Blood Vine, Book One:
In Blood Vine, bites are an inconvenient bliss, exiled vampires are wasting away, and the fate of their kind depends on the perfect PR campaign.
When public relations pro Zoey Porter arrives at an enchanting California winery, she discovers her sexy new client is the almost one-night stand she can't forget. After her husband's suicide, Zoey has vowed never to risk her heart again. But can she walk away from the intriguing winemaker a second time?
Driven from Croatia by his ancient foes, vampire Andre Maras has finally made a blood-like wine to cure his fellow refugees. Now he needs Zoey's PR expertise to reach them. After his wife's death, Andre has a vow of his own—never to risk another painful blood bond. And one taste of the tempting Zoey would bind him to her eternally.
His secrets stall her PR plans. Her jealousy is stoked by the blissed-out beauties leaving his bedroom. At every turn, he utterly fails to resist her. When she discovers he is a vampire, will she be lost to the golden-eyed Hunters, or lose herself to the emptiness in her heart, before she can help him save his kind?
KOS MARAS’s orderly life is in shambles—he must distribute Blood Vine to a population of ailing vampires, but Hunters block him at every turn. To make matters worse, each night he watches over a temptingly beautiful woman sleeping in his bed. He is convinced love cannot last a vampire-long lifetime and an entanglement will only cause them grief, but he doesn’t have the heart to send her away.
From a long line of blood servants, LENA ISAAKSON is destined to serve a vampire, but a string of humiliating rejections thwarts her pleasure. When Kos shows her kindness, she hopes he will claim her. Instead he proves himself a coward in the face of love and sends her to serve another.
Will the dark seduction of a rakish new vampire finally bring Lena the pleasure she desires or deliver her into the hands of Hunters who want to destroy everything the Maras family has worked for?
Brooding vampire halfling and biologist Bel Maras is determined to create a cure for the wasting disease that plagues his vampire family. His work becomes essential as the Hunters intensify their global and bloody campaign. When Bel's cure fails, only his ancient and estranged godmother Uta Ilirije can help. But seeing the ice-cold Uta reveals something shocking--she is his bonded mate.
She may be a dangerous warrior, but Uta feels her failures acutely. She has been unable to protect her kind from Hunters, and vampires are dying out. Worse, she tied Bel to her long ago in an accident of blood, then abandoned him for his own good--a choice he has never forgiven. Many days, she is convinced Bel and the vampires would be better off if she just walked into the sun.
Biology has fated them to be mates. Now these old enemies must overcome their past to save the vampires and come to peace with the bond they never chose.
Excerpt from Blood Reunited:
“You young ones are thinking you can know everything.” Uta shook her head in an infuriating display of pity.
“I’ll begin clinical trials right away.”
“Why you are bothering? I am saying it not work.”
Bel fingers twitched with the need to wring her neck and he shot out of his chair.
Andre pushed him back. “Don’t listen to her. You are the scientist. I trust you.”
Bel tipped his head in a bow to Andre before turning back to her. “Well, this has been fun. Let’s do it again in another hundred and seventy years. And in the meantime, have a nice life.”
Uta clicked her tongue. “If I am helping it, we are not seeing each other ever again.”
He exhaled with relief, but a hollow pit opened up in his gut and goose bumps rose up on every millimeter of his body, like even his skin strained toward her.
She blurred to him vampire-fast, narrowing her eyes and running one shiny red fingernail up the length of his hard-on. “Are you longing for me, Bel?” She spoke in a false whisper, loud enough even Lena could hear.
He refused to reply, but it didn’t matter. Her answer pressed through his jeans.
“Good. Now you are knowing how I feel. Ten years since your Lexi is long time. I am having no relief since you are born. Welcome to my nightmare.”
Thanks so much for stopping by. So, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
Well, I’m a writer, a mom, a wife, and probably the most unexpected thing about me is that in addition to writing romance, I’m an Episcopal priest. Some people think the two vocations are contradictory, but I disagree. The romances I enjoy are about love, and facing demons, and the transcendent, healing power of sex—all of that is holy stuff to me, and so I think being a priest who writes romance is perfectly natural.
How did you get started writing?
I’ve always loved to read and I because of that enjoyed writing. I had to put a lot of words on paper for graduate school, but before trying my hand at romance a few years ago, my last attempt at fiction was some pretty lame short stories when I was in college. Back then, I had some interesting ideas, but not a good sense of what made compelling characters. Then I went on a romance binge when I was pregnant and it all came together for me. I began to wonder “could I be a romance author too?”
Shortly after that, I got started and my mom reminded me that I had declared at the age of eight that I was going to be a novelist and use my grandmother Belle Dean’s name as my pen name. That’s where my nom de plume Amber Belldene comes from.
What was the inspiration for your book?
It was one of those awesome moments of inspiration that happen sometimes to writers, where your own imagination or muse, maybe, totally surprises you!
I’d always intended to give Bel Maras the third and final book in this series. But when I wrote the epilogue of Blood Vine, a brash two thousand year old female vampire, Uta, whom I had invented as a secondary character, sent a message to the Kastel Estate Winery. To my surprise, Bel was less than pleased to hear from her. I had to investigate his unexpected reaction, and what I learned made me cackle with the kind of sadistic glee only authors feel toward their characters, because WE know what’s best for them, and how they will rail against it. That’s how this fated mates, enemies to lovers story started.
What’s the one genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?
Hm. My first response was I’ve tried them all, but actually, maybe I’d like to write a straight up mystery novel. But I would probably just turn it into a romance.
Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?
I don’t read or write YA or Inspirational. I’m a priest, and a lot of my career has been working with young people, and I think I prefer both my reading and writing to be more adult and including the gritty sexual reality that is most adults’ lives—whether they are people of faith or not.
So, what are you working on right now? Got any releases planned, or still writing?
I have a contemporary erotic novella releasing this year called One Sinful Night in Sao Paulo, and also an M/M historical short story releasing this summer. I’ve got a big paranormal WIP I’m revising right now, which is the project I’ve been planning of for years, and also another contemporary romance in the works.
Alright, now for some totally random, fun questions. Favorite color?
Red.
Favorite movie?
Breakfast Club. When Judd Nelson crouched down between Molly Ringwald’s knees—let’s just say it was an epiphany. One that still makes me tingly.
Book that inspired you to become an author?
An unremarkable mystery novel by a distant cousin in the 1960s that proved I too could be published.
Alright, you have one superpower. What is it?
I actually do have this superpower. I have a sixth sense for when people are having illicit sex, I’m like the office-affair bloodhound. Ever since I was in school, I could tell when things were going on between people when no one else suspected, cheaty, orientation swapping kind of stuff. Perhaps this simply doomed me to the fate of becoming a romance writer, because my antennae are very sensitive to folks’ sexual vibes.
You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?
Totally strange dinner party, but hey, you don’t get an opportunity like this very often. Jesus, Henry the Eighth and Teuta, Warrior Queen of the Illyrians, who is the inspiration for Uta, the heroine of Blood Reunited.
Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?
I think I am most like Zoey, the heroine of Blood Vine, because I basically wrote her by imagining what I would do had I lived through her circumstances. Since then, I’ve written many characters wildly different than me, but Zoey is like the hotter, more business-like me.
That’s all from me, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!
Thanks for the invitation! I had a blast answering your questions!
My Reviews:
I will be posting my reviews tomorrow together since this post is so long, so don’t forget to stop in and check out my reviews for Blood Vine and Blood Entangled!
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About the Author:
Amber Belldene grew up on the Florida panhandle, swimming with alligators, climbing oak trees and diving for scallops…when she could pull herself away from a book. As a child, she hid her Nancy Drew novels inside the church bulletin and read mysteries during sermons—an irony that is not lost on her when she preaches these days.
Amber is an Episcopal Priest and student of religion. She believes stories are the best way to explore human truths. Some people think it is strange for a minister to write romance, but it is perfectly natural to her, because the human desire for love is at the heart of every romance novel and God made people with that desire. She lives with her husband and two children in San Francisco.
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