BLOOD IN THE WATER
Tami Veldura
Oldewolff Alternascents; 1st edition (December 19, 2014)
Blurb:
Kyros Vindex, treasure-hunter, has a problem. He's carrying a torch for a
fellow pirate with the sexual awareness of a teaspoon. Rumors say the man has
killed hundreds. He's determined to knock some sense into the work-a-holic that
captains the Midnight Sun, but damned if he knows how.
Eric Deumont has more pressing concerns than the
treasure-obsessed Kyros. There's a creature inked into his chest that no witch
in the seas will lay hands on for all the gold in the world. He knows it gives
the Midnight Sun a cursed reputation and that doesn't make living any easier.
He has heard stories of spirits trapped for lifetimes inside spelled puzzle
jars. Eric tracked down three of the pieces for such a jar with a lead number
four. The fifth is still out there.
Even then, the spirit of vengeance that lives in
Eric's skin has no intention of giving up such easy access to the mortal realm.
It craves blood and the light of the moon allows it to wreak unchecked havoc.
Cursed is an insult. This is madness.
Pretty much the only thing better than a well
told and sexy pirate novel is one with a demon involved. The author told me this was an Elizabethan
era piracy story, but I did not detect anything especially Elizabethan, but
that did not matter at all. The pirate
meme is sufficient unto itself. I was
reminded of Helen Hollick’s wonderful Sea Witch series, only one better – two
guys madly ripping off each other’s clothing.
It’s funny how a little thing like the doubling of the number of penises
can change one’s mind!
Anyway, the pace is quick, the complications many
and sudden, the danger ever at hand, and the chances for mad sex too
infrequent, but Tami Veldura knows her stuff.
There is not one word out of place.
The HFN ending just promises more hotness and demons. The language gets a little modern in places,
but how many forsooths can two randy pirates manage in one sentence after all?
The sequences with the demon are riveting. The creature is continuously ethered to Eric’s
nipple ring unless exposure to moonlight releases it. It swarms out of his chest to attack and kill
anyone who opposes it. The only way
Eric can trap it again is if he sprinkles cinnamon on himself and it. When it leaves his body it causes pain and
blood that seriously affects him. Part
of the story is the quest that both Eric and Kyros are on to locate all the
pieces of a magical jar that can hold the beast. It will only hold it for a year, which is
what leaves the HFN at the end of the novel.
Another spirit/demon attacks Kyros in Havana and leaves him seriously
burned. The cinnamon needed to control
these beasts is often very hard to find and Eric is on his way to find some or
die trying when Kiros finds him again..
All of this is well thought out and ably dramatized, leaving the reader
breathless.
Special notice needs to be made of the African
quartermaster, a woman with a build on her like an oak or, as they say, a brick house. She was refreshing in every way. And I have read enough tall ship novels to
say the terminology and understanding of how a ship works seemed right on to
me.
Great cover, by the way.
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