Bond of Blood
A Texas Vampires Novel
by Diane Whiteside

Until I happened to notice this book while perusing the meager selection at Wal-Mart, of all places, I had never heard of, let alone read anything by this author. While I was pleasantly surprised to find an author whose style and skill is captivating I can’t say that I was exactly enamored of the book. Allow me to elaborate.

The book’s heroine, Grania O’Malley, is a wildlife veterinarian and scientist who specializes in owls and has just gotten a position at the Texas Hill County Raptor Center. On the surface she seems like your average wildlife vet. In actual, Grania has been having vivid dreams that feel like memories to her. In these dreams she is always a woman named Blanche, who she looks nothing like in reality, and she has a husband named Rodrigo, a knight in the Spanish court. When she comes to Texas to work at the Raptor Center she meets wealthy businessmen Don Rafael Perez, a flesh and blood mirror image of her Rodrigo. The attraction between the two is immediate, strong, and confusing for them all at the same time.

It wouldn’t be much of a story however if that was the whole of it. An old enemy of Rafael’s, now known by the name of Beau, is through bidding his time and is now ready to exact his revenge and because of her connection to Rafael, Grania becomes the perfect target. Now, Whiteside creates an interesting world for her vampires to move in and painstakingly sets up the mythology of the characters and their world in this first novel in her series. Despite the time spent on developing the characters and their relationship, as well as the mythology and hierarchy of the vampire structure, the novel itself never seemed to drag and kept moving along at a steady pace. I would not go so far as to say that the concept behind the vampire hierarchy was unique or different though, in fact, you’ll find similar setups in several other books. Whiteside does manage to put an interesting spin on the norm and her Texan vampires are definately different from the average literary vampire in a very good way.

The conclusion of the story itself was a bit of a let down however. The entire story built up to the confrontation between Don Rafael and Beau and yet the actual “battle” between them was over in a flash it seemed. Although, Grania’s contribution to the fight was exciting.

Whiteside provides a handy glossary at the back of her book that lists all of the terms and phrases used by her characters (Spanish, French, and Arabic) and a definition of their meaning. In the case of words that were used to define a rank or special meaning beyond just what the word means, Whiteside even provided a quick but detailed explanation. Of course, it’s been my experiance that some readers do not like it when the author switches languages back and forth in the story (code switching). If you do not understand Spanish, French, or Arabic you may find yourself flipping to the glossary for a quick explanation and then turning back. I didn’t find this to be a problem, but then I do know Spanish and French. Not to mention, it is the norm, in my area, to flip back and forth between English and Spanish in a conversation.

In short, Bond of Blood made for an engaging read. I had a hard time connecting with Grania’s character in some parts, and especially later in the book however and as a result, the believability of her situation and reactions lessoned as the story continued. One such occasion is when Grania happens upon Rafael feeding off of a woman. While she notes the woman enjoys it, she herself seems to be under the impression the woman is unaware of the attack, as she calls it, and is frightened by the sight of Rafael’s razor-sharp fangs biting into the woman’s neck. Grania is prepared to even dash out and save the woman, and yet she becomes highly aroused at the sight and reaches orgasm while watching what she believes to be is an “attack”? I had a very hard time getting into this character’s head and reconciling her thoughts and actions, they just did not match up in my opinion. Other than that, this book made for a very good read and could be the start to a promising series.

Joana’s rating: (3 out of 5 stars)