Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima

WOW! I apologize for being silent the last couple of days. The weather here has been absolutely NUTS! Tornado's, flooding, and tons of lightning. Needless to say, the computers in my house have been silent most of the week-end. We're in for more, which is just oh so much fun! Hopefully, the river will hold and not flood out our town. Though The Hubs said it was banking this afternoon. YIKES! Anyway, if I don't here from the winner of last months FAB contest by tomorrow at noon, I will be drawing a new winner from the entries, so Ali, please contact me at deeanddeedish at sbcglobal.net so that I can get your snail mail addy to R.L.. Otherwise, stay tuned for a new name tomorrow. Also, don't forget to do your part and enter this mini contest. And now that all that's out of the way...

MATTERS OF THE BLOOD by Maria Lima
(BCC)

Keira Kelly, half-breed descendant of a powerful supernatural family, has to live apart from her clan and among humans in the Texas Hill Country. When she experiences a prophetic vision that foretells the vicious murder of her human cousin Marty, she vows to determine the truth. Soon, Keira begins to uncover long-concealed secrets, and risks alienating everyone she knows - from her former lover, Sheriff Carlton Larson, to the enigmatic Adam Walker, who's become so much more than just an acquaintance...

Ahh, gotta love the short BCC. I'm telling you, I much prefer the short and sweet stuff. No room to mislead. Just enough info to either hook me or not. In this case, it was definitely just right to get me curious enough to read on. That and this incredible first line, "I know the dead and the dead know me."

Keira Kelly does indeed come from a powerful supernatural family, "the clan" is made up of were's, necromancers, seers, and so much more. Each member goes through "The Change" in which they come into their power. No one is sure exactly what supernatural talent they may eventually end up with, but while it is happening they can experience many changes.

"Meet Keira Kelly: not-so-a-child prodigy...Likes: old movies, good books, and great wine. Trained as: "escort," temporarily on leave. Talents: clairvoyance, farseeing, necromancy - a lovely smorgasbord of supernatural powers and things that go bump in the night. I left off shapeshifting, since that would overkill to state the obvious."

Keira is Changing, and with her clan in Canada, where she likes them just fine, she is a bit worried that no one will be there to guide her, she's also a bit relieved that no one will be there to guide her. But when her (freak of nature) cousin, the totally human Marty, turns up dead, while she's supposed to be babysitting him, and she's had visions of it happening things are about to really get interesting in Keira's life.

In MATTERS , the cast of characters is vast. There is Bea, her best friend since childhood. Carlton Larson, ex-boyfriend and now sheriff. Adam Walker, a man - scratch that - vampire, that she had flirtations with during a few years spent living in England. Adam is now the owner of the newly re-opened Wild Moon ranch. When two deer end up dead in a most unsettling way, and Marty following, Keira can't say she's exactly upset when her brother Tucker shows up.
With all of the above, townspeople acting strange, and vampires out the Wild Moon trying to abstain from hunting, Keira has her hands full trying to find out who killed her cousin on her watch.

I'll admit, there was so much going on at first that I was a little lost. But Lima's writing is solid and enjoyable, and soon all the new characters and facets of Keira's life became clear and made the book almost impossible for me to put down. There were many twists and turns throughout the book, and just when I thought I had the whole thing figured out - WHAM! - Lima surprised me and proved me completely wrong.

Matters is a rather dark book, but Lima has a great sense of humor and was able to balance the two very well. If your looking for paranormal that has a great mystery element added in, MATTERS OF THE BLOOD is for you. There were several small copy editing mistakes, nothing dramatic, but enough to definitely be noticed, and if it weren't for those, I would have been asking Lima to be a FAB pick, I enjoyed the book that much. I can only hope that eventually, Lima will continue Keira Kelly's tale, this is one book I'd love to see made the first of a series.

Take Care