Review: incredible, riveting, sensual adventure
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 12, 2013
Romani Armada. Book 3 of the Beloved Bloody Time series. Tracey Cooper-PoseyARC supplied via Netgalley.I recognised the authors' name so searched my books to see what I'd read and if I'd liked it, and  found the book and recalled I had loved it. (I read 2-4 books daily so need to see the book to recall details often) So put in my request for RA and was pleased to get it. It's book three, and not having read books one and two (though this was so good I'd love to read them) I skimmed the samples of them in Amazon to get some background info. Its quite a mix, vampires, people with psi (mental ) abilities and time travel, but Tracey pulls it all off in a very successful and riveting story. It did take me time to work out the various people and how they related to each other, and what their jobs/function were that if I'd read the first two books I'd have known. Tracey gives enough info though that its possible to read and enjoy the story as it is.The characters are quite complex, each have their own talents whether mental or physical, or a combo of both, and add to that the nature of multiple, concurrent times zones, and the story has the potential to get bogged down in details. Yet it didn't, Tracey manges to explain how everything works without either giving so little we have to guess, or so much that reader switches off (I'm that sort of reader, I want succinct info not pages and pages of battles, character descriptions or explanations that go over my head. I'm not dim, but I like to get to the meat of the story quickly)I was concerned about the time travel issue - I couldn't get it straight in my head at first, and it took time to work out but Tracey gives tips along the way by conversations between characters, and I found that I needed to let go of my reality and just let the story flow, and then I went along with it and just accepted it as fact. My tip - don't get too hung up on whether its possible theoretically, just accept it as its written :)Justin, great guy, guilty about the things in his past as a human and as a vampire, and won't let much of his real character be shared. Deonne is human and in love with him, but because of the way he is she treads carefully. Its like they both know, but neither want to come out and admit they actually love each other. There's a strong mistrust of vampires by humans, and so vampires carry a protective instinct to keep apart from them whenever possible - despite that these two have worked together, learned to respect each other, and fallen in love. Its still an eggshell dance though until Deonne has to be taken back to the past for her protection. Gabriel, the leader of the psi-file army, has targeted her as she's so good at her media job, and he doesn't want her convincing humans vampires are not a threat to them.Deonne - she's a very confident lady - until it comes to Justin - and hates having to leave him. He doesn't time travel - ever, so when he turns up in the past where she is she knows something drastic has happened.I loved the way Adan was brought it - he was a fabulous sexy, charismatic person, and it was incredible the way he just "read" Deonne and I loved his stories. Most vampires are reticent about the past, and Deonne (and me) loved hearing about his history.Its a great tale, you'd think with all its complexities it would be a difficult read, and yet I found it was really smooth flowing and kept me totally engrossed. The only problem I had was the way the chapters switched from one time zone to another, and from one person to another. I'd just get gripped into what was happening, turn the page and we were onto another section. Still, I love the multiple viewpoints this allowed and I can't see any other way Tracey could have written this. I guess it's tantamount to how good the writing is, that I wanted to know more and more about each character as the story was told from their reality. There was so much going on here, parts that relate to past books, scenes that set up for next ones, love stories, and war settings, current capabilities and past complications, it would be easy for any writer to lose the thread, but Tracey keeps everything juggled in the right way to hold the reader "in" the story. That's important to me - I don't want to be an onlooker, but actually there in the story along with the characters, having my heart race when theirs do, feeling happy and sad when they do and Romani Armada did just that. There's sex here too - hot, sensual scenes that take your breath, and with multiple partners so do take note of the warning. Its not offensive though or gratuitous, and works perfectly within the story arc. Priced at 3.32 for a massive 474 pages/732kb (hurrah - I love these longer books!!) its a real steal for any fantasy romance lover.Stars: absolute cracker of a book - full five.