Blood on Silk: An Awakened By Blood Novel

An academic researching her thesis, Elizabeth Silk finds herself falling head first into the one myth she's trying desperately to debunk: the existence of vampires.

Believing that vampires are merely an excuse to explain or justify communal threats and unlawful killings, Elizabeth's research is doing a marvelous job at proving her point except for the persistent re-occurrence of one man named Saloman. An enigmatic being that crops up again and again since the birth of Christianity through to the nineteenth century, Elizabeth can't find any evidence of his birth or death as she has for all the other famous "vampires" in her thesis. Frustrated that Saloman's existence jeopardizes everything that she's worked so hard for, when a Romanian villager claims to know of Saloman's final resting place, Elizabeth wastes little time locating his tomb. But when her voracious curiosity has her unwittingly awakening the ancient vampire from his three hundred year sleep, Elizabeth's life is about to be turned up side down.

Saloman awakens to a burning need for blood followed quickly by revenge. Three hundred years ago he was betrayed by those closest to him, murdered in a sense by his friends and lover. Now, while his instinct as an Ancient is to drink his Awakener dry, the spunky courage of his female intrigues him to the extent that he lets her go virtually unscathed. However, she'll not go far for he eventually must kill Elizabeth to regain his full power but in the meantime he'll soak up as much of her as he can. Saloman must also protect Elizabeth from other vampires. There will be those that don't want him to regain his former strength and influential power rendering Saloman's arrogant decision to leave his Awakener alive as dangerously stupid for both him and her. But Saloman wishes to savor his Awakener and will do whatever is necessary to protect Elizabeth for while her death is a surety, he can at least make the moment the most pleasurable of her life.

Clinging to her cynicism, Elizabeth at first believes that the frightening experience in Saloman's tomb was simply an elaborately orchestrated hoax and when three people arrive at her hotel room door the next morning she fully expects to hear their apology before she boots them to the curb. But these people aren't just random pranksters, they're vampire hunters and they need her help to stop the evil that she, in her naivety, unleashed upon the world. They claim Saloman is insane with ambitions to conquer the world and enslave humans to his every whim. As an Ancient, he's nearly impossible to kill and if he's given the opportunity to kill Elizabeth as his Awakener, as well as kill the vampires who conspired in his death, than he'll be absolutely unstoppable. While Elizabeth wants to right the wrong she's inadvertently committed, there's one little problem: she's in love with Saloman.

My Final Thoughts:

BLOOD ON SILK is at times a difficult and complex read but its also rewarding. Utilizing old vampire myths, Treanor soaks her novel in a decidedly gothic and dark romanticism. Her vampires are every bit of the cloak and dagger beings from which their haunting legends arose from. They're dangerous, sensual beings with no humanity to speak of and care little but their own existence and the power they feel they're entitled to. The vampire hunters with their slashing wooden stakes also bring a distinctly historic flavor to the read but their advanced technology swiftly brings you back to the present with resounding clarity. This is a layered and beautiful read that if given a chance, one where all angles are viewed, a reader can easily appreciate what the author has done with such antiquated and redundant myths.

A rarity in the romance world, Treanor's use of the anti-hero is a welcomed delight. Saloman's death sentence for Elizabeth is one that feels very real and he's a being that's fully capable and willing to make due on his promise. And while his blossoming love for Elizabeth is perplexing, Saloman does little to reject what he feels for his Awakener. Instead he embraces her and learns from Elizabeth's humanity, implementing her intelligence and researcher heart into his own thought process thereby stilling his lethal instincts. Elizabeth is Saloman's Awakener in every sense of the world. She awakens his heart, his breath, his love, and ultimately his humanity.

As if BLOOD ON SILK couldn't get more any more interesting or complex, there is no traditional Happily Ever After to be had in this gothic romance. However, reader disappointment is eased with the fact that Saloman and Elizabeth's story doesn't finish with simply "the end" but continues on with Book Two, BLOOD SIN. Thank the book gods!

Book Review For: "Through A Viking Mist”

Dee takes the reader on a thrilling adventure through time with book four of the "Mists of Time" series, "Through a Viking Mist." Ofeig Nabboddrson is a Viking warrior at heart, but he meets his match with Valkyre Eva Samsdottir. Will time bring them together or force them apart?
"Through A Viking Mist" plunges the reader into a battle royal between Ofeig and Eva as soon as they open the page. During the battle, Ofeig dares to "claim" Eva, however the time traveling pendants have other plans - throwing the warriors into the future to San Francisco 1991.
The pendants have haunted Ofeig's brothers and now they have come to claim him. Ofeig accepts his fate and becomes a self-made man, yet despite all his modern Aviking, he is missing a piece of his heart. The Valkyre who he dared to claim, Eva, is nowhere to be found and he doesn't know where to look.
Unfortunately for Eva, she lands in an alley and is immediately accused of a murder she didn't commit. Two thugs, Bennie and Louis, give testimony that sends her to the state prison. While there, Eva learns English and receives an education. With the help of a law student, Mike, Eva is freed from jail and returns to San Francisco.
Ofeig spies Eva running near the pier and makes it his mission to find her, but when he does, will he have an honest shot of winning her love or has jail hardened Eva's heart?
"Through a Viking Mist" is populated with an ensemble cast featuring Ofeig's brothers and their wives. It's a nice touch in that the reader gets a glimpse of the previous heroes in the series and their "happy ever after."
The characterization is the richest part of the story. Ofeig only cares about battles and Aviking, but with his journey to the future, he realizes there's more to life than conquest. Through Eva's selflessness, he learns that kindness and generosity are traits to be admired.
Eva is a strong heroine, true to her beliefs and convictions. Eva's had a hard life and feels strongly about helping those less fortunate, however, Ofeig has an uphill battle to win her heart.
The story is "sensual" for romance readers, with several kisses and intimate caresses, but I would have liked to have seen a little more between Ofeig and Eva. There are spelling/grammatical errors, but not so much as to hamper my enjoyment of the novel.
"Through a Viking Mist" is a heart-warming read which demonstrates that the power of love cannot be held captive by time.

The Most Popular Genre of Literature Today ~ Romance Novels

While many would find fault with the above title, the claim that romance novels are a form of literature, the fact remains that more romances are read than any other genre in North America. This has been the case since 2004 when fifty five percent of all paperback books sold were in the romance category.
That's an incredible amount of books, and surely a vast array of people reading them. But here again, there seems to be an unwillingness to accept that facts. Why? Because many like to claim that only women who are single, desperately unhappy or just desperate, and let's not forget uneducated, are the only people who read romances in any form. And this is despite reams of data that disputes these claims.
So, what does the data show? That women and men from all walks of life, from the poverty stricken to the wealthy, from the uneducated to the over educated, from single people and those involved in fulfilling, long term relationships, from the unemployed to those who are top grade professionals, read romances.
Romance novels are also looked upon with a degree of derision. Many say, and I will admit that in some cases there is a degree of true in this, that these types of books simply follow a formula. That if you've read one, you've read them all. But that can be said for many mainstream, New York Times bestsellers as well. There are mainstream authors that I refuse to read anymore, because the plot is exactly the same in each and every one of their novels.
But for those who like to read a good romance for whatever the reason, the good news is that there is an endless stream of them available. And there is something to fulfill every taste. Romantic suspense, romantic comedy, western romances and so on. The sub-genres of the romance category are many and varied.
So, do you like to read romances?

The Rise of Urban Fantasy in Literature

Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show has a great deal to answer for. That sentence could be taken either way, really, but I'm getting at the rise in Urban Fantasy in literature that has become apparent since the show ended. Granted there are plenty of other Urban Fantasy shows that have had an effect on the general populace as well as genre fans (Charmed, Heroes, et al), but the tales of stake-toting cheerleader really grabbed people's attention, and created the hunger for more of the same. Of course, there are the 'Season Eight' Buffy comics and the 'Season Six' Angel comics, but many fans have been looking elsewhere for their fix, and have found it in the realms of the Fantasy section in bookstores the world over. Judging by the demand for merchandise and spinoff books from favorite TV shows, the audience is still out there in force.
The main example of how this genre has picked up legions of adoring fans is with the series of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels by the prolific Laurel K. Hamilton. These action-packed novels began with the entertaining Guilty Pleasures (which, incidentally is now a wildly popular comic book series from Marvel). The series originally began in 1993 with the initial publication of Guilty Pleasures, but after the demise of the Buffy TV show, the Anita Blake novels found a whole new audience, who lapped up every sex-and-supernatural-violence-drenched page of the series. Further volumes of the series grew in thickness much like the Harry Potter books did, and with each successive title came another wave of fans.
In the years since this happened, the market has seen something of an influx of new material along similar lines become available, with many variations on the central theme of a feisty female lead character doing battle (and falling in love with) supernatural creatures and demonic forces. Another big name in the genre is Kelley Armstrong, whose Urban Fantasy star began to shine with the novel Dime Store Magic, released too much acclaim in 2004. Armstrong's books deal with Witches, Vampires and other such staples of fiction, transported to a contemporary setting and involving very contemporary situations and characterization. Her books have since come to be the more fantastical benchmark that current Urban Fantasy authors seem to follow. While Hamilton has the action and Buffy area covered, Armstrong covers the part of the genre that fans of the also-now-defunct TV Show Charmed want more of.
Other authors of note include Jeaniene Frost and Rachel Vincent, who are continuing to feed the hunger of the masses with tales of magic and mayhem mixed with contemporary culture. The mixture o the supernatural and the everyday has proven to be a wildly popular mix that readers and viewers have been lapping up in recent years, and the genre continues to build and grow from its beginnings as essentially a spin-off. The genre as a whole can be traced back as far as the 1920s, and has long since been a staple of children's fiction. It is only in recent years that it has made the leap into the realms of adult books, but it shows little sign of slowing down, with more offshoots (such as the Paranormal Romance genre) bursting out of Urban Fantasy every couple of years. The genre has been around for a very long time, but it is really only now that it is making its presence felt as a (supernatural) force to be reckoned with.