Chosen by Blood
Chosen by Blood by Virna DePaul
Para-Ops #1
Five years after the Second Civil War ends, humans and otherborn- humanlike creatures with superhuman DNA-still struggle for peace. To ensure the continued rights of both, the FBI forms a Para-Ops team with a unique set of skills.
The war between Humans and the Otherborn may have been over for five years now, but that doesn't mean there is a real peace. There is plenty of distrust between the races, so the FBI forms a Para-Ops team with a blend of both humans and supernaturals. Heading this team is Dharmire (half-vampire/half-human) Knox. The rest of his team each has their own set of skills, but only one holds his heart, Felicia, the only human member of the team without any paranormal skills. Yet, she doesn't want him without a commitment, something he just cannot give. Things will be tricky for him to balance his duty to his team, his clan, and most of all, his heart.
I was really engrossed in Chosen by Blood for about the first half, to the point where I almost couldn't put it down, but then my enjoyment started to lessen dramatically. I'll get into what was so intriguing in a moment, but first I want to talk about why things went down hill for the second half, right up until almost the end. Knox was married to Felicia's best friend out of duty despite the fact that Felicia is his soul mate. So of course, Felicia avoids the pull to him in order to not betray her friend. Flash forward two years, and his wife is long gone having been murdered, but still Felicia resists as she knows he cannot give her what she needs, a full commitment. Knox hates his human half, to the point of extremity, so he tries to overcompensate by going above and beyond for duty. Felicia being human, is not good enough for his clan to accept as an exclusive mate. Yet he still burns for her with a thousand passions, and wants her. At first I enjoyed reading the inner struggle both of them were going though as they both fought for what they wanted while trying to hold onto their own beliefs. However, after a while the constant conflict became quite monotonous, and quite frustrating to be honest. I think a very large part of their struggles could have been condensed to keep things from dragging so much. At least things didn't move ridiculously fast, to look on the brighter side of things.
Now, onto why I was so engrossed in Chosen by Blood. The set up is quite unique with an open world that is recovering from a terrible war, but things are really no where near being resolved. The supernaturals are still very distrusted and there is plenty of hatred towards the humans for their actions to try and irradiate anything not like them. In fact, the vampires are greatly suffering due to a vaccine that has rendered almost all humans undrinkable, leaving the race literally wasting away due to starvation, leaving them quite weak, something you rarely see from vampires. Another interesting aspect of the book was the formation of the Para-ops team. I really liked seeing this hodge-podge of characters come together in order to work for a better cause. The friction between them was amusing at times, and it was fun to see them going through the growing pains.
In Chosen by Blood, almost as much time is spent on world building as well as the formation of the para-ops team as was the focus on the relationship, making for a good blend of genres. It definitely was a paranormal romance, but did lean towards urban fantasy at times, do to the very developed plot outside of the romance. I've always loved books that can blend those two genres together well, as it makes for a very enriching read. I am eager to read the next installment as the stage was set for the next couple, and I can't wait to see where things go.
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Chosen By Blood (A Para-Ops Novel)
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