★★★ @MHarte_Author #BetweenBloodeandStone
New paranormal series by Ms. Harte captures my eye. Vampires and Fae mixing together always pull my attention. This first book starts out slow. Fair warning, the first few chapters may feel a bit disjointed as a reader tries to piece together what is going on. Ms. Harte dives straight into combat and vampire try to beat each other to death.
Of the various series I've read by Ms. Harte, this one takes a bit for me to get into the world and characters. It took me a little bit to figure out who was who amongst the six vampires. I also had to figure out why they are together. It isn't until the end it is spelled out exactly why these six vampires were picked to work under Mormo's leadership. The main character is not Mormo, but instead, Varujan aka Varu.
Varu comes from a long line of violent vampires. He grudgingly lives with Mormo and their merry band of powerful vampires. After centuries of living under his psychotic father's rule, Mormo's idiosyncrasies are easy for him to ignore. On the latest mission with a needs-to-know basis, Varu is to find some bloody witch and instead trips over a human female who tries to kill him and then escapes. The nerve of this human!
This story is a bit bizarre and jarring as we flip from one character's point of view to another. The world-building takes up quite a bit of this book which sometimes competes with the romance side of it. In addition, it drags the plot down to molasses at times. About halfway through the book, the pace of the book finally picks up and it becomes more interesting.
The enemy-to-lovers theme between Varu and Fara is amusing at times. Other times, it is frustrating as we just want to smack both of them on the head and make them use their words to talk to each other. This book appears to be in a series of at least 6 books because there are 6 stones. I hope there is a bonus book where we learn more about Mormo and his goddess Hecate.
When it comes to Greek mythology, it seems the majority of authors like to paint Apollo in a bad light. This book is no different and I like the way Ms. Harte creates a new mythos of how vampires came to existence. It is fresh and intriguing. This paranormal romance is recommended to readers who enjoy love conquers all themes with a few curmudgeonly characters and a female lead who takes no shit from anyone.
* I received an ARC of this book for an honest review
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