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Bound by Blood
In his two-hundred and fifty years as a vampire, Alex only observed, never intervened with any of his progeny, yet what else can he do when a little girl of his lineage is kidnapped? When he meets Lisa, the child’s nanny, his protective instincts kick into gear, yet he finds he must expose her to ever increasing danger as they search for the missing child. To protect Lisa from perils she is unaware of, he harbors her in his own home.With Lisa’s help, Alex is able to determine who has the child. Learning why she was abducted rocks him on his heels and sets off a transcontinental search that leads to ancient myths of the Cardinal’s Ruby; the stone in Alex’s ring.Alex and Lisa have one shot to save the child, but will they be able to stop the impending destruction raining down?
218 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 5, 2012
13 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
Tara Manderino
16 books34 followers Author Tara Manderino loves to create stories and situations for the people running around in her head. She first began writing in third grade when she realized she couldn't afford her reading habit.
She writes and is published in a variety of genres and finds that each one is her favorite at the time. Her books are available at a variety of online retailers.
Tara resides in her native town in southwestern Pennsylvania. When she’s not chasing Lydia, the boxer, she’s writing her own stories, or reading, Tara likes to bake, watch old movies, and do a variety of crafts.
Find Tara on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taramanderino
Author Page FB-- https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tar...
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TManderino
Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/taramanderino
She writes and is published in a variety of genres and finds that each one is her favorite at the time. Her books are available at a variety of online retailers.
Tara resides in her native town in southwestern Pennsylvania. When she’s not chasing Lydia, the boxer, she’s writing her own stories, or reading, Tara likes to bake, watch old movies, and do a variety of crafts.
Find Tara on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taramanderino
Author Page FB-- https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tar...
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TManderino
Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/taramanderino
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 3, 2015
1.5
I'm afraid I gave up on this at 40%. I just wasn't going to be able to make it any farther. (And I hate not finishing a book.) It's like Manderino went out and read the 50 most popular PNR novel and then took the 50 most common scenes and crammed them into a novel. As a literary experiment, it might have been interesting, but as an attempt at a readable novel it failed.
For example, how many PNR books have you read in which a man can't get a woman to be quiet so he kisses her? Yep, that's in here, except it makes even less sense than normal (and lets be honest, it almost never makes sense anyway). Here they're running down a sidewalk, in a hurry, both mad and he actually even has a free hand he could cover her mouth with if just stressing the importance of quiet didn't work for him. Plus, it REALLY came out of nowhere.
Or how about the 'the only way I can keep you safe is if you come to my house' trope? Yep, that's here too. But it shows up after the characters have known eachother for less than 24 hours, only in professional capacity and there has been no credible build-up of...well, of anything (friendship, lust, love, trust, anything). The two had hardly even spoken. The reason these scenes are familiar is that they pop up a lot, but to see one book with so many of them (even at only 40% through) makes the whole thing feel horribly unimaginative.
Everything is flat. There is no emotional resonance in anything. Alex tells Lisa he's a vampire...no reaction. He flies with her across the room..."nice trick," she says. But even worse than that, is the whole attempt at a romance. The book pulls all the expected shticks. He can't stop thinking of her. He's enamoured, but doesn't know why. Bla Bla Bla. But the thing is that their meeting is dull. There is no build-up in their attraction, but neither is there any dun dun dunn big deal meeting. So, Alex's attraction to her (or love or lust or whatever, it's not even clear because it's so poorly executed) feels completely out of left field, unsupported and hollow...FLAT, like everything else in the first 40% of the novel.
Alex is supposed to care so much that his great-great...granddaughter has been kidnapped, but he doesn't seem to actually be all that concerned. She's referred to as 'the child' throughout the book, he walks away even after discovering where she is, he never asks what she's like, etc. Again, it's just FLAT.
The heroine is Too Stupid To Live and does all the expected stupid things that heroines do in such books. She runs off on her own after being told how dangerous it is because she didn't get her way. She disbelieves everything she's told loooong after her disbelief is no longer believable (come on, the man picked her up and levitated across the room and she didn't bat an eyelash and still didn't believe he was a vampire when he told her). She makes rescue attempts on her own instead of calling anyone for help, etc. Honestly, it's the TSTL aspect of the book that finally made me give up. When she ignored all reasonable warnings about the danger and AGAIN ran out on her own to try and rescue Sandy I gave up.
But nothing was helped by the fact that there are no transitions between events, no character development, no world-building, and names are used too often in dialogue. The book needs a copy edit and I just can't take anymore.
I normally wouldn't review the book since I didn't finish it. But since it was the fifth book in my Bound By Blood challenge (I set out to read five books titled Bound By Blood.), not reviewing it would leave my challenge incomplete and that would haunt me. And since the book was such that I wasn't able to stomach finishing it, I couldn't accord it more than the one star.
I'm afraid I gave up on this at 40%. I just wasn't going to be able to make it any farther. (And I hate not finishing a book.) It's like Manderino went out and read the 50 most popular PNR novel and then took the 50 most common scenes and crammed them into a novel. As a literary experiment, it might have been interesting, but as an attempt at a readable novel it failed.
For example, how many PNR books have you read in which a man can't get a woman to be quiet so he kisses her? Yep, that's in here, except it makes even less sense than normal (and lets be honest, it almost never makes sense anyway). Here they're running down a sidewalk, in a hurry, both mad and he actually even has a free hand he could cover her mouth with if just stressing the importance of quiet didn't work for him. Plus, it REALLY came out of nowhere.
Or how about the 'the only way I can keep you safe is if you come to my house' trope? Yep, that's here too. But it shows up after the characters have known eachother for less than 24 hours, only in professional capacity and there has been no credible build-up of...well, of anything (friendship, lust, love, trust, anything). The two had hardly even spoken. The reason these scenes are familiar is that they pop up a lot, but to see one book with so many of them (even at only 40% through) makes the whole thing feel horribly unimaginative.
Everything is flat. There is no emotional resonance in anything. Alex tells Lisa he's a vampire...no reaction. He flies with her across the room..."nice trick," she says. But even worse than that, is the whole attempt at a romance. The book pulls all the expected shticks. He can't stop thinking of her. He's enamoured, but doesn't know why. Bla Bla Bla. But the thing is that their meeting is dull. There is no build-up in their attraction, but neither is there any dun dun dunn big deal meeting. So, Alex's attraction to her (or love or lust or whatever, it's not even clear because it's so poorly executed) feels completely out of left field, unsupported and hollow...FLAT, like everything else in the first 40% of the novel.
Alex is supposed to care so much that his great-great...granddaughter has been kidnapped, but he doesn't seem to actually be all that concerned. She's referred to as 'the child' throughout the book, he walks away even after discovering where she is, he never asks what she's like, etc. Again, it's just FLAT.
The heroine is Too Stupid To Live and does all the expected stupid things that heroines do in such books. She runs off on her own after being told how dangerous it is because she didn't get her way. She disbelieves everything she's told loooong after her disbelief is no longer believable (come on, the man picked her up and levitated across the room and she didn't bat an eyelash and still didn't believe he was a vampire when he told her). She makes rescue attempts on her own instead of calling anyone for help, etc. Honestly, it's the TSTL aspect of the book that finally made me give up. When she ignored all reasonable warnings about the danger and AGAIN ran out on her own to try and rescue Sandy I gave up.
But nothing was helped by the fact that there are no transitions between events, no character development, no world-building, and names are used too often in dialogue. The book needs a copy edit and I just can't take anymore.
I normally wouldn't review the book since I didn't finish it. But since it was the fifth book in my Bound By Blood challenge (I set out to read five books titled Bound By Blood.), not reviewing it would leave my challenge incomplete and that would haunt me. And since the book was such that I wasn't able to stomach finishing it, I couldn't accord it more than the one star.
April 18, 2012
THIS was one of the hardest books for me to finish in a long time. It took everything in me not to delete this book from my Kindle. ( his name is Bernard BTW) This book was flat and boring and kept going and going and hardly ever getting to the point. The Author used parts of real history in the story but the description of the evens were all lumped into once or two scenes. I am not a quitter when it comes to books. I always make the effort to finish what I start but this was NOT an easy one.
Alex is a Vampire and Lisa is a nanny for a member of his distant lineage. When the little girl gets kidnapped they have to work together to find her and the reason why she was kidnapped.
The Plot was confusing. It was anti-climatic at the end. The romance was so strangely awkward. The reason Lisa was a nanny and never had any friends was NEVER explained. I kept reading and hoping that some where along the lines everything would come together and it so never did. It didn’t make much sense over all and the cohesive story was just flat. I honestly hope that this was a fluke for this Author. As usual I am willing to give the Author another chance but this book was a flat out fail for me.
Alex is a Vampire and Lisa is a nanny for a member of his distant lineage. When the little girl gets kidnapped they have to work together to find her and the reason why she was kidnapped.
The Plot was confusing. It was anti-climatic at the end. The romance was so strangely awkward. The reason Lisa was a nanny and never had any friends was NEVER explained. I kept reading and hoping that some where along the lines everything would come together and it so never did. It didn’t make much sense over all and the cohesive story was just flat. I honestly hope that this was a fluke for this Author. As usual I am willing to give the Author another chance but this book was a flat out fail for me.
July 18, 2012
Bound by Blood is not your typical vampire story. Lisa is a nanny for the Morgan's little girl Sandy. Sandy is kidnapped from a park. We meet Alex as he is hot FBI agent. I liked Lisa's protective nature of Sandy right off the bat. Lisa just wants to get Sandy back. Alex is mysterious and has his heart in the right place. He is used to telling people what to do and have them listen. Lisa does not always listen. The Morgans you can tell not everything is on the up and up with them. Louis is a friend of Alex and adds some fun to the mix. I liked significance of the ring and that to uncover the mystery Lisa needed her dads help. They all had to work as a team. This was not a one man show. To me when Lisa gave Alex the ring back ~how she got it back was unrealistic. I also thought that Mr. Morgan would have been more worried about Sandy. The whole pretense that she was with Lisa that everything would be fine just does not fly with me. It was also a bit hard to keep up with the time in the book. I honestly thought I had things figured out but Ms. Manderino sure knows how to throw in the unexpected. This action packed adventure filled with mystery and a hint of romance held my attention. I simply had to know how things turned out.
I honestly think this story could have been magnificent if it had a proper editor. I also found I had some questions after the story was over For example~ How did Sandy react when she went home? What did she remember? What did she tell her father? What happened with Lisa and Alex? Did Lisa go home to England and mend the broken rift with her parents? Did Lisa's dad and the Phil get to talk? What happened to Louis? I felt things ended and things were not tied up.
I also felt that things were not always consistent for example Alex tells Lisa how to kill vampires and then later she says she has no clue how to kill a vampire. I am still a huge fan of Ms. Manderino and look forward to reading many more stories she has written. It truly amazes me how she can write so many different types of stories.
I honestly think this story could have been magnificent if it had a proper editor. I also found I had some questions after the story was over For example~ How did Sandy react when she went home? What did she remember? What did she tell her father? What happened with Lisa and Alex? Did Lisa go home to England and mend the broken rift with her parents? Did Lisa's dad and the Phil get to talk? What happened to Louis? I felt things ended and things were not tied up.
I also felt that things were not always consistent for example Alex tells Lisa how to kill vampires and then later she says she has no clue how to kill a vampire. I am still a huge fan of Ms. Manderino and look forward to reading many more stories she has written. It truly amazes me how she can write so many different types of stories.
May 17, 2021
Tipos…tifos…tipos…tiepos…TYPOS
There were hundreds of typos that just ruined this book for me. It was infuriating to the point where I almost gave up on it. Almost, but I sickenly made it through. I guess the author couldn’t afford an editor or even ask for proof readers.
It was appalling when she tried to use fancy, expensive words when she couldn’t keep he and his straight in a sentence.
There were breaks in the chapters but they were inappropriate places and where there should have been, there wasn’t. Most cases, there would be a break and a continuing sentence right after the break. Other times you were in one scene, let’s say the church, and the next sentence you were at Alex’s house. THERE is where a break should have been.
I will not be reading this author again. She is just lazy and trying to get words on paper.
There were hundreds of typos that just ruined this book for me. It was infuriating to the point where I almost gave up on it. Almost, but I sickenly made it through. I guess the author couldn’t afford an editor or even ask for proof readers.
It was appalling when she tried to use fancy, expensive words when she couldn’t keep he and his straight in a sentence.
There were breaks in the chapters but they were inappropriate places and where there should have been, there wasn’t. Most cases, there would be a break and a continuing sentence right after the break. Other times you were in one scene, let’s say the church, and the next sentence you were at Alex’s house. THERE is where a break should have been.
I will not be reading this author again. She is just lazy and trying to get words on paper.
March 12, 2012
When a child is abducted, Alex, an unusually attractive detective is called in to investigate. He has two vital reasons to want this case. The first is - he abhors children being taken and secondly, since he’s a vampire and has lived for 250 years, he believes this little girl to be his direct descendant. Lisa, the beautiful nanny, who was the last to be with the child will be held responsible unless he can prove otherwise. And this is the first woman who has affected Alex in centuries. He goes searching for the true villain and constantly trips over the nanny who’s on her own investigation. Only she doesn’t know what she’s up against. All indications are that the villain is another vampire who has a need to obtain something that Alex owns. This story progresses from situation to situation with well constructed plotting and an attention to detail. The author, Ms. Manderino has worked magic and I commend her on a great read.
January 15, 2021
Excellent read!!
August 17, 2012
When a child is kidnapped, detective Alex Aguilar rushes into action. Sandy, a seven-year-old is one of his own, a granddaughter of a two-hundred and fifty year vampire lineage. With the help of the child's nanny, Alex uncovers why Sandy was taken. I found this book riveting and hard to put down. Ms Manderino has written a vampire story with twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat! I was surprised at the ending. Very clever, indeed. I recommend Bound by Blood and anything else Ms Manderino has written. Looking forward to her next exciting book.
December 29, 2014
Nothing good to say about this I´m afraid. So annoying characters. Especially the girl (can´t even remember the name anymore). How many times do you have to say that you doing all these stupid stunts just for the innocent child…felt so fake and sugar-coated, it made me almost vomit. I must ask myself how I managed to read this through. All I can say is, that I really really hate leaving books unfinished. I think I deserve a prize for making it!
August 12, 2012
It was a great storyline, but not so great at developing the details of the threat. A lot of allusions to a catastrophe disaster, evil, etc., but sketchy on the details which left Me more irritated than entertained, that, along with a number of obvious typos left me wanting. I believe this book would be spectacular with some great editing.
August 17, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. I liked the character of Alex and how he lived his double life as a vampire and as a detective. The romance was sweet in the way it developed and the suspense kept me turning pages. There were enough twists to keep me turning pages far past my bedtime.
March 24, 2013
This book was so slow I got half way through put it down for another book and never came back! I don't have it in me to start all over and I have forgotten where I left off so ehhh it's off the kindle now !
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February 27, 2016Got this as a free Kindle deal. Sounds fun. (Side note - there's about a dozen books on this site with this same title!)
UPDATE
I've read about a quarter of this book and it's not bad at all. A different take on the vampire genre and a nice balance of romance and mystery solving.
UPDATE
I've read about a quarter of this book and it's not bad at all. A different take on the vampire genre and a nice balance of romance and mystery solving.
April 28, 2012
too many typos, so bored... the part I liked best is when it ended. thank u for being free or I would've requested my money back.
June 21, 2012
Not bad!
August 11, 2012
I like how the twist of this come about. Love this book
April 19, 2013
Felt like this didn't really get in to the meat of the story. Skipped around to much.
March 11, 2013
I enjoyed the book, loved the old fairy tales and how they weren't really fairy tales. Alex may be a vampire, but broke almost all the things you think of when you think of vampires.
July 28, 2013
This was an interesting book. I did not care for the ending
October 9, 2013
Ummm. Read it 2 days ago and don't remember what it was about. It made that much of an impression...
April 13, 2015
good plot but poor character development.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews