Review: Called by Blood
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 3, 2010
Helena McAllister is shocked when a handsome man shows up at her door claiming she is the One. Despite her attraction to him, there's no denying that he's insane!  Alex Faustin is far from crazy.  He's a vampire who's just traveled all the way from his luxurious NYC life to the wilds of Colorado for his mate.  It's a race against time to convince her to be his forever, while finding shelter and evading the law.  When a horrible incident reveals his secret, Helena learns he is a creature of darkness.How will she reconcile her feelings for a man who is monster?Admittedly, I had mixed feelings about Called by Blood.  I was not sure if I liked Helena and Alex because they sometimes came off as immature in their reactions and interactions to various situations they were forced to overcome and deal with.  It's been noted that love often makes people reckless.  Perhaps it was Helena's emotional baggage and Alex's spoiled haphazard bungling that that kept me off kilter.  I'm not certain.  All I know is that I really became interested in some of the secondary characters that appeared.  *Shrug* It happens sometimes.The writing style was very contemporary which mostly didn't work for me in the narrative along with the large doses of saccharine romance.  Also, the sweetness seemed at odds with the down and dirty sex.  Overall, it was a pretty decent novel, with harrowing moments and plot twists that kept me reading.  The best compliment I can offer is that I'm willing to reread this story again.  There are a lot of things about it to like and in all fairness, I've been reading lots of vampire fiction back to back, so my expectations differ from book to book.  I'm rather biased against treating vampires in the traditional manner and really get into books where vampirism `evolves' beyond the usual limitations.  This may have colored my initial response to Alex and the hardships he faces with Helena.  Still, I'm also the first to admit that it was used constructively as an effective plot device, and that's worth a bright gold star instead of a wooden stake.Patrice F.