Review: Between Blood and Water by Marie Harte

★★★★ @MHarte_Author #BetweenBloodandWater

This series gets better and better. I love water themes and this one is right up my alley. We have a brute of a vampire, Orion who is a vampire that is affiliated with water. I like how the vampires of this world are all different. They have different specialties which make them more interesting as a species. Orion's only friend is basically another vampire, Kraft. Well, I guess we can also count Orion's adorable kitty, Smoke. Finding out that Orion will be paired with a sea nymph only makes sense.

Kaia is adorable. She is a nymph who isn't like all the others. Specifically, she isn't easy and is waiting to find that special someone who will rock her boat just right. Kaia is the shy quiet one and I think this is to deal with her mother. Her mother is hard to describe. I say this because she truly loves her daughter, but is also willing to use her daughter for her own selfish gain. It is such a paradox that I can't quite reconcile it. Others may argue that if a mother is willing to use her daughter in such a manner, then she must obviously not love her daughter. Yet her actions and the things she says demonstrate otherwise. It is so weird and yet it works.

There are oddities like this peppered throughout the story that keep me amused. I am also very partial to any story that involves water creatures so I am predisposed to enjoy that story more. I did love how Kaia and Orion came together. It started out on a sort of non-con lie but it morphed into something sweet and heartwarming. Whilst Kaia and Orion are coming to terms with what they mean to each other, the big bad evil does not stop. We are now on book 3 and it looks like this vampire clan is encountering more and more dangerous battles. This one involved... tentacles? I couldn't help but think of well, tentacle porn a little bit. I digress.

What I also enjoy in this series is that the different secondary characters are not wallflowers or shallow cutout placeholders. These characters have relationships that they build with an increasing amount of interactions. Each of them has a backstory just waiting to be told. Those who have already shared their story, continue to be active members of this vampire/witches crime-fighting team. It is nice to see a group of people working together instead of just one badass that has to take it all on. I like that there isn't just one person who will save the world. Instead, we have a very diverse group of beings who normally wouldn't work well together, teaming up to make the world a better place.

Better yet? These beings aren't even the perfect good guy. Because Orion is like all the other vampires in that they believe they are superior to all others. So it is kind of a bunch of anti-heroes who band together and save the world. With this, comes a reward of their true fated mate. I love it.

I want to talk about Orion and Kaia more but then it would be spoilers. Suffice to say that sexy times is delicious as it usually is with Ms. Harte. She has the sexual chemistry between her characters down pat. This paranormal romance is recommended to everyone. It is a fantastic read.

* I received an ARC and voluntarily wrote a review