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Bloodlands #3
In Blood We Trust
They are Mariah, the reluctant rebel who has become a god to others of her kind, and Gabriel, the vampire, who loves her at his own peril.
They have returned to the Bloodlands, where their story began-to face the horrors of Mariah's past and the uncertainties of Gabriel's future- and to make a final stand, for their lives-and their love.
They have returned to the Bloodlands, where their story began-to face the horrors of Mariah's past and the uncertainties of Gabriel's future- and to make a final stand, for their lives-and their love.
295 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 27, 2011
3 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
Christine Cody
3 books26 followersChristine Cody is also the author of the urban fantasy Vampire Babylon (w/a Chris Marie Green). Until about six years ago, she was an eighth-grade teacher, but she became a full-time author who has published over thirty-five books under this name as well as the pseudonym Crystal Green. You can follow her occasionally fanatical yen for pop culture on Twitter and Facebook.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 20, 2011
Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy
Trilogies have have wonderful opportunities to tell expanded yet concise stories that fully explore a world and the characters that inhabit it without ever growing stale or redundant. The Bloodlands trilogy takes full advantage of this. Each book has rippled out and revealed larger and larger realities about this post-apocalyptic setting. From the cave settlements and small cast of characters in BLOODLANDS, to the city life of the hubs in BLOOD RULES, and now the surrounding cities as well in IN BLOOD WE TRUST.
As you can imagine, as this world has grown, so have the number of characters. The additional POVs introduced in BLOOD RULES are back and given much more prominence and even distinct storylines and romances. Again, I felt this came at the expense of the primary story arc and relationship between Mariah and Gabriel. While I appreciate the varied insights these other characters provided, I never really connected with any of them and found myself rushing through their chapters.
I also had some issues with a few scenes that crossed over into the ‘ick’ category for me. A near orgy that broke out with Mariah and Gabriel at the center, a hot and heavy sex scene that took place literary rolling in the blood and remains of dead bodies, and a romance that developed between a man and a Tik-Tik woman (a creature who kills pregnant woman to eat babies). It was enough that I almost put the book down several times.
Overall, this was a series that started out with a ton of promise, but with each subsequent book, that promise diminished. The worldbuilding and mythology remained consistently strong and fascinating throughout, and I was completely hooked in the romance between Mariah and Gabriel, but I wish the tone and intimacy of the first book had continued through IN BLOOD WE TRUST. Taken as a whole, the Bloodlands series is worth reading, even if it doesn’t finish as strongly as it should have.
Sexual Content:
A couple moderately graphic sex scenes. A scene that almost turns into an orgy.
Trilogies have have wonderful opportunities to tell expanded yet concise stories that fully explore a world and the characters that inhabit it without ever growing stale or redundant. The Bloodlands trilogy takes full advantage of this. Each book has rippled out and revealed larger and larger realities about this post-apocalyptic setting. From the cave settlements and small cast of characters in BLOODLANDS, to the city life of the hubs in BLOOD RULES, and now the surrounding cities as well in IN BLOOD WE TRUST.
As you can imagine, as this world has grown, so have the number of characters. The additional POVs introduced in BLOOD RULES are back and given much more prominence and even distinct storylines and romances. Again, I felt this came at the expense of the primary story arc and relationship between Mariah and Gabriel. While I appreciate the varied insights these other characters provided, I never really connected with any of them and found myself rushing through their chapters.
I also had some issues with a few scenes that crossed over into the ‘ick’ category for me. A near orgy that broke out with Mariah and Gabriel at the center, a hot and heavy sex scene that took place literary rolling in the blood and remains of dead bodies, and a romance that developed between a man and a Tik-Tik woman (a creature who kills pregnant woman to eat babies). It was enough that I almost put the book down several times.
Overall, this was a series that started out with a ton of promise, but with each subsequent book, that promise diminished. The worldbuilding and mythology remained consistently strong and fascinating throughout, and I was completely hooked in the romance between Mariah and Gabriel, but I wish the tone and intimacy of the first book had continued through IN BLOOD WE TRUST. Taken as a whole, the Bloodlands series is worth reading, even if it doesn’t finish as strongly as it should have.
Sexual Content:
A couple moderately graphic sex scenes. A scene that almost turns into an orgy.
October 23, 2011
*Rating* 3.0
*Genre* Paranormal Romance/Science Fiction/Dystopian with a wild west backdrop
*Review* post 10/23/2011
In Blood We Trust is the final installment of the Bloodlands trilogy. The Bloodlands trilogy is a post-apocalyptic western fantasy series.
The series main characters, Mariah Lyander and Gabriel Bruce, are still at the GBVille facility trying to sort out not only their relationship, but Mariah’s altered state of appearance after she drank the blood from creature 562 and put it into a trance like state of existence.
In the previous book, Blood Rules, it was revealed that 562 is the mother and father of the monsters like vampires, and were-creatures. It was thought that with its death that all the monsters would eventually revert back to their human form. That hasn’t happened, nor will it as long as 562 slumbers.
Mariah’s new non-lunar facade scares the crap out of some people living in GBville (including her own intel dog Chaplin), while making her an almost godlike creature in the eyes of the vampires who start to slowly take full control of the residents and the facility. They see Mariah as the new 562 to be protected at all times. Mariah’s powers have tripled since drinking 562’s blood.
Mariah also has a personal vendetta that she means to get to before it’s too late. That, of course, means going back to Dallas and finding the men responsible for turning a werewolf on her, and her family, thus changing her life forever.
Gabriel, meanwhile, has become more of mature vampire as the days pass by and his bloodlust grows. He can no longer drink Mariah’s blood without the fear of being poisoned. So, he looks elsewhere. He also has a growing ability to freeze the minds of almost anyone he meets.
When a Civil is attack, and drained by vampires, Gabriel ends up as one of the prime suspects. With Mariah feeling the need to get away from GBVille, she and Gabriel storm off to Dallas and a face to face confrontation with her maker, which was pretty expected including the outcome.
The attack on the Civil couldn’t have come at a worse time for the former prisoners of GBville. Civils and Reds are slowly turning against each other and sides are being drawn with the Oldster (Michael) stuck right in the middle of things as the default leader and enforcer of the law. Witches, or the new monster hunting Shredders, are still in the picture and willing to do anything to stop the spread of the monster uprising.
It gets to the point where the vampires have no other choice but to offer to turn the human survivors into vampires; including Johnson Stamp and his partner Deitra (Mags) Montemagni.
The story reverts back to Blood Rules story telling in that we get several different points of view; Mariah, Gabriel, Oldster, and Stamp.
Thoughts and Opinions:
1. I really didn’t much care for the whole travelling to Dallas to do vigilante justice and having it be so damn short. I was expecting it to be more than half the story. Mariah’s whole existence since she was attacked and changed into a werewolf has been her desire for justice against those who tore her family apart, and Chaplin trying to keep Mariah’s humanity in check. I was expecting more of a hunt and chase, not a whimper of an ending.
2. Taraline has been an interesting character since being introduced in Blood Rules. I don’t think you could have asked for any more participation from her in this story. My only question for the writer would be was Taraline cured of her disease that ravaged her body? Does she become another daughter of 562 like Mariah? Or, will she eventually choose to become a vampire like Mags and other humans?
3. I truly hated the ending of this story and series. It left so many questions unanswered, including the whole relationship between Mariah and Gabriel. I’m not a huge fan of the fact that they can only be together for 3 days a month; otherwise, Gabriel has no emotional attachment or feelings for Mariah in his new vampire state.
4. Cody leaves a wide open option to further tell this story down the road when she indicates that the monster have basically taken over the former US and are now fighting their way towards DC to enslave the rest of humanity. Ok, so, are we ever going to find out what happens, and is Mariah also heading that way as it appears in the story? Open ended storytelling like this boggles my mind and makes me wonder if there was a rush to finish this series so that she can move onto something else.
5. Stamp was a character who never changed his stripes. He was a former Shredder who realized that monsters were spreading out into his area. He never once decided to give into the monsters and be changed into something he wasn't. His ending was as expected.
Finally, I would recommend this series to my friends, but with a warning that the story takes patience and understanding of the various characters that are introduced. This is, afterall, a story about monsters, not humans. I would hope that eventually Cody would spin off some of the characters into a single story, but, I won't hold my breath for that to happen.
Book was borrowed from library, and no compensation was offered for my review.
*Genre* Paranormal Romance/Science Fiction/Dystopian with a wild west backdrop
*Review* post 10/23/2011
In Blood We Trust is the final installment of the Bloodlands trilogy. The Bloodlands trilogy is a post-apocalyptic western fantasy series.
The series main characters, Mariah Lyander and Gabriel Bruce, are still at the GBVille facility trying to sort out not only their relationship, but Mariah’s altered state of appearance after she drank the blood from creature 562 and put it into a trance like state of existence.
In the previous book, Blood Rules, it was revealed that 562 is the mother and father of the monsters like vampires, and were-creatures. It was thought that with its death that all the monsters would eventually revert back to their human form. That hasn’t happened, nor will it as long as 562 slumbers.
Mariah’s new non-lunar facade scares the crap out of some people living in GBville (including her own intel dog Chaplin), while making her an almost godlike creature in the eyes of the vampires who start to slowly take full control of the residents and the facility. They see Mariah as the new 562 to be protected at all times. Mariah’s powers have tripled since drinking 562’s blood.
Mariah also has a personal vendetta that she means to get to before it’s too late. That, of course, means going back to Dallas and finding the men responsible for turning a werewolf on her, and her family, thus changing her life forever.
Gabriel, meanwhile, has become more of mature vampire as the days pass by and his bloodlust grows. He can no longer drink Mariah’s blood without the fear of being poisoned. So, he looks elsewhere. He also has a growing ability to freeze the minds of almost anyone he meets.
When a Civil is attack, and drained by vampires, Gabriel ends up as one of the prime suspects. With Mariah feeling the need to get away from GBVille, she and Gabriel storm off to Dallas and a face to face confrontation with her maker, which was pretty expected including the outcome.
The attack on the Civil couldn’t have come at a worse time for the former prisoners of GBville. Civils and Reds are slowly turning against each other and sides are being drawn with the Oldster (Michael) stuck right in the middle of things as the default leader and enforcer of the law. Witches, or the new monster hunting Shredders, are still in the picture and willing to do anything to stop the spread of the monster uprising.
It gets to the point where the vampires have no other choice but to offer to turn the human survivors into vampires; including Johnson Stamp and his partner Deitra (Mags) Montemagni.
The story reverts back to Blood Rules story telling in that we get several different points of view; Mariah, Gabriel, Oldster, and Stamp.
Thoughts and Opinions:
1. I really didn’t much care for the whole travelling to Dallas to do vigilante justice and having it be so damn short. I was expecting it to be more than half the story. Mariah’s whole existence since she was attacked and changed into a werewolf has been her desire for justice against those who tore her family apart, and Chaplin trying to keep Mariah’s humanity in check. I was expecting more of a hunt and chase, not a whimper of an ending.
2. Taraline has been an interesting character since being introduced in Blood Rules. I don’t think you could have asked for any more participation from her in this story. My only question for the writer would be was Taraline cured of her disease that ravaged her body? Does she become another daughter of 562 like Mariah? Or, will she eventually choose to become a vampire like Mags and other humans?
3. I truly hated the ending of this story and series. It left so many questions unanswered, including the whole relationship between Mariah and Gabriel. I’m not a huge fan of the fact that they can only be together for 3 days a month; otherwise, Gabriel has no emotional attachment or feelings for Mariah in his new vampire state.
4. Cody leaves a wide open option to further tell this story down the road when she indicates that the monster have basically taken over the former US and are now fighting their way towards DC to enslave the rest of humanity. Ok, so, are we ever going to find out what happens, and is Mariah also heading that way as it appears in the story? Open ended storytelling like this boggles my mind and makes me wonder if there was a rush to finish this series so that she can move onto something else.
5. Stamp was a character who never changed his stripes. He was a former Shredder who realized that monsters were spreading out into his area. He never once decided to give into the monsters and be changed into something he wasn't. His ending was as expected.
Finally, I would recommend this series to my friends, but with a warning that the story takes patience and understanding of the various characters that are introduced. This is, afterall, a story about monsters, not humans. I would hope that eventually Cody would spin off some of the characters into a single story, but, I won't hold my breath for that to happen.
Book was borrowed from library, and no compensation was offered for my review.
May 19, 2012
As far as I know, In Blood We Trust, is the conclusion to Christine Cody's Bloodlands novels. Of course I could be wrong, but I had thought I heard that it was a trilogy. And the ending does leave you feeling that the story may be finished.
Our heroes are still battling their inner monsters, Mariah is dealing with her new self that 562 turned her into and Gabriel is still battling his vampire and trying to cling to his humanity. But there's tension among the ranks. The once prisoners are starting to turn against one another. Shifters against vampires and what not, but when one is murdered, they know it's one of their own. Gabriel is worried, because while he was there at the time of the murder he can't remember what happened precisely.
So he runs and takes Mariah with him. It was here I thought that the bulk of the story would happen with Mariah and Gabriel on the run, hiding from the people they once called allies, but it doesn't actually. Mariah and Gabriel do go back to Mariah's old home so she can have closure, but they do go back to their hideout to their friends. Only they don't get a warm welcome.
The pacing to this one was much better than the previous ones I thought, you kept wondering what was going to happen next. Would a good guy turn bad, a bad guy turn good. A sketchy character take a serious leap into something else entirely? There were quite a few surprises along the way. Big ones! Scary ones, sad ones, and more! I was blown away by the end! And the end was a shocker as well.
Like I said though it leaves you wondering if there might be more to the story or not. It could go either way and perhaps Christine did it this way purposely. Either way, it had a good ending that definitely got some emotions out of me, but I won't say which!
Overall rating 4/5 stars
Our heroes are still battling their inner monsters, Mariah is dealing with her new self that 562 turned her into and Gabriel is still battling his vampire and trying to cling to his humanity. But there's tension among the ranks. The once prisoners are starting to turn against one another. Shifters against vampires and what not, but when one is murdered, they know it's one of their own. Gabriel is worried, because while he was there at the time of the murder he can't remember what happened precisely.
So he runs and takes Mariah with him. It was here I thought that the bulk of the story would happen with Mariah and Gabriel on the run, hiding from the people they once called allies, but it doesn't actually. Mariah and Gabriel do go back to Mariah's old home so she can have closure, but they do go back to their hideout to their friends. Only they don't get a warm welcome.
The pacing to this one was much better than the previous ones I thought, you kept wondering what was going to happen next. Would a good guy turn bad, a bad guy turn good. A sketchy character take a serious leap into something else entirely? There were quite a few surprises along the way. Big ones! Scary ones, sad ones, and more! I was blown away by the end! And the end was a shocker as well.
Like I said though it leaves you wondering if there might be more to the story or not. It could go either way and perhaps Christine did it this way purposely. Either way, it had a good ending that definitely got some emotions out of me, but I won't say which!
Overall rating 4/5 stars
July 30, 2013
Have you ever walked thinking about how you will for ever be alone, feeling alone and wondering where you will end up? Thinking that maybe just maybe as you turn around you see someone out of the corner of your eye? Hoping that there is still someone who cares enough about you to follow you to make sure that you are alright.
In Blood we Trust we have the story of what came to be. Of what happened on fruitless night when several mind crazed vampires happened upon a were giraffe. Gabriel and Mariah, two beings destined to be together yet far apart, have come long ways from what they knew at the Badlands. Things have changed and so have they.
In this last book by Christine Cody we see how we all loose ourselves into trying to become what we need to be. Trying to hold on to the last vestiges of ourselves all the while we evolve into what/who we need to be. Although there could have been parts where the story line could have taken a different turn, it came out as good as can be expected. I saw what being turned into something to someone else can be when all you have wanted to be was accepted. We get that a lot in following Mariah's evolution from being a teen girl, to being bitten and transforming into a were creature, to being something new all together that she is trying to figure out. That was what really drew me to this last book. The transformation of ourselves knowing that there comes a time when we have to leave what we cherish behind to become something more something different.
As for Gabriel, he became what he desired not to become yet he changed too. He realized that he needed to let go of the last vestiges of his life to be what he needed to be even though it wasn't something he really wanted to be. He wanted to be more but fell into that trap of the inevitable.
In Blood we Trust we have the story of what came to be. Of what happened on fruitless night when several mind crazed vampires happened upon a were giraffe. Gabriel and Mariah, two beings destined to be together yet far apart, have come long ways from what they knew at the Badlands. Things have changed and so have they.
In this last book by Christine Cody we see how we all loose ourselves into trying to become what we need to be. Trying to hold on to the last vestiges of ourselves all the while we evolve into what/who we need to be. Although there could have been parts where the story line could have taken a different turn, it came out as good as can be expected. I saw what being turned into something to someone else can be when all you have wanted to be was accepted. We get that a lot in following Mariah's evolution from being a teen girl, to being bitten and transforming into a were creature, to being something new all together that she is trying to figure out. That was what really drew me to this last book. The transformation of ourselves knowing that there comes a time when we have to leave what we cherish behind to become something more something different.
As for Gabriel, he became what he desired not to become yet he changed too. He realized that he needed to let go of the last vestiges of his life to be what he needed to be even though it wasn't something he really wanted to be. He wanted to be more but fell into that trap of the inevitable.
March 5, 2012
This is a repeat of my review for the Blood Rules, as I found the same issue in both books.
Disappointing. Maybe this is because I came in in the middle of the series, but this was nearly unreadable.
I love sci fi, and urban fantasy, and adapt easily to new sets of jargon and language shifts, but this book was really poorly written in that the author self-consciously uses LEET as a separate language, uses terms without defining them in the text, and the story line is really hard to follow.
I also tried to read the second novel in the series, had the same issues with it. I will not be picking up another Christine Cody book, that's for sure.
Disappointing. Maybe this is because I came in in the middle of the series, but this was nearly unreadable.
I love sci fi, and urban fantasy, and adapt easily to new sets of jargon and language shifts, but this book was really poorly written in that the author self-consciously uses LEET as a separate language, uses terms without defining them in the text, and the story line is really hard to follow.
I also tried to read the second novel in the series, had the same issues with it. I will not be picking up another Christine Cody book, that's for sure.
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December 17, 2011The end of the series will leave you feeling both sad and happy. Cody closed the series perfectly. It is not an easy happily ever after; there is still a lot of pain for both Mariah and Gabriel. It is not the perfect ending that you usually expect for characters you become attached to. But the ending fits with the whole series, and in it Gabriel upholds his one promise he made to Mariah in the beginning.
If you were let down by parts of the first two books the third one will at least give you closure.
If you were let down by parts of the first two books the third one will at least give you closure.
August 3, 2012
Having fallen in love with the characters and story in book 1Bloodlands it saddens me that the trilogy ended this way, because while I read the entire book fairly quickly it lacked the impact that I expected. The story also left too much hanging and too many questions not answered fully.
That being said would love to read something else by the author at some point.
That being said would love to read something else by the author at some point.
October 20, 2011
I'm not a fan of the ending- and the storyline seemed to be all over the place. It was all I could do to finish it.
December 16, 2011
This is a wonderful series. BUT, if you are looking for easy answers and a big HEA. perhaps not the series for you
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May 28, 2018restarting this book on nov 19
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