Review Tuesday: Blindsided by K D Grace - #ReviewTuesday #paranormal #vampire @kd_grace

Blindsided by K D Grace

Self-published, 2017

In Blindsided, Book 2 of the Medusa’s Consortium series, Susan Innes, magical scribe and willing vampire, has been more or less exiled to New York City, along with the treacherous demon imprisoned within her. Back in her native England, she had become a source of emotional conflict between her vampire sire Alonso Darlington and his lover Reese Chambers. Then Alonso and Susan’s lover Michael are kidnapped by a mysterious creature named Cyrus. When Reese shows up in America, he and Susan must work together to rescue the men they love, despite the personal issues that separate them. Forbidden to inform their powerful and terrifying superior Magda Gardener, they struggle to defeat Cyrus and his supernatural armies—and find an unexpected ally in Susan’s resident demon.

Blindsided is pure K D Grace, full of erotic energy, fierce conflicts and difficult decisions. The already tangled web of relationships among her main characters only grows more complex in this second book of her series, as Susan is forced into an intimacy with Reese that neither wants, and the Guardian spirit possessing her reaches out to touch her lover Michael as well.

The novel introduces some intriguing new characters, most notably dedicated police officer Paul Danson, who is somehow immune to vampires’ glamor spells. The story also reveals a good deal more about Magda Gardener, the legendary Medusa—both her history and her personality. In fact there appears to be a chemistry between these two characters, which I’d like to see Ms. Grace explore in the next installment.

Overall, I found the book a bit chaotic. There were too many battle scenes for my personal taste, and perhaps too few love scenes. Still, I enjoyed the ride. The dream-world interactions between Susan and the Guardian took my breath away. The sex-drenched rituals of blood sharing are arousing but still edged with terror. As usual, Ms. Grace does not shy away from the dark sides of lust and power.

Almost all the stories I’ve read by K D Grace have been set in the English countryside. The urban environment in this tale felt a bit strange, unreal. Certainly, I didn’t recognize the New York City I know. That doesn’t matter much, however. The focus in this book, like all of K D Grace’s work, is on the characters—their desires, their fears, their weaknesses and their surprising strengths.

I’m eager to follow Susan, Reese, Michael, Alonso, Magda and Paul into the next book of the series.

(Read my review of In the Flesh, Book 1 of the series, here.)