Doug's Review of Blood and Sand by Elizabeth Hunter

Title: Blood and Sand (Elemental World)#2
Author: Elizabeth Hunter
Author's Website: Elemental Books Site or Elizabeth Hunter Blog
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Genre: Paranormal Romance with a Bit of Action/Suspense
Length: 285 pgs
Buy Link: Blood and Sand (Elemental World)#2

NOTE: While this book can be read and enjoyed without reading the preceding novels I would advise against it. The best reading order would be:

The Elemental Mysteries (Best Series of 2011/12- Click here for Series Review)

A Hidden Fire - FREE BOOK! You can decide for free.
This Same Earth
The Force of Wind
A Fall of Water

The Elemental World Novels

Building From Ashes
Waterlocked: An Elemental World Novella (Good story but can be skipped)
Blood and Sand

Summary:

Dead women are showing up in the desert east of San Diego, and no one understands why. When the story comes to the attention of reporter Natalie Ellis, she can’t help but make comparisons to tragic deaths she’d investigated years ago. Are these women the victims of a serial killer, or something even more insidious?

Bodies may be piling up in his sire’s territory, but water vampire and feared enforcer Baojia is stuck entertaining the rich and clueless at a club in San Diego. He’s taken his exile with all the grace he could muster, but his patience is starting to thin.

Sparks fly when mortal and immortal are thrown together, and Natalie comes face to face with a reality that was lurking in the corners of her life. Pursuing the truth could cost Baojia everything, including the mortal woman who has earned his grudging respect.

Doug's Review:

This story begins with us finding Baojia running a club in San Diego as a form of punishment for his failing to protect B in a previous novel. He is vastly underutilized since he was one of the more feared enforcers in this Elemental World universe.

Natalie is a reporter that seems to have a great lack of fear or self preservation, both of which will get her into numerous situations that require Baojia to extract her from with all bodily parts and fluids intact.

This is a romance novel at heart but action filled perhaps bit more than previous novels (which I enjoyed) while not ignoring the romantic aspects of this story. The appearance of many of the characters from previous Elemental novels adds to the enjoyment and adds what I would call a “comfort” level to this book since it makes it flow more into the continuous overarching storyline from previous novels, especially concerning the “elixir”.

One of the biggest subplots of this story is the relationship between Baojia and his sire Ernesto; a story which I am wondering is actually at an end or not since Ms Hunter paints us a conflicting picture of Ernesto as being a mixture of sensitive and ruthless.

Bottom Line: This may be one of the best books in the whole series, the characters are well drawn and the story while resolved leave many things open for future plots. I have to say this was pretty much a 5 Star reading experience for me.









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