 | Title: Bloodlands
 Sexual Content: A scene of masturbation. A scene of graphic sensuality. A graphic sex scene. Rating:
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Description
The New Badlands—a desolate area in the West forged by the terrible events that altered the entire country, where a few frightened citizens retreated underground to shelter from the brutal weather . . . and from a society gone deadly dangerous.
Then the vampire arrived—and they started calling it the Bloodlands.
Not because Gabriel, the so-called monster running from his true self, was searching for his lover’s murderer. Nor because Mariah, the woman who reluctantly took him in, was willing to do anything to survive in the changed world.
No, the Badlands officially became the Bloodlands the moment a gun-for-hire who’d decided to slay every monster left in the country came after Gabriel . . .
Review
Is BLOODLANDS, the first book in the Bloodlands Trilogy by Christine Cody (aka Chris Marie Green aka Crystal Green) a paranormal western? Post-apocalyptic fantasy? Dystopian romance? I don’t know what to call it except good. Very, very good.
The narrating voice of Mariah is immediately the kind that pulls you—even drags you when necessary—into her bleak but fascinating world. Set in a not too distant future, BLOODLANDS portrays a world that has been brought to it’s knees and then kicked for good measure by environmental changes, corrupt governments, and power hungry ne'er-do-wells. Water is more valuable than gold, gangs rove the scorched earth, and monsters are real. Mariah, a deeply suspicious and independent woman, lives underground with a small community of others. Her only companion is a brilliant (literally) dog and a stockpile of weapons. Gabriel is the other protagonist, a broken man without hope, who falls on Mariah’s doorstep half dead.
The story moves swiftly, especially in the beginning when these two characters, both with secrets, circle each other and gradually learn to trust (perhaps not as gradually as I would have liked in Mariah’s case). There are so many nuggets of flat out cool world building that I’m already disappointing that there are only three books in this series. I also loved the succession of surprises that crept up towards the end that I never saw coming. They impacted the story enough that I already want to read it again to experience it in a totally new light.
Overall, BLOODLANDS is a surprisingly romantic story of survival set in a ruined world full of monsters, both human and otherwise, that will leave dust on your skin and a smile on your face after finishing. In an act of supreme kindness to fans who will soon be panting after more books, Ace is publishing all three books in the Bloodlands Trilogy back to back. BLOODLANDS on July 26th, BLOOD RULES on August 30th, and IN BLOOD WE TRUST on September 27th.
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Cool--thank you, Abigail!
ReplyDeleteDouble cool & thank you. I've never read anything like BLOODLANDS and wow have I been missing out :)
ReplyDelete