Reviewed by Anabela.m
TITLE: Original Sin
SERIES: Sons of Darkness Book 1
AUTHOR: Shannon West
PUBLISHER: Painted Hearts Publishing
RELEASE DATE: January 11, 2022
LENGTH: 135 pages
BLURB:
A funny thing happens to Jonah when he winds up at a bar in a strange city, meeting with an ancient vampire. He’s trying to get answers about a person he’s desperately searching for—an old love who had been attacked and turned while Jonah was imprisoned. But instead, he finds himself alone with her in a dark alley with her. fangs in his neck. Seconds later, she’s dying on the ground at his feet, poisoned by his toxic blood, and her followers are chasing him all over the city. The vampire’s venom burns much of his memory away, though they’re tantalizingly close. His mind is a blank as far as most of his personal history is concerned, so questions like, what are you, have to remain unanswered. Jonah’s stripped naked and brought before a handsome, powerful vampire lord whose blood instantly calls to him, while deliciously erotic images of the two of them flash through his mind. This is the man he’s been seeking, which is unfortunate on many levels, since he only wants Jonah dead.
What do you do when the love of your life demands answers—and you don’t have any? Do you meekly accept your fate, or do you fight like hell to cleanse the bitter taste of life without him from your soul? A complicated web of lies threatens both Jonah’s and his vampire lover’s lives, and they must fight their way to happiness through a confusing maze of intrigue and deception. Can Jonah’s vampire lord put aside his bitterness so they can save themselves? Or do they both go down fighting?
REVIEW:
Stood on the rooftop of a high building, Jonah had no memory of his life beyond the last few minutes. The only thing he remembered was going into a club looking for someone, only to end up killing a female vamp when she bit him. And now vampires chased him. Eventually caught and brought before their lord Roman, Jonah realized that he’d found the person he’d been searching for: his long lost human mate, now obviously turned into a vampire. Also, Jonah’s full memory returned and Roman recognized him, too. Only, the vampire lord hated Jonah for abandoning him almost a century ago.
So much happened after that, in a rapid fire succession. Jonah was entombed behind a wall, set free after some days and forced to fight another vampire in the ring (scene that ended with him and Roman having sex in front of the fight’s audience). Then, he was taken to the vampire king’s palace where, after a weird series of events, he ended up having public sex with Roman again, while also being the catalyst of a fight between a werewolf pack and Roman’s clan.
Like I said, a lot has happened, including the battle scene between vampires and werewolves, which had an unexpected turn. In my opinion, it was too much. Both Jonah and Roman had memories from the past dribbling throughout the story, but also full flashbacks. They interrupted the flow of the plot, so the storytelling felt all over the place. The public sex scenes brought nothing to the story and, all through the book, neither Jonah nor Roman seemed to make up their mind about how they felt about each other. One moment they hated one another, the next they seemed almost tender. One moment Roman was the domineering one, the next it was Jonah.
I have to give credit to Shannon West, though, because she created a very interesting world. Angels and demons were explained as aliens, original from another dimension. Light and Dark Seraphs, on opposing factions fighting each other, with Earth as their battleground. Great attention was given to vampire class system and lore, as well as to details in general. But, while I wanted to love this book, it didn’t really hit the mark, to the point that I’m still debating whether or not to read the next installments of the series.
RATING: 
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