Review: Blood Guilt by Marie Treanor

Title: Blood Guilt
Author: Marie Treanor
Series: Blood Hunters #1
Print Length: 287 pages
ASIN: B0088Q23F8
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Source: Bewitching Book Tours
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The first of a new vampire romance series, a sequel to the Awakened by Blood trilogy.

Mihaela, a fearless vampire hunter secretly haunted by loneliness and childhood tragedy, finds it difficult to adjust to the new world order where vampires are not always the bad guys. She's taking a much needed vacation in Scotland when she sees a little boy being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. Rescuing him brings bigger problems - two vampires from her past: Gavril, who killed her family; and the reclusive and troubled Maximilian, gifted Renaissance artist and one-time overlord of the most powerful undead community in the world. Maximilian once saved her life and now needs that favor returned.

The earth moves for Mihaela in more ways than one. From Scotland to Budapest and Malta, she races against time to prevent a disastrous, vampire-induced earthquake and save an innocent yet powerful child – all while fighting a dreadful attraction to Maximilian, her only ally, whom she can’t afford to trust. For Maximilian, the hunter becomes a symbol of renewed existence, as he struggles to accept his past and rediscovers his appetite for blood and sex - and maybe even happiness.(Goodreads)

Review

I was so excited when I found out that Marie Treanor had started a new series that would continue in the Awakened by Blood world. I fell in love with this series last year that had me wanting to travel to Romania. Blood Guilt is the first book in the Blood Hunters series and I loved it! I was so happy that this first book focuses on two of my favorite side characters from the Awakened By Blood series, the hunter Mihaela and the vampire Maximilian.

Before I get further into the review let me tell you that if you have not read the Awakened By Blood series, you will not be lost to start with Blood Guilt. But, I did love that I had some background on the characters in this new series.

Mihaela has taken a very long deserved vacation to get away from everything that has to do with her Hunter lifestyle, but sometimes you just can’t get away from who you are, this is what Mihaela finds out when she discovers a young boy surrounded by vampires. Robbie really puts a kink in Mihaela’s relaxation plans, the small boy needs to be protected because of his special gift, and Mihaela can not do that protecting alone. The last thing she wants is help from a vampire especially the untrustworthy Maximilian.

I worried a bit going into Blood Guilt that this would be the same story with different names…I did not have anything to worry about. Maximilian and Mihaela’s story was so different from Elizabeth and Saloman’s.

Mihaela has had a hard life, though the hunters are working with Saloman (vampire ruler), she still has a hard time trusting any vampire.

Memory—distant memory—was at least partly responsible for her restlessness. Even now, walking among the tumbled stones of this once great edifice, she got random flashes of that childhood vampire attack, of the slaughter, of the vampire’s back vanishing out of the window as the hunters broke through the door. Almost worse, she couldn’t stop thinking about her parents and her sister who’d died.

Anyone who saw their family murdered by vampires would have a hard time trusting them. I liked how real Marie Treanor wrote Mihaela’s emotions, watching Mihaela struggle through what she should and sould not feel about different vampires made her so much more real to me.

Poor Maximilian has finally resolved himself to face all the wrongs he has done to people in the past, which is why he is completely drunk when he tries to help Robbie and Mihaela fend off the vampires who are after the boy. I love Maximilian’s character but I don’t feel bad for all the trouble he has gotten himself into. I know that he has great guilt over what he has done to people in the past and I enjoyed seeing him face it.

Mihaela and Maximilian together was awesome to read! It was not insta-love but they both had great lust for each other from the get go. Neither of them wanted to truly feel anything for the other which made reading their romance unfold much more fun.

“I feel,” he whispered. “I feel for you. If the love is there, we can learn to trust.”
She touched his cheek, his lips. “Love,” she whispered. “You said ‘love.’”
“What would you call it?”
She began to smile, not sure she could bear any of this. “I’d call it love,” she said and kissed him.

I was so happy that I did get glimpses of one of my favorite couples: Elizabeth and Saloman. Elizabeth gets to tell her best friend Mihaela some unexpected news that would shock anyone who found out. I really like that their story is continuing in the Blood Hunters series. To see them continue to grow as a couple was an unexpected treat.

She always took him by surprise. Perhaps it was part of the process of easing himself back into the real world, the excitement of his self-appointed mission, that made her a symbol of life to him.

If you are a paranormal romance fan, or if you like urban fantasy with romance thrown in I think this is for you. I can’t wait for the next book in the Blood Hunters series.

Happy Reading, 

Loved it! I want to know about everything this author writes.

Recommended For

Adults: For violence, sex and language.