Review: Team Brom!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2014
*Warning: may contain spoilers*This is probably my favorite in the Blood series so far. I love Brom's tortured soul and Mirela's selfless heart. I hate Naamah and Hadrian.Mirela, a Romani (gypsy) is on the run with the second son of the Cade family, Brom. After her mother tries to marry her off, Mirela is rightfully upset about not wanting to follow misogynistic traditions. She wants her own life, and there's more than one conflict when Brom shows up at her door trying to warn her of oncoming danger because of who she is.After initially trying to find Mirela to try and destroy Lilith to please his father, Brom ends up saving Mirela and protecting her from everyone else sent to destroy her. Unfortunately that means traveling world wide at the speed of light and risking Mirela's health. They're supposed to hate each other, and go against what they were raised to feel and think, only to find that the other isn't so bad, and they each think of what it might be like to be with the other. This goes to show hatred isn't natural - it's a nurtured response to reinforce the previous generation's actions. He's initially defensive to protect himself, because he's done so his whole life. As the second son who can't seem to do anything right, Brom has fought his whole life to impress his father. Who hasn't tried to impress their parents. But the truth is, if Brom tried, he'd realize the other "Father" still loves you and the love of another person (man or woman) is what completes you and he soon realizes it's the love of Mirela that completes him (not to sound like Jerry Maquire or anything...) I love Brom's comment "To see one's reflection is to see one's soul". How often have you asked someone "how can you look at yourself in the mirror after such-and-such?" This is what that means. To face your soul-the one that really suffers for your actions- is what you're doing. Brom has done many wrongs in his life, but not for himself and that's his true crime. Now he is attempting to right those wrongs...Brom's thoughts turn to selflessness as he thinks of Mirela before himself, and questions why she is surprised by his chivalry. He even thinks to himself how she doesn't expect it. Almost no woman does in this day and age, mainly because guys think they HAVE TO do something to be a certain way. I for one don't like the fake chivalry of opening the door for a lady, but not letting her make her own reproductive decisions. If you're going to respect women, go all the way. That said, actions mean more when they're not expected. (Note: it is gentlemanly to offer assistance, not to insist).Naamah is a daughter of Lilith and second wife of Lucifer. There is hint to incest in this book, just fair warning. If you thought Lilith was a biotch, well this Naamah chick puts Lilith to shame in the "pain in the ass" department. She shows up along Brom's quest unannounced, tricks him, makes him dream of her, threatens Mirela and spills the beans on Mirela's real reason on Earth (well, she IS associated with the Devil...). She tells Brom not believing in God means he can't believe in anything else. OK, I get the "false idols" thing, but honestly that was invented by Christianity to make themselves the big cheese in the religion department.She's an inconvenient nuisance and she's partnered with Hadrian. He's another one of Brom's father's henchmen and he pretty much shows up at random like Naamah, only he also causes Brom physical damage. He does manage to save Brom's ass at one point, so his endgame, while not entirely clear, is obviously for selfish reasons.I love how Brom and Mirela find themselves in love with each other before they even realize it. They go from having to put up with each other to Brom being Mirela's first and both putting everything on the line. With Mirela's grandmother showing up and explaining her true self, and Brom being told the truth about the future, we get some insight as to what bloodline Brom hails from and how he and Mirela will create a new future (if you read Jamen you'll know this part when you get to it;if you didn't don't worry you won't be lost). I'm not really keen on a newly 18 yr old being a future mom, but I get the idea of creating "life from death", seeing as they made love in the catacombs beneath Paris and Brom being (currently at least) without a soul.I'm very interested in finding out how Brom and Mirela were able to conceive a baby and what happens as a result of it and I really hope Naamah and Hadrian bite the dust. Pun intended!Brom's a lot more developed in this book. Again, I think he's my favorite in this series so far...