Seduced by Blood (Mills & Boon Nocturne)

by Laurie London

Deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the battle for supremacy rages on between two vampire coalitions:

Guardian enforcers sworn to protect humanity, and Darkbloods, rogues who kill like their ancient ancestors...

Hot-blooded and hard-edged, Tristan Santiago has an uncanny ability to see beneath the surface--a skill that serves him well as the Guardians' region commander. But when a deadly plot against his fellow vampires is uncovered, he must turn to the one woman he can't read: the beautiful yet mysterious Roxanne Reynolds, whose sensual presence soothes his tormented memories.

Roxy had put love before duty once before, with devastating results. But to root out a dangerous traitor in their midst, she must put her faith in Santiago, the one man skilled enough to break through her defenses. Posing as lovers, Santiago and Roxy work side by side--and discover a powerful craving that threatens to consume them both....

• ISBN10: 0373776691
• ISBN13: 9780373776696
• Publish Date: 31 July 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 8 February 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Mills & Boon
• Edition: Original ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[EBookObsessed]

As an experienced tracker and teacher, Roxanne Reynolds is on loan to the Northwest region when her friend and fellow tracker, Lily goes on vacation with her new fiancé. She thought it would be a quick and easy assignment. Just helping out her friend.

When several Darkblood operations start going bad and his agents are getting hurt, Tristan Santiago fears that he has a traitor in his organization feeding information to the Darkbloods. He will do anything to uncover the traitor and save his agents, including pretending to be lovers with Roxy Reynolds so that he can bring her to the Regional Conference. Roxy has an ability to know if someone is lying and her laid back personality makes people want to talk to her.

Although her laid back attitude makes her the polar opposite of the overbearing and overstressed Santiago, the attraction between the two can’t be ignored and soon there is no longer any need to pretend to be lovers. But when the mission is over, will Santiago be able to convince Roxy to stay with him, or will her heart forever be lost to her dead fiancé?

This series just keeps getting better and better. I enjoyed the first few books, getting into the intricacies of this series, and meeting all of the main characters, but I truly enjoyed the dynamics of Tristan Santiago, the Region Chief of the Northwest, a man used to having his every decision obeyed, and Roxanne Reynolds, experienced tracker and teacher, on loan from the Florida office, who didn’t feel the obligated to follow every order from Santiago. He didn’t know how to handle it or her for that matter, and of course, the off-the-chart attraction between the two was incredible.

These stories so far involved a vampire/guardian and a human who had to be introduced to the fact that vampires did in fact exist, etc., etc. In this story, both Santiago and Roxy were vampires so we could jump right into things with no setting up the background and then working past the fact my new boyfriend was a vampire drama.

The Darkblood leader is cold-hearted and very cunning and the only reason she has not done more damage in the Seattle area is the fact that thankfully her henchmen are idiots. She makes a great Black Queen to Santiago’s White King.

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[kimbacaffeinate]

Seduced by Blood is the fourth book in Laurie London’s Sweetblood series. Each of these books can be read as a standalone and focuses on one member of an elite team of vampires who protect humankind from the Darkbloods. This novel brings us Tristan Santiago and Roxanne Reynolds romance. As they search for a spy among his team, this undercover couple finds more than they bargained for. I consumed this in one evening as London quickly took me back to the Pacific Northwest and the headquarters on the Guardians.

The battle over humans continues as the Guardian’s fight to protect humanity and keep secret the existence of vampires. The Darkbloods continue their fight to rule and hunt mankind. Santiago and his team have a problem; every attack or mission seems to be compromised. To add insult to injury, Roxanne Reynolds a tracker instructor, uncovers a Darkblood nest within miles of the region’s command center on her way into town. She is in town to cover classes for her former student while she spends some much needed R&R with new boyfriend. Constantly trying to market Sweetblood (a particularly delicious and rare type of human blood) the Darkbloods are becoming bolder and someone within Santiago’s trusted team is giving them insider information. The team decides that Roxanne should go undercover as his girlfriend and use her talents to determine who the mole is. The tale that unfolds is smoking hot, intense, action packed and gave me one heck of a ride.

Santiago is the Guardian regional commander. He takes his job seriously and will do anything to protect his team. He can be hard, crass and down right intimidating. He isn’t looking for any long term commitments with the ladies. His father was a womanizer and he believes it’s in his DNA. He never wants a woman to be hurt like his mother, so he keeps things light. He totally tries to avoid Roxy and her hippie ways. Despite this he cannot help noticing her tone athletic body. Roxy is headstrong, centered and one heck of a tracker. She was once a guardian, but after her partner died at the hands of DarkBloods she moved to teaching the Guardian’s elite. Roxy isn’t sure she likes Santiago who seems to have an attitude problem, but she can appreciate his fine sculptured body and long eyelashes. When he smiles, he knees turn to jelly. The interaction between these two was hilarious. He wants to step away and she is all in his face. Of course that is exactly what he needs. I quickly became caught up in their tale.

I love the world London has created and enjoy visiting. It’s a saga of good verse evil and each installment has fresh storylines that draw you in. There is substance to these mysteries that I enjoy. I like putting the pieces together and I love getting to know each character. While we get updates about other characters, I like how each book focuses on one character, a new problem and their love interest. London captures your attention on page one as you are immediately drawn into a confrontation with Darkbloods. The romance she spins is hot, believable and exciting. All of the men are complicated and completely swoon worthy. She keeps you engaged as she takes you from one action packed or steamy scene to another. Forget catching your breath, once you enter this world you are there till the last page, the last sentence..only to find you want more.
I want to thank Harlequin and netGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.