Born of Blood by SB Knight

Five Stars
"An entertaining start to this series"

I don't read a lot of dark fantasy, but Born of Blood did a great job of hooking me from the beginning. Though the premise of the story revolves around a family's history dating back to the late sixteenth century, most of the book takes place in the present day. While the relationship between Jesse and Drake takes center stage, I was actually more engrossed with Charles and Reba. Drake and Charles both have a certain mystery to them, but I felt Charles was the more unknown of the two. As a result, it was interesting to see Charles evolve as the story progressed.

Overall, I found the story to be very entertaining. Not only are there many interesting characters, but Knight does a superb job of pacing. Instead of bogging you down with excessive details, he keeps things moving along with just the right balance of imagery and action. It also took some courage to end the book the way he did. Born of Blood is just as much of a stand-alone story as it is a lead-in to the next installment, which is the beauty of it. The only drawback I had was some of the situations the characters found themselves in. More specifically, I felt they should have reacted differently in certain cases, but that's just my personal opinion. Not everyone acts the same when confronted with a challenge.

Despite this, I believe Born of Blood is closer to five stars than four, thus the reason for my rating. Dark fantasy and horror lovers will likely enjoy this book, but I think the material is diversified enough to intrigue readers outside of these genres.

http://www.amazon.com/SB-Knight/e/B007SA5V9A/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2