Review: Cool Sequel!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 29, 2012
I found out about Wenona Hulsey through a YA author, so I had assumed that her stories were going to be YA too.  When I read the novella, Blood Awakening, I noticed the characters weren't teenagers, but still didn't quite know what to expect from Burden of Blood.  It was a pleasant surprise to discover that it was an adult paranormal romance book.  You get sexual tension, a wicked villain with minions who are just as bad, and you get a powerful - if somewhat reluctant - heroine.The story starts off a few years after the novella, in which Nicole's ability to hear the vile thoughts of others begun.  Because she can pick up things like when a drug deal is going to go down, or when someone is planning a kidnapping, or intends to seduce an underage drunken girl, it makes perfect sense that Nicole decided to become a cop.  She can plan a drug bust and legally help prevent all the horrible things she hears, putting the dirtbags behind those deeds away for good.She and her partner, Luke, make a great team, but he hopes to be more than just her partner.  However, because of her power, Nicole has resigned herself to a lifetime alone, and is really stubborn in her determination to keep her distance from Luke, despite what her instincts tell her.  When an attempt is made on her life, everything changes.  Things go from bad to worse, and people come together to help and protect Nicole.  With the help of a sassy new friend, and two sexy Irish warriors, Nicole will fight, or she will die.What I liked the most about this story is that everyone behaved like adults, for the most part *giggle*.  There were no temper tantrums over a boy, no running off half-cocked, no giggling at the fact that one of the guys wore a kilt and nothing else *drool*, and it just felt like a genuine group of smartass adults.  The plot was well paced and the suspense was kept up without being obnoxious.  Since I hadn't read the blurb first, I got a surprise when I had her pegged wrong as to what she was and where her powers, which were ever growing and ever evolving, originated.The only thing that sticks out in my mind as a kind of "huh" issue is that her father seems to take everything pretty well for someone who supposedly never knew about any of the history behind what's going on now.  He's also real comfy with all the new people hanging around.  But meh, such a minor thing in the face of cool that the rest of the book is.