Indie Book Review: Blood Life Seeker (Kindred #2) by Nicola Claire

 Blood Life Seeker (Kindred, #2) by Nicola Claire ebook Review copy provided by author Self-published, 21st May 2012  Synopsis: “I would die for you Lucinda, I would cast away everything I possess to be near you, I would take anything you willingly give and no more, this is what you mean to me.”Lucinda's relationship with the Master of the City is progressing at an alarming rate, but she is unsure if what she feels is the truth. Or just a by-product of the joining and Bond. Can she even trust her own feelings?To top that off, the vampire governing body has taken an interest in Lucinda and Michel's joining. The Iunctio's attention has now swung towards Lucinda and her kindred. Can they prove themselves to be no threat to those vampires who rule all Nosferatu?Then temptation appears in the form of a hedonist playboy vampire, who does not play by the rules. Lucinda must decide if this new seductive attraction is the correct path for her heart, or the vampire she is tied to for life is her one true love. With such delectable men in her world you'd think life would be a breeze. But, there are whispers of a Prophesy and even Darker days ahead.Lucinda may believe she belongs to no one, but there are those who seek to control her. And she may not have a say in that at all.Review:* This review will contain spoilers for the first book in the series, Kindred (see my review for Kindred)*Life Blood Seeker is the second installment of the Kindred series featuring New Zealand vampire hunter (a.k.a Nosferatu) Lucinda Monk.This time round Lucinda is taken on an emotional rollercoaster; her best mate Rick wants to kill her (literally!), she’s having boy troubles and of course she’s caught up in a whole lot of problems associated with her role as a hunter and because of her relationship with Michel.Now that Lucinda has bonded with Michel, a powerful vampire, their emotional and physical connection has been intensified and their relationship is progressing quicker than Lucinda expected. She is still battling the uncertainty of her feelings for Michel, are they real or are they a fabrication of the bond?When another prominent vampire, known as The Enforcer (a.k.a Gregor) visits her during her dreamwalk she is deceived into exchanging a marking with him and finds herself attracted to him and drawn to him on an intense, physical level. This obviously creates some tension between her and Michel and now she is connected to two vampires who influence her feelings and she quickly begins to lose control over reality and fantasy.I really enjoyed Kindred where I really liked Lucinda as a feisty, strong heroine, a vampire hunter who falls in love with a vampire. But unfortunately Blood Life Seeker just didn’t have the same impact on me. I struggled with being able to connect with Michel and Lucinda this time, because frankly I didn’t really like them much. Michel has deceived Lucinda and she becomes aware of this.  As for Lucinda, she was completely confused about her feelings throughout most of the book and kept bouncing back between Michel and Gregor. Even when she establishes a treaty so they will both give her some space it doesn’t even last 24 hours. There were times I wanted to shake her and tell her to have some self-control even though I knew she was influenced by the powers of the vampire bonds and marks.Also, as I said in my review of Kindred, I felt that this book could have benefited from a little extra editing; some scenes were too long because Lucinda’s internal thought processes were constantly dissected and at times was just too much. It could have been cut so the pacing matched the suspense and action of the plot.Despite these couple of setbacks, I did enjoy the paranormal plot and the numerous challenges that Lucinda faces and manages to overcome. There’s not much of a role for Rick (her shapeshifter mate) and Nero (her nesferatu mentor) but the addition of Gregor created a different dynamic to the story which I liked. Also, set in Auckland, there’s a real sense of place for this series with Lucinda working at the local bank and her involvement with the supernatural underground.Even though there were some things that didn’t work for me in this sequel, the Kindred series is a great premise with a gutsy heroine in a setting that’s close to home. I think the author has published up to about book six in this series, but I’d recommend starting at the beginning to see how it all began. They are getting some fantastic reviews on Goodreads so if you’re still deciding whether to give the series a try, check out what some of the fans are saying and see what you think.

Overall Rating

3/5

“It was okay”

 Blood Life Seeker can be purchased @ Smashwords or Amazon

Other titles in the Kindred series:About the author: Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband and two young boys. She's tried her hand at being a paramedic, bank teller, foreign exchange consultant and children's party shop owner, (not all necessarily in that order), but her love of writing keeps calling her back. A staunch supporter of the eBook phenomenon and Indie Authors worldwide, you can find her books at all good eBook stores online.