The Innocents

by Riley Lashea

For thousands of years, they have roamed the darkness, subsisting on the blood of men - the deraphs - though most people would only know them as vampires.

For thousands of years, they have been hunted, pursued in secret by scores of men who tried and failed to exterminate them.

For thousands of years, the fight has been fair.

Now, a group of North Atlantic hunters have discovered a weakness - the synjuments - a subspecies of humans with whom the deraphs share a mortal link. Far more vulnerable to attack, these innocents pose an imminent threat to the clan of Haydn, a thousand-year-old deraph whose unsettled history with Lilith poses its own pressing complications.

To prevent their extinction, Haydn and her clan are forced to take on a paradoxical assignment, as guardians of those they are inclined by their very natures to seduce and consume.

Genres: Lesbian, Paranormal, Fantasy, Vampires, Dark, Adventure

379 pages, ebook

First published January 14, 2015

About the author

Riley LaShea grew up in an Ohio town that looks like a dust speck on most maps. It was boring and awful, so she got the hell out of there. Now, she doesn't know where she wants to be, so over the past several years she has lived in Nashville, Orlando, Fort Worth, Allentown, Columbus, Kansas City, Raleigh, outside LA and inside Manhattan.

She won a lyric contest judged by the Indigo Girls in high school and a screenplay contest judged by Creative Screenwriting Magazine once. Her first published novel became a bestseller at one indie bookstore in Oakland that has since gone out of business.

Known to take great risks in the noble pursuit of creativity, sometimes she prefers to just sit around eating chocolate yogurt and doing KenKen in pajama pants.

Reviews

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an intense read, quite dark with lots of blood and gore like a good vampire story should be (no sparkling vamps here). It was a bit of a slow start but around halfway it picked up and I felt drawn in.

LaShea gives her own unique spin on the good vs. evil theme with deraphs (vampires) and synjuments (mortals) being connected. The synjument carries the excess soul of the deraph, the part that gets disconnected when they are being sired. It links them together and if the human dies a violent death, so will the deraph (and vice versa).

I love LaShea's writing and she flawlessly masters every genre she puts her mind to. Like I said, don't expect any kind of fluffy bunny stuff, there is quite a body count. But the mythology is highly original with strong characters and a riveting plot to sink your teeth into.

f/f explicit

Themes: be prepared for blood and guts galore, I'm such LaShea fan, despite all that happens the love remains, the author does not shy away from some difficult decisions.

4 stars

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mmmmm....lesbian vampires.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely dark and a bit gory. Other than being unsure who the main characters were in the beginning, I really enjoyed it. I’d give it a 4.5.

[Dide · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for a vampire story and this was featured. Since it was written by an author whose book I have read before and enjoyed, so I went for it.
In the early chapters, I was almost giving up that this book wouldn't deliver the excitement I craved in vamp stories but thankfully I exercised patience and got warped into a story that has included a new dimension to vamps. Liked that and the unlikely ending as well

[SSA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had an interesting premise and I enjoyed the first 30% but it lost me as the story went. One main problem I had was there were way too many POVs, many of them weren’t needed for the wider story and I could have done without. It was also really slow and picked up at the last 20% but I had lost interest by then. The characters and the main relationship was interesting but the plot was lacklustre.

[Odd Bin]

DNF.

[Heather Henkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a dark book, but also a very good one. I enjoyed it.