Blood Born

It was quick, fun read, perfect for fans of Vampire Academy and Twilight. I think this book would be best suited for younger readers for the quick pacing and lots of characters. The initial plot was solid enough, but I think it could use a little more details on settings etc for better world building. But overall, it was fun :)

Fantastically gripping story features Emma, ripped from her life before her time, it is impossible not to feel heartbreak for her tragedy. Her tricky relationships with her grandmother and other acquaintances become highly volatile and highlight the change in her. Her journey then leads her through conflict and twists, drama and darkness as she tentatively steps into the middle of a history of rivalry and war between immortals and rogues as she follows the long road to her destiny. A wonderful, exciting read with everything from shock, horror and the ultimate choice between winning and losing.

Emma, after being turned into a vampire, discovers family secrets and a world she didn't know existed. Once there, she quickly makes friends as well as enemies. While navigating this new life, she finds herself in the middle of a war between Immortals and Rogues.

Fast paced and perfect for a younger crowd, this story takes you into a world where even vampires aren't immune to prejudice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a very quick read and while some of the book was dark, it was also fun. My only suggestion would be to have the characters developed a bit more.

Thank you #netgalley and #bhcpress and the author for this cARC in exchange for my honest review.

It was quick, fun read, perfect for fans of Vampire Academy and Twilight. I think this book would be best suited for younger readers for the quick pacing and lots of characters. The initial plot was solid enough, but I think it could use a little more details on settings etc for better world building. But overall, it was fun :)

I received an arc of this novel and this is my feedback

Wow. I am so ready for book two now. This was action packed vampire story for teens. Emma is the main character. She is attacked and left for dead. She navigates the world like a newbie until her grandmother Flora disappears. Then it’s chaos teenaged emotions revelations(can’t reveal because spoilers) and a crushy poo on an older vamp named James.

I really dug it. It was fun without being fluffy. Heavy scenes of violence though so if that isn’t your bag then I would avoid it. But honestly it is a vampire book so why wouldn’t it have gore violence and blood.

I was incredibly thrilled to get this ARC as I love all things vampire!

The story starts out as a whirlwind and is truly fast-paced from the beginning. Honestly, this made sense to me as a reader because I felt more in the MC’s shoes. If my life was flipping upside down, I would be in a scramble and I felt like the fast-pace helped convey that.

One thing I did not like was that at the end of Chapter 1, the grandmother makes it seem like she is about to tell Emma everything that she found out after leaving the first time but then for Chapter 2, you are left hanging and nothing is handed over.

There were moments that felt like the thoughts weren’t complete or too rushed, but the story held together. Overall, although it felt clunky, I still enjoyed it for the most part and will absolutely be reading the next book!

I enjoyed this book with the traditional vampire lore and "nests". However I felt that some parts were a bit slow with over-explanation and I felt slightly bored in the middle with a lot of when Emma meets the coven of vampires, it just dragged a bit for me. However the twists were interesting and I liked reading about different types of vampires, there was a lot of actual lore you don't find in most books. Also I liked Emma as an MC she seemed very independent and strong without being annoying.

Tween, vampire-obsessed me would have devoured Shelley Wilson’s Blood Born. I would have loved having age-appropriate vampire novels with a touch of romance then, and I was highly entertained by it now, even if I’m not part of the target demographic.

When Emma is turned into a vampire, her world is turned upside down. Her grandmother is kidnapped, a mysterious woman shows up on her doorstep promising to help her, and she meets a male vampire she has an instant attraction toward. All of this is hard to process for the loner who has always been haunted by a darkness she can’t quite explain. Now she needs to fight her own family, whom she’s only just learned about, to save her grandmother and her new-found friends at the Haven, a place for vampire half-breeds. Unfortunately, the vampire who changed her does not have Emma’s best interests in mind, and conflicting prophesies offer little guidance.

This is clearly the first in a series, as the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger. The plot has all the tropes one wants in YA vampire novel. Is the protagonist an orphan or have at least one dead parent? Check. Is the protagonist a loner? Check. Does the protagonist turn out to be a princess in hiding? Check. Is the vampire she falls for older and pretty good-looking? Check... I could go on. The romance side of the story is limited to a few kisses, so it’s not too steamy for younger readers. The biggest draw is the kick-ass main character, Emma. Despite her change and upheaval, she stays true to her values and proves to be strong and capable. She works to help and protect her friends and family.

I enjoyed Blood Born by Shelley Wilson and look forward to the sequels. I want to see how Emma confronts her future problems and learns to use her skills and strengths as a vampire.

Good and entertaining! If you like short and fast paced books this is the book for you!
Emma is a good character, and I liked the rest of the kids, I like the feeling of " school " if you like books like that!
It did not give me a lot of emotions, but the story was entertaining .
Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this arc!

this was a really good! I liked the characters, and they were super well-developed. the plot was super cool and fun to read, and the writing was also smooth and easy to understand
highly recommend

I am first to admit I am not the biggest fan of vampire lore or movies. I saw how beautiful the cover art for Blood Born was and I read the description and I my interest was piqued to dip my toe in 'blood' and give it a fair chance.

Shelley Wilson has a strong suit and character development. The protagonists character was a young female; she was neither whiny or ultra-strong; she, was a growing individual throughout the read. The rest of the rest of the characters, also vampires, were great, too. I wish it got into their back stories a bit, but the friendship and bonds instantly made with a young 'nest' of vampires in refreshing in a world of digital bullying and failing morality.

Overall, this book is 3.5 star(s). for me. It was very close to a 4, but it ended too abruptly for the pro/antagonist in a heated moments in more than one moment in the book, and made me want a little more action. Overall, it was a good read, If you are into Vampires, dark academia, light thrillers, and a few twists, this book is for you. Thank you Net Galley for this ARC & Shelley Wilson.

What I liked the most about this book is that it strays pretty far from the standard vampire trope that’s seen in most forms of media. The main franchises that I can think of (Twilight and The Vampire Diaries) have the vampire characters written as being borderline indestructible at least in the terms of strength. In Blood Born (BB), Wilson presents the vampires as strikingly human which is refreshing. Each vampire in BB has their own “power” that is unique to them. I’m unsure if there is any “overlap” between the characters, but so far only one vampire has been explicitly stated to have the supersonic speed that most people would attribute to vampires as a whole. The vampires in BB are still faster than humans, though, just not to the extent that the aforementioned character is. This is the same with strength; they’re all strong, but they do need to put considerable effort to force things open. The BB vampires do fall in line with the blood drinking and sunlight sensitivities; however, Emma seems to be affected to less of a degree given her specific lineage.

I can appreciate that Emma’s power seems to be inline with her observatory nature as a human, and the ability to distinguish between friend or foe is a nice addition to her ability to sense people in her surroundings. I am interested to see if Wilson develops her power past Emma needing to concentrate on it. Toward the end of the book, I started to wonder if Emma would be able to cultivate her power to the point of it running on autopilot (for lack of a better term). Especially considering the missions her and Cara’s nest are sure to go on.

Something that I didn’t particularly care for (and one of the main causes to knock my otherwise 5-star review down to 4) was James. More specifically Emma’s inability to be able to distinguish him as someone to watch out for, coupled with the ease in which she developed *feelings* for him. Never mind the fact that he’s however many years old and she’s 17. I know that the legal age of consent in the UK is 16, but it had the potential to be groom-y and I’m glad that it wasn’t. However, back to my main point being that James seemed to be a blind spot in Emma’s ability to sense someone around her and being able to tell if they’re good or bad. But he’s that type of character that you find yourself wanting to jump into the book and warn the poor girl about him. I’m interested to see if there are going to be other instances where Emma can’t discern who is good or bad and how it gets developed if there are.

Something else that bothered me was how interesting the characters were at surface level, and we never got to traverse Emma’s relationships with them. There is *a lot* of potential to be utilized with the interpersonal relationships in the story, especially between Emma and the members of Cara’s nest. I would have liked to see more of a relationship developed between the council and Emma, but that’s just a personal thing. Henric is mentioned several times, but the only instance that Emma interacts with him is during her arrival interview after being taken in by Cara. I think Cara’s leadership could have been developed a little more, perhaps we could have been given a chapter (or a portion of a chapter) dedicated to learning how Cara leads and operates. Did the younger half-bloods still get conventional schooling? Or did they get taken to the Haven and get tasks put upon them in lieu of schooling? Flora is revealed to have known about Emma’s father and her fate, but that’s never really expounded on. That would have been a really interesting arc to have gotten. I would have liked more information on Dustin and his role and how he traverses human life knowing about the presence of vampires.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this series. I wish the book had ended on less of a cliffhanger because of my need to know what happens, but alas, I will be anxiously awaiting the resolution.

I would like to say thank you to NetGalley, as well as BHC Press and Shelley Wilson for allowing me the opportunity to read this ahead of publishing.

**This review has been cross-posted on Goodreads and NetGalley, and will be posted to a (currently in development) IG and blog at a later date.**

I thought it would be refreshing for me to read a book with vampires in? I don't do it often... 👀 AHH I absolutley loved this, but I knew I would, I really enjoy books where a mortal is changed into a vampire and then has to adjust to their new way of living and along the way finds out family secrets etc its my most favourite thing to read (because I want it to happen to me, my neck is always exposed even in winter) I feel this is definitley on the younger end of YA and the main themes are found family/self acceptence, this was fast paced and really fun, I feel like the characters could of been fleshed out a tad more but I'm looking forward to seeing them in the next book,  if you enjoy YA horror I would highly recommend! Thankyou to netgalley and the author for an eARC!

The cover has an older “grown up” vibe, quite minimalist yet still striking and the byline of “Death was only the beginning” certainly piqued my interest. Also having read another book by this author I decided to take a closer look and then reading the blurb for the book I decided it was firmly on my “had to read” list! I wasn’t disappointed!

Emma didn’t have the best start in life, her mother died in childbirth and she has been brought up by a rather cold and distant grandmother Flora. Or that’s who she presumes Flora is. Emma has always been a loner, preferring to be alone with her thoughts. Things become rapidly worse and more dangerous for Emma when totally out of the blue she is attacked and killed by a vampire! However, that just the very beginning as a hooded stranger swoops in and “saves” Emma. It turns out this stranger has changed life as she knew it for Emma forever. This mystery stranger has awakened something that had been lying dormant within Emma since the day she was born. Now Emma has to come to terms with being a vampire and the fact that entails acquiring and drinking blood on a regular basis to keep control of her new even darker side and survive. When it turns out Flora had prior knowledge to the dark vampire side that was dormant within Emma, naturally Emma has an endless amount of questions. Flora brings Emma some blood bags enough to keep her safe and fed until she returns from an acquaintance that may have more of the answers that Emma seeks. Unfortunately, Flora does not return, she has been taken by someone who wishes to lure out Emma for a darker purpose. In the mean time representatives from the group Haven seek out and befriend Emma, taking her into their “safe place.”
It turns out Emma is “special” in fact she is a Blood Born vampire, her surname Hartfield means she is a descendent of one of the strongest and original families, more or less “vampire royalty”. Though Emma is befriended by those in Haven she is still an outcast, a blood born vampire amongst half blood vampires.

Theres lots of swing and twists and turns within the book, with Emma initially being accepted at Haven, then when her true Hartfield identity is revealed she is ostracised and has to slowly gain the trust of the friends she made whilst fighting an unknown who seems to want anyone she cares about dead to hurt her. Emma also trusts an older vampire so much so she begins to fall for him, only to learn something he was hiding that makes her feel totally betrayed by him.

The writing/style of the book reminded me a little of Dakota Cassidy, and Michele Bardsley but Blood Born is for a Teen/YA audience. There’s plenty of action, mystery and suspense but there is also love, romance, and humour too. I really enjoyed reading Blood Born and it did leave me wanting to know/read more. I have really only scratched the surface n my description of the book as I do not want to spoil the “surprises & twists” as and when they are revealed you read the book for yourselves

My immediate thoughts when I finished reading Blood Born were that I definitely wanted to read more. Blood Born ends with loose ends and potential for lots more to happen. The fight definitely doesn’t seem to be over yet!

Summing up, Blood Born is a really good start to a potentially brilliant series. Twins, Good vs Evil, a love interest that we aren’t sure of which side he is truly 100% on. Blood Born had great characters, the good guys, the bad guys, and the guys playing both sides! The backstory was slowly revealed, though I feel there’s more to come, the tension was building. . . .and then there’s the whole question of who/what will triumph.