When Blood Calls



excerpt under cover



When Blood Calls   

*****

by J.K. Beck

J.K. Beck is the pen name of Julie Kenner (The Demon Mom books). For her journey  into paranormal romance, she is using J.K. Beck.

I received an ARC for review.  I am finally reviewing it, over a month past when I wanted to. (lost book, lots of granchildren visits, etc)  When I finally was able to sit down and read the book (I started it in August!) I was able to enjoy a book that contains some humorous dialog between characters. 

There are two cop characters who are trying to put away a vampire named Lucian Dragos (it's a bit melodramatic, the name...but it's a vampire paranormal romance) for murder.  One of the cops absolutely hates Lucian (Luke) - has for years...anyway, the dialog between the cop partners was great - nice and snarkly and chuckle inducing.  This is good, because some of the other dialog from some of the other characters was a little ....dramatic.  But then it fit, because these characters have been around for a long time, living in a hierarchy as well as trying to blend in with the cattle - I mean humans.

The basics of this book is vampire named Lucian Dragos who is a "black-ops" type of killer for a secret vampire elite team that polices other vampires.  The trouble is, when Lucian is caught, no one can admit that he's been working under orders, so he ends up having to go  on trial for killing a wicked "other" who has been hurting lots of others.  One of the problems is his prosecuter is a human that he had an encounter with and now she's pissed.

Sara has just been promoted to prosecuter in a new division and the very day that she is prosecuted, she finds out there are "others" in the world, werewolves, fae, vampires, demons, etc....She has to deal with a lot in the first hour on the job - and then finds out that her hot date from the night before is her first case ...Can you say awkward?  Yeah.  She's not happy - her hot love that she had thought so wonderful, was thinking about seeing again...is the man accused of murder that she has to help prosecute.

There are a few more complications that arise in this starcrossed lovers' lives.  Luke's ward is in danger.  One of Luke's friends seems to be losing it, Luke is in danger of being killed for good, things aren't looking too good for them, but he just can't stop thinking of Sarah...

This romance is different from the romances I used to read  - that's for sure.  Some things are the same.  It seems that romances always have a bit of the melodramatic speeches, and villians are usually easy to hate, what with their rude behavior and nasty plans for humans; and this book does also.  But When Blood Calls has a few twisty plot turns.  A few excellent twists.  The dialogue is mostly good, there's some laughs and some suitably angsty moments....(I'm not usually a fan of the past angst, but we all have some whether we want to admit it or not.  lol)

Another thing that I enjoyed about When Blood Calls is the snarky references about various things, such as a pair of hip huggers trying to find some hip to hug on a skinny woman.  Here and there, a few snarky and sarcastic sentences just pop up.

An enjoyable read, complete with snark, satisfyingly dramatic encounters between the couple, some steamy encounters, and some almost kinky moments.  There are a few glimpses of different species of supernaturals.  The complete department within a department, or the court for supernaturals inside the courts were inspired.  I could read a romance like this once in a while.  If you're a fan of romances, you'll enjoy this one.  Even if you're an occasional romance reader you'll enjoy it.

Book two in the series is already available - When Pleasure Rules released September 28, and the third in the series, When Wicked Craves is scheduled to come out in just short while - October 26th.

If you're a romance reader, here are three wicked paranormal romances available - and the narrative and dialogue of J.K. Beck is enjoyable to read.