I liked it enough to read the next book or two in the series to see if they improve.

Enjoyable but Mushy

This was a fairly good read. The characters and settings were well drawn out during the first half of the book, with enough plot progression during this to keep me tuned in. If you like formula paranormal romance without a whole lot of surprises, this is your book! It was a nice start to a new series. Sometimes the first book in a series spends too much time on "world building" and not enough time building the characters and the romance, but the author does a very balanced job of this.

I've seen some reviewers compare this to JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, but I didn't really see it. In BDB, the good guy vamps fought bad guys who were supernatural, but not vampires per se. Also, the heroes in BDB were more over the top and bigger than life, even for vampires. I see more similarities (almost too many) in Lara Adrian's Midnight Breeds series, which, I might add, is a marvelous series for paranormal romance fans.

There are a few problems, which is why I only gave the story 3 stars. First, the book is loaded with the standard romantic fiction tropes that I, for one, am getting a bit tired of. The "gay male best friend", the "rushes headlong into danger despite all warnings because I'm a selfless person" and the "practically an orphan self sacrificing for my sibling" tropes, to name a few. Also, some of the dialogue between the hero and heroine was a bit over the top mushy. These are small things, but they did take something away from the book for me. Still, I have a tendency to like these series more the further I get into them, because I have more investment in the characters I suppose, so I have already purchased the second book.

The narrator did a good job, but tended to make the mushy dialogue sound even mushier out loud. I'm not sure if that's a product of the writer or the narrator, but the combination didn't really work for me. Still, this was only a bit of dialogue, mainly towards the end, so it was only moderately distracting. All in all, yes, I've read better, but I don't feel like I wasted my time or my credit.

I'm bonded by Dom

This book was fun to read and I really enjoyed it. Matter of a fact I am reading the third book now and have already purchased for forth.

So Freakin' Boring

The story droned on and on and on, and never picked up. There were many times I almost gave up on it, but hoped it would get better, it never did. The narrator was just awful, she made the story so even worse. Save your time and credit.

Boring

The story drags and the narrator is terrible. All of the vampires sound like pubescent boys. Don't waste your credit.

A little to hokie

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I'm not sure if there is anything that could improve the book. Maybe a better narrator could give it a rating of 3

Has Bonded by Blood turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I have listened to many books in this genre and enjoyed them very much.

Would you be willing to try another one of Antonia Laury’s performances?

I bought the first two of the Sweet Blood series and I'll listen to them because, what the hay, I did pay for them. I won't be buying anymore books in the series, however. The herroin was just abit too dumb and her counter part was about the same.

What character would you cut from Bonded by Blood?

None. The story needed all it could get.

Any additional comments?

The story was just too hokie for me. Perhaps Laurie London could take some writing tips from JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood)..

A little to hokie

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I'm not sure if there is anything that could improve the book. Maybe a better narrator could give it a rating of 3

Has Bonded by Blood turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I have listened to many books in this genre and enjoyed them very much.

Would you be willing to try another one of Antonia Laury???s performances?

I bought the first two of the Sweet Blood series and I'll listen to them because, what the hay, I did pay for them. I won't be buying anymore books in the series, however. The herroin was just abit too dumb and her counter part was about the same.

What character would you cut from Bonded by Blood?

None. The story needed all it could get.

Any additional comments?

The story was just too hokie for me. Perhaps Laurie London could take some writing tips from JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood)..