Lindsay J. PryorRecensioni

This book got off to a rocky start for me. Let’s ignore the fact that the third page had the word realize written as realise and the word offense written as offence but we’ll come back to that.
It starts out with Caitlin Parish recklessly ignoring orders and blowing a stake-out by chasing after a master vampire into a night club, a master vampire who she describes as committing unsubstantiated heinous crimes and is so feared that no one will talk about him or report anything about him. And get this! She only has a tranquilizer gun! Her superior is warning her not to do it but she keeps going anyway. As she is running she is thinking about how she has wanted to take this vampire down since she was little and the years she has spent investigating him and then she starts thinking about his “sensual lips” and how she has dreamed of him and woke up in a “sensual heat”. When the vampire overtakes her, taking the tranquilizer gun away from her and pointing at her and pins her to a wall with his body, she then thinks about how this 300 year old vampire is too powerful for her. Uh Duh! But Wait! There’s more! While he has her in that position, she tells him he is under arrest. At this point, I’m seriously thinking that the vampire needs to break her neck and the author will insert a new heroine.
The vampire, Kane Malloy, says, “Delusional as well as reckless. Are you seriously the best they’ve got?”
I think that is what saved the book for me. At least someone was thinking she was out of her league. I never did warm up to Caitlin but I liked Kane the whole time. He had me guessing all the way up to the end. The premise of the book is interesting and I really liked the setting and the caste-system world that the author created.
Now, back to the weird spelling of words! The author spelled words like realize and tranquilizer with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’ which really threw me off and would distract me. Also, the words offense and defense were spelled offence and defence. Is it a British thing? I’ve read other British authors and have not come across this yet. Maybe the author didn’t have a ‘z’ on her keyboard. The other thing that bothered me was that there were a lot of typos and grammatical errors in the book. I can overlook the weird z thing but not the typos and grammatical errors. When I pay good money for a book, I expect them to be proof read.
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Blood Dark
Book #5

This book goes back to the original two characters from the first book of the series, Caitlin and Kane. They didn’t really stay together after the first book. They spent some time together but Caitlin had to go back to her job at the Vampire Control Unit (VCU) and could not do that if she was with Kane who is thought to be a criminal and an enemy of the VCU.

Caitlin annoys me. She is always running into trouble because she thinks she is tough or something stupid like that. She also believes that the VCU is good even though she has seen all the corruption going on it and knows the leader, Sirius is up to no good. I have no idea what Kane sees in her but then again, half the time, he seems to be using her so he is kind of a puke too.

Kane is a powerful Master Vampire and for some reason is really into Caitlin. He shows up when she is in trouble and saves her. He also uses her. He has sex with her and gets information from her that could put her in jeopardy with her job. He keeps all kinds of secrets about what he knows about the strange prophecy that could destroy their world but he keeps it from Caitlin which I think could hurt her in the long run because she has proved to be kind of stupid and she believes in the corrupt governing system.

I like the background story but I do not like this couple. So far, the only thing they have in common is that they like to have sex with each other. Besides that, they don’t trust each other and they keep choosing other things over each other. It is a big turn off for me.

I still like this series enough to keep reading it. I just hope the next book features a different couple and keeps Caitlin and Kane as a background story.

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It has been a while since I have read this series so it took a minute to remember the previous events of the story.

This world is made up by classes. Blackthorn is the nucleus. It is a city where society has thrown all of its worst criminals to live. When vampires and lycans revealed themselves, humans formed the Global Council which quickly threw all of them in Blackthorn too until “they proved themselves” but the head of the Global Council, Sirius Throme, will never allow that to happen. Unfortunately, for the lycans and vampires, there is a prophecy about the 3rd species {vampires and lycans) overthrowing the human rule so Sirius wants them all dead.

This book focused on Sophia who was turned into a serryn after her sister Leila did a spell which passed it from herself to Sophia. A serryn is a vampire killer who has no empathy and kills or pure pleasure. She emits pheromones that make her irresistible to vampires but her blood is poison to them. Sophia is trying to hold off the serryn but it takes her over at times.

Prophecy foretells of a certain master vampire who will drink the serryn to the Brink (where third species go when they die) and become the Tryan, the most powerful vampire ever. We, the readers, know it is Caleb but Sirius is desperate to find out. He has upped his game and has decided to invade but he can't just invade without a reason so he has come up with an evil plan.

I found myself loathing Sophia throughout this book. She just seems reckless and makes dumb choices which puts everyone in danger. Some of it was caused from the serryn coming out in her but most of it was just her thinking she could be stronger than the serryn and refusing to listen to her sister Leila.

The story is revving up. I'm getting ready to read the next book now.

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This book was much better than the last book but I may have judged the last book a little more harshly because I couldn’t stand the main female character.

Eden and Jessie were featured in a previous book and this book featured them again. Jessie is an envoi, a type of angel, who gave her tears to Eden and his niece Honey to save their lives only to find out that those tears may end up killing them anyway.

They are hiding below the city in tunnels along with the lycans and Kane, a master vampire, from the human army led by the evil Sirius Throme. Jessie has found out that Sirius has enhanced his human army by giving them angel tears but his past experiments had killed his subjects until he learned to give them a supplement of something along with the tears. Jessie did not do this with Eden or Honey and now it is too late so she decides to go up top into the city of Blackthorn where all sorts of dangers exist to find some hidden files from someone who had done extensive research into the subject to try and find if there is another cure. Eden decides to go with her.

Torren, a particularly nasty angel who has a grudge against Jessie and who just happens to be the area’s angel leader, abducts Jessie and Eden. Torren is the one who bound Jessie and took away a lot of her memory from her previous life when she lived with the angels. Binding her meant that he made a talisman necklace with a substance inside it that made it so that she could only go a certain distance from the necklace. A con named Pummel acquired the necklace and became Jessie’s master for fifty years until Eden came along and saved her. She has worn the necklace ever since.

Now, Torren has the necklace. Torren can’t kill Eden because he is vital to the prophecy that effects the third species including angels but he can kill Jessie who is not vital.
What he ends up doing is wiping out ten years of Eden’s memory which is before he became the man he is today, before Honey was born and before he became an Curfew Enforcement Officer. Torren then hands Jessie and Eden over to Homer and Mya, two cons who know exactly who they are and will make them suffer before they kill them. Jessie cannot tell Eden anything or they will kill them both right away.

Since Eden does not remember who he is and has tattoos with numbers showing his crimes on his arm from going deep undercover, Homer and Mya convince him that he is a con and he is Homer’s second. Mya tells him she is his girl.

I almost cried at some of the things Jessie had to endure, watching Eden with Mya and thinking he was a con. All I wanted out of this book was to see Homer, Torren and Mya to die. That sounds bad but that is what happens in books.

There are other evil characters in this book too who I would like to see get their just rewards like Sirius and Feinith. Both have caused way too much pain in the world.

I don’t know how much further this story can go without wrapping up soon. We’ll see what happens.

Blood Deep
By Lindsay J. Pryor
Book #4

I haven’t read this series for a while so it took a little while to remember everything that had happened up to this point but the author is pretty good at keeping readers in the know.
I was entranced by the story from cover to cover which is now just an out-of-date saying about books since I read e-books and don’t really have covers to read between.

The world is made up of tiered caste systems. The elite humans live in the best areas and it goes down from there and, of course, the system is corrupt. Vampires and Lycans have to live in Blackthorn along with the worst of the worst human criminals. Everyone has their own areas and needless to say, Blackthorn is dangerous and even hardened criminals are not safe living there. Criminals are all tattooed with the crimes that they have committed on their arms, at least the ones that they have been convicted of, by the authorities.

Eden Reece works for the Curfew Enforcement Unit and goes deep undercover into Blackthorn. He has been tattooed to make it appear he is a dangerous criminal. Eden has to infiltrate the notorious gangleader Pummel’s gang. Pummel rules like a mad dictator and kills anyone he believes is a threat. Eden doesn’t count on falling for Pummel’s captive, Jessie.

Jessie has been under Pummel’s control for decades. He knows she is a third-species but doesn’t know exactly what she is…just that she has special powers that heal him and keep him young. He keeps her under constant guard. He believes that she has to stay pure or she will lose her powers. It’s the only reason he has not touched her.

I was into the romance but I was more intrigued by the ongoing story of corruption from the Global Counsel and Sirius’ evil plans. Sirius uses his power to manipulate and control events in Blackthorn. He believes in a prophecy and thinks he can manipulate the outcome but he could just bring about doom for the entire world with his methods.

I recommend this series to anyone who likes paranormal romance and wants something a little different.

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Completed 03/22/18

Completed 03/20/18

Completed 03/16/18½

Great character & storyline development. Many unexpected twists and turns to keep you enthralled. Truths and lies are sometimes impossible to see through.

2.5/5
You can guess from my rating that it's not my favorite book in the series. I loved the previous two, but Blood Torn was an uphill struggle, and it took me over a month to finish it.

What went wrong?

An annoying heroine for once. Phia is one of those, with a big chip on her shoulder, a lot of bluster and hardly any skill to back it up. She works for Alliance, and is taken by the vampires when serryn line jumps from her older sister to her. By sheer miracle she survives, saved by lycans who see in her a way to get a highly needed herb for their upcoming transformation, a herb they are lacking.

Here we come to my second problem, a lack of believable emotional ties to Jask Tao, the lycans leader. He is a nice male character, and I enjoyed reading about him, but I could not see them working together as a couple, Phia was so emotionally immature. I certainly could not believe in their instalove. And yes, I know, it worked for me well enough in the previous books.

Third problem is a lot of talk throughout the book and very little action. There is talk about what to do, what's right and what's wrong and plenty of psychobabble. There are only two pretty awesome moments which enticed me to continue - Phia torturing a vampire as a serryn and Phia going through the tunnel.

The ending is abrupt as well in an attempt to make us wait for an all-out supernatural war in the next book. There was potential here but in my opinion this book was stuck in an editorial limbo - for a paranormal romance it needed less talk and more make out sessions and for an urban fantasy it needed less talk and more action. Oh well, hopefully next book will be better.

This is strange, because I wrote the review few days ago, and now it's disappeared?
Re uploading it again.

Blood Shadows being a paranormal romance took me completely by surprise. Judging by synopsis I was expecting an urban fantasy... Well, sometimes it pays to be wrong.

This book was deliciously dark and scorching hot.



There is not much happening beyond some psychological games, terse conversations and a whole lot of intense sex, but whatever I could see of the world beyond that was really good, and the secondary characters were pretty intriguing as well.

Kane is a baddy, and he does it really well. He doesn't have a sadistic streak per se, more of a predatory streak, but what's important - he plays on it to build a certain reputation. He is clever, sleek and enigmatic. You can't be quite sure of his agenda throughout the whole book.

Caitlin is a bit more mainstream and really not as ruthless and tough as we are led to believe, but in this she reminds me of young Cat from Jeaniene Frost books - full of herself and sure that she is right, so when the betrayal hits she is forced to reassess her values really fast.

As a couple they feel real and powerful, there is a whole lot of insane attraction that leaps off the page. Kane pretty much gets into Caitlin's head and quickly starts figuring out what she really wants even if she doesn't realise it herself.

There is not much drama, but the only drawback of this book is way too much angsty reflection. You know? She is thinking (internal monologue on 2 pages), than he is thinking (another long internal monologue)... It's not bad, but it's repetitive, slows down the pacing and distracts the reader. So if/when they think, they should think faster! Good editing will take care of that. *wink*

Overall, it is simply too good to pass as a series. The author tries to avoid paranormal cliches, so there is no usual mess of soul mates and primitive possession while the female just rolls over and takes it. Instead it's fresh, heady and full of promise. Very much recommended.

Okay, although I didn't love this book as much as Blood Shadows, Lindsay J. Pryor is an author with a great potential. She writes paranormal romance mixed with urban fantasy the way I like it - clever world-building, intense characters and no easy options for them to take. Also, be ready for plenty of blood and violence as it's an integral part of Blackthorn - a paranormal enclave the vampires and werewolves are forced to live in.

Miss Pryor's heroines are faced with dubious moral decisions to make, her heroes are real nasty bastards, the way I always imagined vampires (they are not precious snowflakes full of angst in my book) could be.

I could not read Blood Roses in one go. This is such an intense read, that I felt emotionally wretched and had to walk away from the book few times just to give myself a breather.

Caleb is a born vampire. When his brother drinks dead blood and is on the brink of death, he finds a witch who can cleanse his blood, but the only way to lure her to Blackthorn is to threaten her sister's life.

Leila has been hiding her deadly nature, even struggling against it all her life avoiding anything to do with vampires, and now she has to get deep into Blackthorn's territory to get her sister back, and she is deadly afraid that the vampires will see her for what she is to their race, - an ultimate poison.

Unfortunately for her, her fears come true, and she has very little time to persuade Caleb to let her go before her own carefully constructed life and her sister's existence come crushing down when her secret is revealed.

What follows is a series of intense mind games where Caleb is trying to find out a hidden motive in Leila's appearance by pushing all her buttons, and she is trying not to give him an excuse to kill her, while both fight an absurd and inexplicable sexual attraction.

Blood Roses was an excellent read, although I had to take a point off my rating for a vague ending and some logical discrepancies in plot. If someone is drained to the brink of death, I expect their recovery to involve blood and glucose transfusions, horrible headache and dry mouth at the very least. I don't expect them to wake up like nothing happened and have wild monkey sex. I think it's a reasonable expectation, n'est-pas?

(Correction: after consulting the author, she reassured me that the vampire stopped before the victim lost too much blood, so in this regard I am satisfied).

Recommended with slight reservations.

4.5/5
I am so glad I gave this series another chance, ladies and gents! What happened is that I loved book one and two, was disappointed in book three and skipped book four... However, when I saw that the main characters in book five are Caitlin and Kane - the couple which made me fall in love with Blackthorn, I HAD to give it another go... and it was darkly delicious!



It's choke full of sensual, sizzling sex, heart-breaking tension and an overall gripping and fascinating storyline. It strongly reminded me of The Maker's Song series by Adrian Phoenix.

Despite their undeniable attraction to each other and love that they won't admit to themselves, Caitlyn and Kane continue to work on the opposite sides of the barricade. He is one of the shadow rulers of Blackthorn - the third species' conclave, which human population would love to destroy once and for all. She is an agent of the enforcement agency VCU, hunting Kane and other criminals alike inside and out of Blackthorn.


There are so many reasons for them to stay apart, and yet despite the evidence piling up, indicating that Caitlyn and Kane will destroy each other, they can not give up their feelings. There is this major conspiracy going on designed to force them to betray each other, and I was figuratively biting my nails and holding my breath, racing through this book.


It's very well written. The tension and urgency is razor-blade sharp. You get sick to your stomach along with Caitlyn when she receives evidence against Kane again and again; you feel bitterness of betrayal, when he sees how Caitlyn might be working to put him behind the bars. The storyline is grand and involves an old prophecy which is supposed to bring in the downfall of the human race, and the rule of the third species. There are a few factions working to make sure that the prophecy will or will not come to life to their benefits.


I am not giving any spoilers, but Blood Dark made me very happy. It's not sappy and it skirts a very fine line between PNR and UF without in your face macho bullshit I am so not fond of.



Kane might be possessive but he is also supremely cold-blooded and rational and keeps his secrets very close to his heart. He asks, not demands, but in a way, where Caitlyn knows - one wrong step, and she will lose him. Same vice versa. The dynamics are similar to Raphael and Cyn (D.B. Reynolds), so if you are a fan, you are very likely to find this series enjoyable. It's dark, violent and genuinely suspenseful. Recommended.

When a book - the first in a series - makes you fangirl about a genre you're practically against, you know that:
a) the author is definitely one you want in your to-watch-out-for list and
b) this series is gonna be gooooood!

Caitlin Parish is so close to delivering justice for the death of her parents. She just needs to capture Kane Malloy, a master vampire, and get him to cooperate. But there are many secrets hidden in the dark, concerning not only what happened to Caitlin’s family but also her own career and life so far. And capturing Kane is only going to make them all come to the surface. Suddenly, the creature after her soul is not the most dangerous thing around…

I admit I was afraid to read this book. Despite being an ARC, it had received some negative reviews that pointed out many of my pet peeves, and, worst of all, it had a vampire as a male lead. Those of you who know me well understand why I stress this little detail out. It’s because I’m not a fan of those leeches. They freak me out, and cannot even compare to shifters in my opinion – which is why I prefer shifter romances to vampire ones. But then I decided that I had to give it a try at the very least, and so I began.

It was hard to get into it, at first. Caitlin, while understandably on a tight schedule and scared out of her mind, was making one wrong decision after the other. Kane was trying to act seductive one moment, and good ol’ baddie (no, it wasn’t a typo, I didn’t mean buddy) the other. And there were so many things that kept piling up and I couldn’t get my head in the game. Not to mention those two really were annoying with their issues and sexual tension – and no, it wasn’t the sexual tension of the good kind!

Not to mention, they were each trying to get out of their comfort zone to achieve goals that would only hurt the person they claimed was starting to be really important (aka each other). Caitlin was trying to become a sinner, Kane was trying to become a saint….

Seriously, DON'T....

However, that only took place at some specific moments. Because the rest of the book was filled with mystery – the good kind – and clues (I mean, like, EVERYWHERE!!!) and hotness. While they still had their demons to fight, up until the very last chapter, those two managed to make it through it all alive, together, and most importantly, with their goals somewhat achieved. Success!!!! Also, after some point, the story kept giving us explanations for everything we had come to question, and filled the important gaps.

While I still don’t consider vampires to be my favorite creatures, and Kane with Caitlin were admirable but not my number one fictional couple, this book did manage to make me like the story. It made me cry, most of the time, but that showed it was amazing in driving its point home, because this series is not about sunshine and flowers and sweet romance. It’s about harsh reality, and people either on the dark side, or halfway to it, trying to make something in their world better, even if it seems impossible and unfair for the rest of the story’s universe.

I certainly can’t wait to read the rest of the series – and since you all know me as a shifter (wolf, lycan, whatever) extreme fan, you all know I’m dying to read Jask’s story, right?

Word of warning: Don’t take ANYTHING for granted in this book. You’re in for a ride full of plot twists, so just suck it up and enjoy!

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.***

I love Lindsay J Pryor's 'Blackthorn'. The first book in the series 'Blood Shadows' captured my interest. Book number two 'Blood Roses' is compelling. The story does stand alone as an episode of life in 'Blackthorn'but for maximum enjoyment meet Kane and Caitlin in 'Blood Shadows' first.

Leila is a complex character; devoted sister,lonely woman and Serryn a special kind of witch who hates the Vampire race. Her blood kills Vampires painfully shortly after feeding. Leila is unwillingly lured into 'Blackthorn' after a distressed call from her sister Alisha. The downward spiral continues from there.

Caleb lives by his own rules after earning a deadly reputation for killing Serryn witches.His attitude and sadistic streak make him an anti hero.You should hate him for what he is and what he does.It is his stunning sexuality and well hidden compassion that make him worth saving. His reasons for hating Serryn witches are personal and create an impenetrable barrier which Leila will have to climb if she is to save herself and their future together. Leila may appear to be subjugated by Caleb's will but I think she is the strongest character.

The plot has many twists and turns which allow Caleb and Leila's story to unfold whilst giving tantalising clues about what might happen in 'Blackthorn' in the future.The world building is so clever you are surrounded by it.

I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series 'Blood Torn'.

Completed 03/14/18

Completed 03/07/18½

Completed 03/01/18

Completed 02/28/18½