• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sugarbeat's Books

The Home of the Romance Novel

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Review Policy
  • Review List
  • My Books

Chosen by Blood

Interview and giveaway – Virna DePaul

By Barb Drozdowich

Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books!

We are finally at the last event of an exciting week!  This past week we have been participating in the Spring Blog Carnival and Giveaway.  If you want to enter, simply click HERE to go to the form.  Also this week, we have been featuring  Virna DePaul’s books.  She’s an author that I found out about by accident.  I was offered one of her books to read and review by The Romance Reviews and said yes.  I’ve now read 4 of her stories and have enjoyed them all.  This past week I’ve posted reviews of all four stories – each one unique in their own way.  Feel free to cruise back through the week to find out about some great reads!  Virna has been gracious enough to provide us with all the giveaways for this week.  This is a giveaway worth entering!

To tie things up this week, I asked Virna to join us in an interview.  This would allow her to talk briefly about things I didn’t cover in the other posts!  Without further ado – here’s the interview:

Barb –  Can you please explain briefly your transition from prosecutor to author!

Virna – My transition from prosecutor to writer was painfully slow. In other words, I was dissatisfied with law for a long time but it took me awhile to believe I could do something else. I wrote while working for three years, then finally took a leap of faith. I didn’t sell for close to a year after that, but the second I left law, I knew it was the right decision.

Barb –  In Chosen by Blood, what is your favorite scene and why?

Virna – The one where the team parachutes from a spy plane into North Korea.  I love it because it’s action-packed, but also delves into the emotion/nerves of the team, and is one of the earlier scenes that shows them coming to trust one another.

Barb –  Tell us about the sequel to Chosen by Blood and what else you are working on.

Virna – Chosen By Fate, Book 2 in the Para-Ops series, is about the team’s ghost, Wraith, and its human psychic Shaman, Caleb O’Flare.  Wraith and Caleb first meet in Book 1 and their strong reactions to one another are the product of complex back stories.  In their own ways, Wraith and Caleb have to deal with the tension between pain and pleasure, a dichotomy that is brought to the forefront when they set out on their next mission, investigating a series of crimes in the feline community.

I’m also working on a few things for my other publisher. I’m so excited to be writing paranormals for Berkley, but also contemporary romantic suspense for Harlequin.  My debut novel with Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Dangerous To Her, comes out in September 2011.  It’s about an undercover cop who poses as a bailiff in order to investigate a judge.  He ends up reuniting with his college love and discovers she’s harbored a secret for almost a decade.  I’ve also just sold another story to HRS about a woman who must accept the reopening of her mother’s murder investigation by the one man she hoped never to see again.  Finally, in April of 2012, I’ll be launching a new series with HQN.

Barb –  The only one of your collection that I haven’t read or reviewed this week is A Vampire’s Salvation.  Can you tell us a little bit about this story?

Virna – Jacob La Costa Rios is the head of the California governor’s security team; he’s also a vampire who wants the governor, a presidential hopeful, to support the peaceful integration of vampires into human society. Unfortunately, there are others who oppose Jake’s plan. Plus, Jake’s a little distracted by discovering his one true mate, the human female who can give him everything he’s always wanted: love, children, and continuing immortality.

Francesca Marie Stewart is the governor’s “go-green” political consultant. Although she’s been attracted to Jake from day one, her priority is her career and protecting her heart. But then Jake blatantly propositions her and Frankie, who hasn’t experienced sexual intimacy since she was seventeen-years-old, decides it’s time to take what she wants—within reason.

No matter—once Jake makes love to Frankie, he knows reason will be the farthest thing from her mind. Then he just has to eliminate the person threatening her, reveal the fact he’s a vampire, and convince her that trusting him will bring both of them eternal happiness.

Barb –  If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?

Virna – What’s your favorite scene from one of my stories?

Barb –  I can list all your various contact points, but what is the best way for your readers to get hold of you to keep up to date with what’s going on?

Virna – I definitely try to keep my readers current through social media and through my website.  So if they join my mailing list at www.virnadepaul.com and “like” my Facebook fan page they’ll know about what’s coming next!

Thank you so much, Barb, for interviewing me and hosting me this entire week.  I’ve enjoyed meeting your readers and am so grateful for the way you’ve supported the launch of my debut novel!

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

I’d like to thank Virna for being so generous with her books and her time!  I’ve enjoyed featuring Virna for that past week, and I hope that you will enjoy her books as much as I have.

So, as a special treat for those of you who have read to the end…..Virna said that she would love to hear about our favorite scenes…..I’ll giveaway a $10 gift card to someone who comments on this post with their favorite scene 🙂  My favorite scene is from Chosen by Blood is when Felicia and Lucy take down a fighter named Randolph.  Felicia is absolutely a kick-ass heroine!  So what’s your’s??  Just leave a comment!

Share this:

  • Share
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit

Chosen by Blood by Virna DePaul

By Barb Drozdowich

Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books

This week we are participating in the Spring blog carnival and giveaway. I’m featuring the books of Virna DePaul. Virna has graciously offered quite a selection of goodies that you could win. Drop by HERE to enter the giveaway.  I’m also giving extra entries to the people who leave a comment or question for Virna in the comments.  Virna’s been dropping by and answering your questions!

Chosen by Blood by Virna DePaul
ISBN: 978-0-425-241547
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Release: May 3, 2011
Source: Received an ARC from the author to read and review
Five years after the Second Civil War ends, humans and otherborn— humanlike creatures with superhuman DNA—still struggle for peace. To ensure the continued rights of both, the FBI forms a Para-Ops team with a unique set of skills.
Leader of an Otherborn clan, half-breed vampire Knox Devereaux would do anything to find a cure for the anti-vamp vaccine slowly starving his people into extinction. When the FBI contacts him about leading a team of hand-selected Others on a mission to reclaim the stolen antidote, Knox accepts. His new assignment places him in direct contact with Special Agent Felicia Locke, the beautiful human he’s craved since their very first meeting.

This is the review for the latest book that I have read by Virna DePaul and I was honored to get an ARC to review. There is something mysterious about the ubiquitous plain orange cover of an early ARC. I’m quite a visual personal and I like looking at covers and forming a mental picture of what I’m about to read. I felt like I was heading into the unknown!! The cover that is above is recent and not on the cover of the book that I read!

As you can tell from the blurb, Chosen by Blood is a paranormal romance. It is the first book in the “Para-Ops Series”. Knox Devereaux is the head of his Vampire clan as his mother, the queen, is too sick to perform her duties any longer. This story starts at the end of the second civil war and is set in the United States. It seems that all humans have been given an anti-vamp vaccine which was supposed to protect humans from vampires. What it has done is poisoned the vampire’s food supply and they are slowly starving to death. Knox is desperate to protect his clan. When he is approached by Kyle Mahone, the director of the FBI’s special ops tactical team to form a team of “Otherborn” individuals dedicated to keeping the peace, he reluctantly accepts. It seems that there has been an antidote developed to the anti-vamp vaccine and he needs to help for the survival of his clan.

The Para-Ops team is formed of a motley collection of mixture of “Otherborn” creatures and humans. There is a werebeast with a big attitude, Wraith who is a ghost, Special Agent Felicia Locke, a human with a history with Knox, anther human with special powers and a mage. From this list you can well imagine that nothing is as it seems. Many of the characters have surprise powers and hidden histories that create problems.

I must admit right off, that I tend to skim frequently when I read. I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. That certainly got me into trouble with this book! Chosen by Blood is highly detail oriented. It is filled with characters that are exceedingly well formed and interconnected in many different ways. I frequently found myself coming to a screeching halt at points because I realize that I had no clue what was going on. I would go back a few pages and actually read, not skim, and figure out what I’d missed. The details are what make this book so interesting! Frequently the author tosses out details that may seem insignificant at the time, but several pages, or chapters later the reader finds themselves taking that detail and adding it to a building story. I know that I really had to concentrate to get the most from this story.

This story is most certainly a romance with a wonderful happily ever after, but is skillfully woven into a series. Although it is a complete story in and of itself, there are matters left hanging at the end, and various little teasers are present making the reader want to continue on with the next book. Chosen by Fate is the next book in the series and there was an excerpt at the end of the ARC that I read that has me counting the days until it’s release in the fall of this year.

I recommend this book and it can be found at Barnes & Noble and Amazon

Share this:

  • Share
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit

Primary Sidebar

Follow Me

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinrss

Subscribe to Blog on Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 16,653 other subscribers

Available Now on Amazon

Available Now on Amazon

Do you need a primer?

Do you need a primer?

Need help with your website?

Need help with your website?

Are you listed?

Book BLogger list 250

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

2021 Reading Challenge

2021 Reading Challenge
Barb has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
100 books.
hide

0 of 100 (0%)
view books

Archives

Footer

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023