Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:  Blood Divine

AUTHOR:     Greg Howard

PUBLISHER:     Wilde City Press

LENGTH:     271 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  August 31, 2016

BLURB:

Cooper Causey spent a lifetime eluding the demons of his youth and suppressing the destructive power inside him. But a disconcerting voicemail lures Cooper back home to the coast of South Carolina and to Warfield—the deserted plantation where his darkness first awakened. While searching for his missing grandmother, Cooper uncovers the truth about his ancestry and becomes a pawn in an ancient war between two supernatural races. In order to protect the only man he’s ever loved, Cooper must embrace the dark power threatening to consume him and choose sides in a deadly war between the righteous and the fallen.

REVIEW:

I’m not sure which sold me on this book, either the short but well written and enticing blurb, or the cover with a plantation house set back amongst the oaks. It might have been a combination of both. Either way, I’m really glad I picked it up. Blood Divine is a gay supernatural fiction. It is not a romance. If you’re a staunch romance reader and pass it by…in my opinion…you will miss a really interesting story.

I have to share with you something from the author’s note. He says that 62 agents either rejected this manuscript or never responded to his query. Makes that one rejection I just got on my first submission seem pretty darned tame. What perseverance he shows! Now…I have to say…I can’t figure out what the heck they were thinking. I loved this book. I loved the characters, the locale, the backstory, the world building, the pretty much everything about it!

Blood Divine hooked me right away with the “20 years ago” section at the front of the book, where we first meet our MC, Cooper Causey. He and some friends have dared each other to go to the deserted and reputedly haunted Warfield Plantation. Everyone ‘knows’ that the place is haunted by the ghost of a slave killed in a slave uprising. When Cooper actually sees the ghost, it is too late, his friends have already taken off down the road leaving the plantation and leaving Cooper on his own. Then the ghost touches him.

Next we’re hurled twenty years into the future, to what I assumed was the current day. We learn Cooper is a little bit of a male ho, jumping from man’s bed to man’s bed, never staying for breakfast. But when he awakens in yet another man’s bed one morning and finds a bunch of missed calls from his Aunt Lillie Mae warning him NOT to come back to his hometown, and he can’t reach her, he of course leaves immediately to go to said hometown.

What follows is the tale of what happens when Cooper finds out there is much more to the story of Warfield Plantation and his own family than he ever was told. He also learns things about himself and his ancestry that rock his world. Then of course we have to have a love interest…in the guise of his childhood crush. I’d love to keep going and give you tons more spoilers, but I’m not going to. I’m going to leave it for you to find out when you read it yourself.

I very highly recommend the book. It kept me enthralled. I started it yesterday on the treadmill at the gym and was totally surprised when the treadmill went into its “cool down” mode after 60 minutes. I didn’t look at the clock once I was so wrapped up in the story.  This would be a great book for anyone who enjoys a story about ghosts, and the battle between good and evil angel offspring with a touch of voodoo thrown in. I think there will be a sequel because the end left it wide open for one.  There better be! I want more! What happens next?

But if those points I made above sounded interesting, do yourself and the author a favor, pick the book up. If you’re into this type of story, like I am, I think you’ll love it.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Wilde City Press  

Amazon