Blood Interlaced (Laurent Blood Legacy #2)

On a dark, rainy drive down an isolated road in Georgia, Laura Simon, bestselling author of historical supernatural romance, spins her car into a ditch and encounters a mysterious stranger who offers her shelter until the storm passes. Jack Monroe looks a lot like a present-day embodiment of Laura’s most popular featured character, Jack Monroe, a 600-year-old vampire. Has she conjured him from her dreams? 

The author quickly introduces the strong, ominous feeling of approaching danger. That intensity gets weakened by excessive details about Laura’s rambling thoughts and tedious driving process. There’s a choppiness to the sentences in the first few chapters that eventually smooths out to support a more enjoyable reading experience. Instant love and fated lovers’ themes don’t completely excuse the two scenes that contain questions about Laura’s consent to Jack’s access to her body. When the story moves into the territory of romance and conventions, it shines with the most vibrancy. Under the pen name of Laurel Simon, Laura juggles the perks and pressures of her popularity in ways that seem realistic. Con culture is portrayed with respect, affection, and mild annoyance. An illogical action in order to create a necessary plot turn distracts from the entertaining and overlapping story threads about the vampire children of Francois Laurent, the Vampire Council, and the science of identifying their soul mates. “Blood Interlaced” is a pleasing mix of some of the most popular vampire themes sprinkled with fresh elements that will make readers anxious for the release of the next story in this engaging series. 

Cardyn Brooks