Forbidden Blood by R. L. Kenderson book thoughts

Title: Forbidden Blood
Series: Yes (Forbidden #1)
Author: R. L. Kenderson
Published Date: July 1st, 2014
Publisher: R. L. Kenderson
Source: Netgalley (and later Amazon because it was free)
# of Pages: 302
Format: Ebook
Genre: Adult/Paranormal Romance/Erotica
Days to Read: 7
Rating: ★★★★.25 (4.25 out of 5)
My Social Media: Goodreads/My Booktube Channel/Twitter/Instagram

Goodreads Synopsis

Love knows no boundaries and rarely ever follows the rules, even if you’re a vampire.

Naya Kensington has always been an impeccable daughter, honoring her father and mother, the king and queen of the Vampires. Now her parents are planning her future with a complete disregard for her wishes and desires. Feeling restless and a bit rebellious, she retreats to a human nightclub on the wrong side of the tracks with the coaxing of her best friend. Despite the energetic crowd, Naya remains discontent and detached from life. However, everything changes when she meets a dark stranger, named Vaughn, who’s unlike anyone she’s met before—vampire or human. Taking a chance, Naya leaves with him, and their evening ends with a one-night stand. Knowing they can only have the one night, she gives herself to the stranger completely, and even though it is forbidden for her kind to drink from humans, she unintentionally consumes his blood during the intensity of their passion.

When Vaughn Llewelyn spots the woman across the nightclub, he immediately wants her and knows no one else will do. Upon meeting Naya, Vaughn senses she is special and willingly accepts this, because he is different in his own way. Unable to fight the irresistible pull, their one-night stand extends past their expectations. Nonetheless, they can never have forever and reluctantly part ways, because Vaughn understands Naya’s obligations as he has duties of his own. Resigned to a future without Naya, Vaughn is ultimately shocked when he sees her again and discovers their first encounter has unexpectedly bonded them together, including her need for his blood alone.

As everything they know changes, Naya and Vaughn struggle to find where they belong in their own worlds as well as each other’s. To do this, they must conquer societal prejudices in their determination to be together. But unbeknownst to them and everyone around, there is a dangerous and devious scheme that could threaten their newfound love and possibly their lives.

My Thoughts

I initially picked this up from Netgalley but then later saw it free for a day on Amazon and picked it up there too so I have it, though it was still free either way.

I love vampires! I have since I first saw Buffy the vampire slayer. I saw vampires and paranormal romance I was like YES, GIVE IT TO MEEEE but i'm still new to the paranormal romance genre, even though I already knew i'm a sucker for vampires. And I am so glad I picked this up!

Because I did love this over-all let's get my one issue with it out of the way. At times it seemed, to me, painfully heteronormative. I'm bisexual and can gladly read any romance, m-f, f-f, m-m, m-m-f, f-f-m etc. I don't care as long as it's well written. I'm just talking about me personally here, not saying others can't.

This is very erotic which I wasn't expecting (not my problem with it, I loved it!) so of course there is plenty of arousal at certain things and possessiveness (but not in a bad way, i'll get to more on that later). Some of the things I am talking about in terms of heteronormative-ness "Along with the bond it created, this was probably why unmated vampires fed from the wrist of someone of the same gender" "Did the opposite gender's blood cause sexual urges?" it's never mentioned what about gay or bi vampires? I can get how it would be switched around for gay vampires but bisexual ones? Are they just doomed to always be horny and want to fuck everyone, ya know, the stereotype for bisexual people? This is literally my only issue with the book, which yes it bugged me, but I found so much more to love about this story!

There are also shifters (cats and wolves) in this book and they can be possessive of their mates. Each person does have a different personality and is well thought out, which I loved. Just because someone is a cat shifter and has that possessive-ness doesn't mean they have to be a jerk about it or scary. They can still temper it with their human side, think, and be caring and attentive to others wants and needs and not be, well a huge jerk about it for lack of knowing how to better say it. Being an Alpha does not have to go hand in hand with being a jerk as this book ended up showing and I loved it!

Due to the differences in shifter and vampire culture there were some mixed signals in the book but eventually communication would happen and it'd be worked out.

I loved learning about how vampires and shifters worked in this book. I also really enjoyed all the different characters. There are several POV's in this story and normally I get confused very easily but thankfully that didn't happen here. I still found it easy to know who was who and what was going on. Sure I don't love all the characters but I love their characterization. They are all different and complex, learning more about them as it goes on. I know real people like them exist and could easily believe people would act the way they were. I also loved how it touched on important themes, messages and had strong characters. I am living for these character arcs! This book had my emotions going all over the place and by the end, there were tears!

I am loving the plot too. I'm trying to not give too much away though this book is making that hard! Yes, it's erotica and has sex scenes, but it also has well developed characters and a thought-out plot! I am invested in what is going to happen to these characters, the plot is believable (as long as you can get behind vampires and shifters existing which I love paranormal stuff like this personally) and I need to know what happens next! Also Naya and Vaughn are now my OTP.

If you are into paranormal romance and this sounds like something you'd be interested in, i'd definitely recommend picking it up!