Book Review of Embraced by Blood by Laurie London

Title:  Embraced by Blood

Author:  Laurie London

Release Date:  June 22, 2011

Genre:  Adult Paranormal Romance

*If you have not read Bonded by Blood, this could contain spoilers*

Alfonso Serrano is a hunted man. For months he’s managed to elude the Darkbloods, vengeful foes who won’t rest until he’s dead. But he still craves one dangerous temptation: Lily DeGraff, the sexy Guardian agent he’ll risk anything to protect.

Lily is a wanted woman. Her talent for tracking Sweet—a rare blood type that’s addictive to vampires—makes her a prime target for enemy capture. Her only hope is the stealthy vampire operative who stole into her bed…then left her in despair. Danger aside, Lily won’t let Alfonso near her heart again—until an irresistible hunger threatens to draw them back together… and into an assassin’s snare.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review:  I fell in love with this world when we met Dom and Mackenzie in Bonded by Blood (review here) and was very excited to dive back into it with Dom’s brother Alfonso.  We see him briefly in Bonded by Blood, but he is not exactly painted in the best light.  He was working as a spy for most of his life and many did not know it.  He was just assumed to be on the Darkblood (they would be the bad guys) side and treated as such.  One who knew the truth was Lily DeGraff, a Guardian and a fantastic tracker.  She and Alfonso were together while he was undercover and she quickly fell head over heels for him.  She thought he reciprocated the feelings, but after leaving the Darkbloods for good and being pardoned by the council, he promptly left her claiming he never loved her and asked her to leave him alone.

This is where we pick up in Embraced by Blood, Alfonso is on the run, dodging Darkblood assassins and trying to avoid Lily.  He does love her, but does not want to put her in danger because of his past.  Well, I bet you can guess how well that works out for him.  Yeah.  He can’t stay away from her anymore than he can stop being a vampire.  That is when the book starts getting good.  He and Lily are thrown together on a mission to try and save a tracker she was training who was taken by the Darkbloods.  It is very much a love lost, love found again plot and I ate up every second of it.

Since this is a story about two people that have already been in love, they quickly fall into step with each other once reunited.  It was refreshing to skip over the awkwardness that can sometimes come with couples when they are first coming together and just skip right to the fun banter and flirting.

Alfonso has a couple of secrets he has yet to share with Lily and I knew at some point they were going to come out, but thought it would be later in the book.  So, I am sitting there reading and all of a sudden he is spilling his guts revealing his secrets to her and I was shocked at how quickly it was all coming out.  Then I look down and realize I am almost three-fourths of the way through the book and then it makes sense.  I was so engrossed in this book and therefore I had know idea how quickly I was going through the pages.

I also enjoyed the multiple point of views that Laurie gives us.  We see most of this world through the eyes of Alfonso and Lily, but we also get glimpses into the heads of a couple other characters.  Jackson, is by far my favorite though.  One of the best scenes was when he gets his hands on some brownies in the kitchen.  He is the comic relief of these novels and I am looking forward to seeing more from him when he finally gets his book.  :)

Overall, I really enjoyed Embraced by Blood and love the world Laurie has created.  Alfonso and Lily had great chemistry throughout the novel and Lily finally forces Alfonso to realize that he deserves happiness in his life too, despite his past.  I am looking forward to the next book and seeing who is going to throw Jackson through a loop and call him hers.

I received and ARC of the book from the publisher through NetGalley.