Review: Blood Divine by Greg Howard

Title: Blood Divine

Author: Greg Howard

Publisher: Wilde City Press

Length: 271 Pages (Kindle)

Category: Fantasy, Paranormal

At a Glance: This story is a really well written, scary paranormal story—the don’t turn off the lights type of scary with just enough humor tossed in to make it an honest-to-god page turner.

Reviewed By: Sammy

Blurb: Cooper Causey spent a lifetime eluding the demons of his youth and suppressing the destructive power inside him. But a disconcerting voicemail lures Cooper back home to the coast of South Carolina and to Warfield—the deserted plantation where his darkness first awakened. While searching for his missing grandmother, Cooper uncovers the truth about his ancestry and becomes a pawn in an ancient war between two supernatural races. In order to protect the only man he’s ever loved, Cooper must embrace the dark power threatening to consume him and choose sides in a deadly war between the righteous and the fallen.

Review: Doing a synopsis of Greg Howard’s exciting novel, Blood Divine, without giving away the store, so to speak, is a daunting task. A few things you should know before I begin my review. First, this is Mr. Howard’s first novel, and I am positive you will join me in praying/begging/selling your firstborn to make sure it is not his last. Secondly, there is a happy ever after—kinda—in that this book is not your typical HEA. Rather, it is the absolute best story that has some unfinished business, but ends on such a satisfying note that you may want to reread it just for that point alone. Third, this story is a really well written, scary paranormal story—the don’t turn off the lights type of scary with just enough humor tossed in to make it an honest-to-god page turner. I read it in one sitting. I will read it again…then, I will begin to hound the author for a sequel—which may sound like an embarrassing thing for a reviewer to do, but did you miss the first born thingy earlier?

Okay—what I can reveal about this stunning novel is this: At a young age, Cooper Causey experienced something so terrifying that his entire life changed. On an innocent bike ride to the abandoned and supposedly haunted Warfield Manor, Cooper discovers he has something inside himself that seems very, very bad—so terrible that he would spend much of his adult young life running from his past and his hometown. As one family member after another dies, Cooper has only his grandmother, Lillie Mae, left, and when he gets a cryptic message from her about not coming home, he, of course, does just that…only to discover she has vanished. While Cooper tries to discover exactly where Lillie Mae has been taken, he has the support of an old crush that now happens to be the town sheriff, Randy Collins. But like the town he has always tried to escape, Randy, too, has been off limits—straight as a rail but the nicest guy you’d ever meet. Lucky Coop, his day is just getting better and better.

When the old family bible reveals the place where Lillie Mae may have been taken, Cooper’s blood runs cold—Warfield. Now he must return to the place of his nightmares if he wants to save his grandmother, but more than ghosts inhabit the old plantation—much more—and Cooper and Randy are about to enter the dogfight of their lives. Neither will come out the same.

This story…this immensely satisfying, gripping, terrifying story was just so very good. There was a lot to unpack in this novel—ancestry abounded and relatives that Cooper didn’t know existed literally come crawling out of the woodwork, and not all of them are quite what you would expect. Greg Howard creates new races of paranormal creatures that will make your skin crawl, yet still allows for a few good guys, albeit undead ones, to help save the day—for now. But it is Cooper and Randy who steal this show, Randy with his penchant for gallantry and his very carefully hidden love for Coop, and Cooper’s heart wrenching hope that Randy could possibly, finally, really be his makes for a romance that never fully takes the stage but dominates certain portions of this story in all the right ways.

Greg Howard cracks open the vampire trope with such force that you will never look at another vamp story in the same way. His monsters are bigger, badder and so intrinsically evil that you can feel your skin begin to crawl when they appear on the page. But, it is where and how Cooper fits into this epic battle between supposed good and certain evil that is most fascinating. Oh how I wish I could tell you more, but to do so would be to give the shop away, and trust me, you want to spend time browsing in this store for a long time. Suffice it to say that I hands down highly recommend Blood Divine to you. Oh, and as an aside–to the publishers that rejected this novel? Oh my—you poor, poor foolish people.

You can buy Blood Divine here:
[zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2d9xTJl” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Wilde City Press [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://amzn.to/2dt38A7″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon US [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2blPS4l” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon Int’l [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2d9yZ7J” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Kobo [/zilla_button]