Tessa Dawn

It is strange that I am such a paranormal romance fan yet I had never heard of this series before a few weeks ago. I follow a few authors on Facebook and saw that Lara Adrian had asked her fans what they were reading and loving so I read the responses and saw that someone was reading this series. A few people had replied and agreed that it was a great series so I looked it up. I downloaded the first book because it was free and it turned out to be a short prequel. It was so complex that I show more had to jot down notes to keep everything straight. I think more people should know about this series and it should be in the top 20 vampire or paranormal romance series, if not the top 10.

The series is about a curse that began in 800 BC in Romania after a psychotic prince, Prince Jaegar Demir, had executed all the females of his race, a race that was descended from celestial gods. After slaughtering all of the females, their blood rose up and cursed the prince and his descendants with being evil vampires, never to walk in the sun again.

The Curse

They shall never know the love of a female.

They shall never produce a female offspring.

Their sons will be born in sets of twins, both born of darkness (evil) and the firstborn son of the first set of twins shall be sacrificed for atonement. Failure to sacrifice that son will lead to horrible and agonizing death.

The human host who carries the child will die painfully upon giving birth.

They shall be creatures of the night never entering daylight lest they be killed.

They shall have to ingest blood in order to live.

The mad prince’s twin brother, Prince Jadon Demir, who had tried to save the females but ultimately failed, begged for clemency so he and his descendants received 4 mercies from Blood Curse.

They still be able to walk in the light.

Although they still have to drink blood to live, they do not have to take the life of the person who they feed from.

They shall receive one opportunity to receive a mate and the sign will be shown in the heavens.

They shall still have sets of twins but the first set will have one born of darkness and one born of the light. The twin born of the darkness will have to be sacrificed. Any set of twins born afterwards will both be born of the light.

The Blood Curse is pretty complicated…and a bit cruel. Those dead women were really blood thirsty and angry. They cursed all the males of the race, not just Jaegar and Jadon’s descendants. They cursed their followers too.

There are four brothers and a king who are key characters in this series.

Napolean Mondragon was only ten years old at the time of the Blood Curse. He watched as Jaegar viciously killed his father. He ran but the Blood Curse caught him and transformed him into a Vampire. He became the king of the house of Jadon…the good Vampyrs or Light Vampyrs. The descendants of Jaegar are known as the Dark Ones and are evil to the core.

Napolean meets his chosen destiny, a human who his mate. Brooke has a tortured past but has pulled herself up in the corporate world and is one of the best in her field. She is at a conference in Dark Moon Vale in the Colorado mountains when Napolean kidnaps her and tells her she is his destiny. She thinks he is crazy at first.

The Dark Ones have a plan to destroy Napolean, thus destroying all of the descendants of Jadon. Salvatore Nistor, a powerful Wizard for the Dark Ones, conjures up an apparition who looks like Napolean’s father. He thinks he can use the ghost to shame Napolean for not trying to save his father when Prince Jaegar killed him but his plan backfires when Brooke steps in and saves Napolean.

Salvatore and the council of the Dark Ones decide to summon Ademordna, the evil twin of Napolean’s celestial goddess Andromeda by sacrificing first born sons (well, actually the second born since all Dark Ones are born in sets of twins and the first born son is always taken by the Blood Curse) until the god appears and asking him to possess Napolean. They come up with an elaborate scheme and it works.

Now the brothers have to figure out a way to save Napolean but their plan involves actually killing Napolean and one of the brothers just for a few moments at the most but it could fail. It’s a very dangerous plan.

The bad guys in this series are REALLY bad. This author does not shy away from describing torture and rape which makes my stomach turn but she does evoke my hatred towards the bad guys with it.

I have already read the next book. I didn’t even stop to write the review on this book because I was so anxious to get to the next book in the series. Shame on me!

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Blood Vengeance
By Tessa Dawn
Blood Curse #7

I have to say that I kind of knew Ramsey and Tiffany would end up together or I deduced that Tiffany would end up with either Ramsey or the other sentinel, Julien but I guess that is because they were really the only two men left of the regular background characters in this series. I guess Tessa Dawn could have introduced new characters or not have given Tiffany her own story at all but I figured or, at least, hoped she would. I am glad she show more did.

Tiffany is the best friend of Brooke, who is the wife of the Vampyr King. They were featured in a previous book. Tiffany moved to Dark Moon Vale 14 months ago and is aware of the Vampyr and how they mate so when the omen of the Blood Moon shows that she is destined to be the mate of Ramsey, one of the king’s sentinels, she wants no part of it. She knows that Vampyr males, especially Ramsey, are overbearing, overprotective and over-testosteroned.

Ramsey always gets what he wants and he is not going to let Tiffany get away but he is a little baffled by why Tiffany doesn’t want to be his mate. He’s kind of a brute and Tiffany knows how to put him in his place. She cracked me up with some of her tactics.

Salvatore is at it again. He’s an evil vampire who will do anything to destroy the good guys. He’s met a psycho human woman who he has promised immortality to if she agrees to go along with his evil plan to kidnap the king’s child by tricking Tiffany.

This book had some really twisted stuff in and some of it was hard to read. It just made me wish someone would hurry up and kill Salvatore. I’m sick of him getting away with all his evil.

I enjoyed this book and from the sneak peek at the end of the book, we know that the next book is about Julien, the heroin addicted Vampyr. That should be interesting.

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Review originally posted here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/08/book-review-blood-awakening-blood-cu...

My favorite of the brothers, Marquis, gets a story. He is…difficult. Intense and maybe a little cruel, but being alone for about 1500 years, losing his twin and sister-in-law in such devastating ways and witnessing the death of his parents would do that to anyone. In Blood Awakening though, that all will change or so we think. Still in mourning for his dead brother, Shelby, show more his anguish causes a little catastrophe. But it also brings life to a woman named Ciopori that has been buried alive under the brothers’ very noses. Apparently, she is part goddess and is the long-lost sister of the original vampire, Jadon. She is now awake and it is apparent she and Marquis are destined to be together. Thing is, destiny might have other plans for Marquis and he is beginning to think he is meant to live in turmoil forever.

Wow, I mean WOOOOW! How Tessa Dawn comes up with this genius is a mystery to me. I was so excited for Marquis’s story because he is a favorite and this confirmed it. His aggression is actually heartbreaking. I know that sounds weird, but once you get into his story, it will make sense (I hope). We know of how he feels about losing those he loves and I was actually on the verge of crying sometimes because of all he has endured. Him finding Ciopori has truly been a godsend. But we get a curveball, a big curveball. I won’t spoil it, but I was hurling curses. Not a bad thing necessarily, but given the sort of woman Marquis deserves, you feel for him even more when things go into play.

Besides Marquis, we get more of the other brothers, specifically their lord, Napoleon. In Blood Destiny, I thought he was as a lord should be, cold and standoffish. But when Ciopori wakes, we find that she was buried along with her sister, Vanya, and Napoloeon has fallen hard for her, literally. Seeing a 2000 year old vampire lord with powers too unbelievable to comprehend, trip and stutter over a woman like a teenage boy was priceless. He was actually less scary that way, but don’t let that fool you, he is still plenty scary. We also meet more villains who pretty much top every monster list I can think of. Valentine’s brother Salvatore wants revenge for his brother because he knows he is dead and he knows Marquis did it. So he goes out of his way to really grab Marquis’s attention.

We get a little of all the brothers and even another favorite, Braden. Braden is a newly turned vampire (the first male to go from human to vampire) and he is a teenager, so things are…interesting. Braden seems to be going through a bad (well, worse) Kevin Federline meets The Situation phase. It is bad, but I couldn’t stop laughing. But despite Braden’s confusion, we find out that he is quite brilliant. I won’t say much, but because of Braden, he indirectly saves Marquis’s life. Ciopori was a great lead female. She is exactly who I imagined Marquis to be with; regal and ladylike. We don’t necessarily find out how is it that they seem to know each other through their dreams or why, but it worked. But things that happen with Kristina, however, were just ridiculous. She was tough and defensive. She has lots of growing up to do. She was the kind of female you would find on Maury, I know there will be more of her and I can’t wait. I love where things ended with her and I think there is a possibility she might be Nachari’s mate (so damn lucky!)

The plot was amazing. I couldn’t predict how any of this was going to go. I loved the good vs. evil standoff. After Salvatore makes the mistake of messing with Marquis and what’s his. The stuff that Marquis and his brothers’ pull off were amazing. The fact that they are vampires and can do the things they do will astound you. But I believe given what Nachari has done might play a big role in his story. He has stolen a book from Salvatore, not just any book, the book full of the black magic that makes Salvatore an even bigger monster than he is. Again, there are things in this book that will make people uncomfortable. There are bad guys, than there are these guys. There aren’t really enough words in the dictionary to describe just how nasty and ruthless they are. There are likable villains and these are not it.

Buy this book! I can’t say it enough; Tessa Dawn is a force to be reckoned with. The ending of this book was quite the shocker. Since we know what is at stake for the brothers when they don’t make their sacrifices, what Marquis did brought me to tears. We feel his frustration, his hatred and he is very justified because he doesn’t understand why they are still being punished. Just like Blood Destiny, Blood Awakening will keep you on the edge of your seat. This was such an incredible sequel and this is one of my absolutely favorite series. Man I can talk about this all freaking day. show less

Review poster here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/05/review-blood-destiny-blood-curse-1-b...

HOLY SHIT! That is all I can say about this book. I am going to say something only because it is absolutely true; this is one of the BEST books I have read in my life. It is everything I ever wanted my vampires to be, scary as hell and yet too sexy for your eyes. Now with the exception of a few vampires (Dante, Bones, all of the BDB, etc.), there aren't many vampires that are truly brutal, show more I mean X-Rated, B-Movie brutal. Well I don't have to look any further, I found them right here in Blood Destiny. Tessa Dawn, you are now in my top five list of kickass authors. Thank you!

Blood Destiny starts with telling us about the existence of vampires. There are two different kinds of vampires, light and dark. Twin brothers, Jadon (light) and Jaegar (dark) were punished by the blood of the women they killed. But Jadon wasn't the one who spilled blood, it was the vicious Jaegar. But nonetheless, they were both cursed. The light vampires can walk in the sun and have mates. Their mates have been chosen by the gods. Thing is they only have thirty days to marry and have twins with their mate (the vamps only have twin boys) and sacrifice the evil twin. If they don't, their lives will be at risk. The dark vampires do not get a mate which complicates things because when they do, things end badly for the women they take.

Oh my goodness, I loved this book sooooo much. I didn't know what to think of this book when I first heard about it. My favorite thing about it was Tessa Dawn's take on vampire mythology. Honestly, throw out everything you know about vampires because it will not apply to this book. The vampires are scary, truly immortal (only way to kill them is through draining them completely of blood), and they aren't only powerful, they are part gods. Seriously, the things they can do are insane. They can literally control the elements with their emotions. For instance, when Nathaniel found out what happened to his recently deceased brother's, Shelby, wife Dalia, he got so pissed, he caused an earthquake. Even more so, they have abilities they gain that literally takes over a thousand years of education to master. Seriously, do not screw with these guys.

The characters were incredible. The protege Braden and the Silivasi brothers were a riot especially Marquis, who was the meanest of them all. But he had a heart of gold. Well you don't see that until near the end of the book. Marquis does everything to protect his brothers and being the oldest of them all, he carries a huge weight on his shoulders. I also loved the leading lady, Jocelyn. She had a pair of lady balls for sure. After everything she has seen (and what she tried to do to escape), she fights no matter what. I loved that it wasn't one of those things where she immediately decided to be with Nathaniel. She actually thought about what she was getting into. I loved Nathaniel. He was hot and brutal when he needed to be and loved Jocelyn unconditionally.

Now for the warning. This book will not be for everyone. Do not let the fact that this is part Paranormal Romance fool you. There are some horrific scenes in this book. I mean scenes they wouldn't put in a horror movie. Blood Destiny is very dark, cruel and doesn't hold anything back. If you are looking for sweet little vampires that glitter and sparkle, look elsewhere. If you want vampires that actually belong in a horror movie and will literally rip you to shreds, these are your guys.

I can't think of anything bad to say about this book. The story and history in this book was rich and well-layered. Again, the mythology is super fresh and unique. Do not go into this thinking it is just another vampire book, it is far from it. This is an amazing debut by Tessa Dawn and this is high, very high on my favorites list. Marquis' book is book 2, Blood Awakening, and it comes out October 28th. So I plan on reading this one or two more times before then. And many more times after that and I am sure Blood Awakening will be just as re-readable. show less