Review: Descended By Blood

Title: Descended By Blood
Author: Angeline Kace
Genre: YA Paranormal

See it at Goodreads


Brooke Keller is a high school junior who has never spent much time living in one place. She is finally in a town long enough to almost snag the boy of her dreams, until her life is threatened after killing a fanged man in his attempt to kidnap her. Brooke begins a dangerous journey in an effort to find out who is after her and how to stop them. In a world with powerful and prejudiced vampires, Brooke must tap into the side of her that she never knew existed at the risk of losing her life in order to save it.


I’d been meaning to read Descended By Blood for some time after hearing so many great things about it, but my schedule usually gets in the way and prevents me from reading anything I want right off most of the time. Haha. But, I’d finally got to it in recent weeks and have to say that I’m glad that I did. No, I take that back…I’m sorely disappointed in myself that I hadn’t read this sooner.


Descended By Blood took me by complete surprise. The story I expected ended up being something different. There was sweet romance and a lot of action and a great development of the characters. I liked Kace’s unique take on vampires. They intrigued me. In some ways, I wanted more history on them--more information about where they came from, but that means I was invested in this. Of course Kace couldn’t bog down the novel with a bunch of history for a little ol’ history and urban legend geek like me and I understand that. Haha. There was plenty of information and detail already provided enough for me to grasp everything. I’m just a nerd like that.


I would have read this in one sitting. I didn’t though because my e-reader broke about two months ago, and I’ve been having to either read e-books on my computer (Adobe Digital Editions) or on my phone through a Kindle app. Since I’d got this as a Kindle book, I had to read it on my phone. The book wasn’t frustrating in the slightest. Reading it on my phone was. Do you know how hard it is to be so absolutely in love with what you’re reading, and then you have to close it out because your battery life is low?? Argh. At least with my e-reader, I could have plugged it up to the charger and kept reading. LoL. I’m venting now. But that’s how it often felt. I wanted to speed through this book and I felt so torn because I couldn’t.


The characters each have their own personality. In the beginning, I have to be honest and say that I didn’t attract myself to Jaren like some other readers did. A good chunk of the beginning develops Brooke’s and Jaren’s relationship, and I really liked that because it was filled with some sweet moments and character building. Jaren seems like a good guy, but I just didn’t feel it. Maybe him and Brooke didn’t have that spark I was looking for when it came to romance--though there were definitely some awesome romantic moments between them--but do you know what I’m saying? I didn’t feel the chemistry. Mirko, on the other hand, completely won me over from the moment he was introduced. He seems more suited for Brooke. Loved the way he was developed through the pages with his humor and snark. There were some laugh out loud moments, and the end almost had me in tears. If Brooke doesn’t want Mirko, can I have him?


Speaking of the end. What a cliffhanger! I went to turn the page and found nothing after and I was like, “Wait, what?! Nooooooo!”


Thanks, Angeline Kace, for making me fall out of my chair.