AWAKENED by Virna DePaul

Belladonna Agency #2
Bantam Books, January/July 2014
Paperback
Obtained via:  publisher
ISBN 978-0345542472
Paranormal Romance
***



Virna DePaul’s second Belladonna Agency book, AWAKENED, is a paranormal romance focused on retrieving a young girl from the clutches of a sex trade ring catering to vampires.

Barrett Miles works for the Belladonna Agency, a black ops section of the FBI that saves young women from sex traffickers catering to the undead.  In AWAKENED, Barrett has just discovered that the teenage child of a deceased friend is missing and as she has pretty much lost contact with the girl, she is frantic to find her.

Nick Maltese also works for the FBI eliminating rogue vampires.  When Barrett, Nick’s ex-lover and teammate, comes to Nick for help finding the missing teen, they will have to work together to bring Jane home and maybe even attempt to resolve their unfinished relationship issues.

Virna DePaul’s AWAKENED is a paranormal romance centering on the retrieval of a missing teen taken by sex traffickers.  While the romance between Barrett and Nick evolves throughout the story, the real focus of the story is the missing girl and how Barrett and Nick unravel the mystery behind her disappearance.  The main characters are unaware of each other’s involvement in the FBI, so the way their jobs intermingle on this search brought some weight to the storyline.  There appears to be a mole in the FBI and Barrett and Nick are closing in on him or her.  As the mole is still deep in hiding at the end of the book, this story arc will undoubtedly continue throughout the series.  As trust was a big issue for both lead characters, this reader had a difficult time connecting emotionally with their romance.  Still, the mystery and how it unravels really carried the story and fans of a good mystery surrounding paranormal romance will probably find AWAKENED worth taking for a spin.


Reviewed by T. Barringer
tammyLRM@gmail.com

"This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book."
 

CHOSEN BY BLOOD by Virna De Paul

A Para-Ops Novel, Book 1
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Date published: May 3rd, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-425-24154-7
Paranormal Romance
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Dawn
Obtained by Publisher


Five years ago the second Civil War ended and the Otherborn-paranormal creatures that humans only thought were myths and legends-came out of the woodwork. Knox Deveraux is the half-breed vampire and leader of the vampire Otherborn clan. Determined to do his duty to his clan, he marries a pure blood vampire yet he always knew his soul mate was not his lovely, now deceased, wife but the human woman, Felicia Locke. What Knox doesn’t anticipate is her refusal to give into the desire she feels for him and he accepts the job as leader of the Para-Ops just to force her to deal with him. Now assigned as a member of the first ever Para-Ops team, FBI Agent Felicia Locke, will need all her skills in negotiation because Knox is on a mission to capture her elusive heart. But can Felicia find a way to get Knox to learn that love and trust are more than just words but the entire force which holds her heart and soul?

In Virna De Paul’s debut, CHOSEN BY BLOOD, we find the world significantly changed as we deal with the influx of paranormal creatures we only thought as characters in story or in a myth. What a wonderful book blurb this was when I first got this book yet once I started reading CHOSEN BY BLOOD, I was slowly becoming quite confused and increasingly, disenchanted. The Para-Ops angle was intriguing and I was glued to those pages of the storyline for that part of the story yet the story of Knox and Felicia was center stage…almost to the point where it took over the entire storyline. What were wonderful were the secondary characters. There were a variety of secondary ones that had me itching to read more about but alas, they couldn’t save the story either.

I know first books of a series are hard as an author tries to world build, introduce characters, etc yet this newest book by Ms. DePaul felt like it was throwing everything at the reader and hoping something stuck. The story had some good points, such as varied paranormal creatures and their abilities plus the Para-Ops angle was executed wonderfully but it couldn’t push against the storyline of the vampire and the human woman. There were typos throughout the book that an editor or proof reader didn’t catch that threw me out of the story several times as well. Another thing that I really didn’t care for were the main characters, Knox and Felicia. Knox I wanted to smack senselessly. He was arrogant, annoying and rolled over Felicia countless times with his “I want you, I am going to have you” attitude that really grated on my nerves. Yes, I got that vampires are arrogant but Knox was close to being unlikable and that, to me was not a good thing for a hero of a story. Felicia started out as a strong woman, one I could see sticking to her guns and resisting Knox’s hard headedness yet once she gives in to him, she does a total 180 and becomes almost submissive to him. That really had me shaking my head in disbelief. I wanted to know where the strong woman Felicia was half way through the story and if she can come back.

Ms. De Paul tries to give the readers a unique paranormal story but unfortunately, failed to engage me completely in CHOSEN BY BLOOD. With numerous sex scenes that don’t enhance the story to a romance that felt forced upon the reader, this author misses her mark in creating a unique story around the Para-Ops unit. I would have loved to read more about this unit as a whole and the individual members of the team were quite intriguing. Too bad, the author skipped over them to give us a lust filled ‘romance’ between Knox and Felicia instead.

If you are looking for a sex filled story with vampires, werewolves and other paranormal creatures, then you may enjoy this one. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will read any others in this series as CHOSEN BY BLOOD really turned me off in many retrospect’s that I am leery of trying another story in the series..

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.