Blood Curse series by Tessa Dawn

Blood Curse series by Tessa Dawn

What is the Blood Curse?

In 800 BC, Prince Jadon and Prince Jaegar Demir were banished from their Romanian homeland after being cursed by a ghostly apparition: the reincarnated blood of their numerous, female victims. They belonged to an ancient society that had sacrificed its females to the point of extinction, and the punishment was severe.  

They were forced to roam the earth in darkness as creatures of the night. They were condemned to feed on the blood of the innocent and stripped of their ability to produce female offspring. They were damned to father twin sons by human hosts who would die wretchedly upon giving birth; and the first born of the first set would forever be required as a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of their forefathers.

Staggered by the enormity of The Curse, Prince Jadon, whose own hands had never shed blood, begged his accuser for leniency and received four small mercies -- four exceptions to the curse that would apply to his house and his descendants, alone.

•     Though still creatures of the night, they would be allowed to walk in the sun,
•       Though still required to live on blood, they would not be forced to take the lives of the innocent,
•       While still incapable of producing female offspring, they would be given one opportunity and thirty-days to obtain a mate -- a human female, chosen by the gods -- following a sign that appeared in the heavens,
•       While still required to sacrifice a first born son, their twins would be born as one child of darkness and one child of light, allowing them to sacrifice the former while keeping the latter to carry on their race.

And so...  Forever banished from their homeland in the Transylvanian mountains of Eastern Europe, the descendants of Jaegar and the descendants of Jadon became the Vampyr of legend: roaming the earth, ruling the elements, living on the blood of others...forever bound by an ancient curse.

They were brothers of the same species, separated only by degrees of light and shadow.

My thoughts

I’ll start by giving a warning to the faint of heart.

This series is not your typical paranormal romance.  Its dark and intense and holds nothing back. Tessa Dawn does not shy away from uncomfortable topics so if you are uncomfortable with violence, then you may want to pass on this one.  

That being said, in my opinion, the graphic scenes of the dark vampires made the story better by not skimming over the touchy subjects.  It is essential to the plot to understand the violent nature and ruthlessness of the dark vampires that descended from Jaegar, and how they differ from the more noble and principled vampires that descended from Jaden.

Personally, I think this series is spectacular!  It’s a unique outlook on vampire history that is compelling and engaging.  We see old vampires that are truly immortal, have lived centuries or millennia, have control over early elements and cannot be killed easily.  Despite the darkness, it is still a paranormal romance at heart.  The light vampires are vulnerable in their desire and longing for their true mate.

They know their mate by the blood red moon that appears when they meet.  They have 30 days after that to convince her to understand the curse and bind with them despite the curse.  If they do not succeed, they die. 

What endeared me to the story is the portrayal of the unconditional love that exists between brothers, the brother’s immense capacity for love, and respect they show the people they care for who sustains them with blood they need to survive. 

Mating with a modern day woman poses challenges and obstacles for the older vampires that make the story believable.  As you can imagine, the necessary ritualistic sacrifice of the first-born twin is traumatic and heart wrenching to both the brothers and their mates.  Tessa is able to convincingly convey the emotional trauma this would cause. 

This is a story of good vs. evil, light vs. dark, and love and sacrifice.  Well written, suspenseful, and unpredictable, this story is high on my list of favorites for 2011.  

5 Bad Boys – Absolutely Must Read!!!!!