Blood Sins by Kay Hooper

Review by Alexius White

 

Religion Colts are by design weird. They start out nice and all about god, but they always, always end by drinking the Kool-Aid. The Church of the Everlasting Sin is no different except for having a powerful psychic as its leader.  Written by Kay Hooper, Blood Sins is the second novel in the Blood series; yet, it is the 11^th novel in the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series. The first novel in the Blood series is Blood Dreams (which I still haven’t read yet). The third novel is Blood Ties, which I read and gave four stars to.

Blood Sins spans over a week, and like Blood Ties is not a normal urban fantasy novel because it doesn’t take place in a metropolitan area. Instead the novels take place in small towns. Blood Sins takes place inGrace,North Carolina. Grace, like most small towns are centered around the church. During the summer in small towns, Wednesday nights are revile nights (it’s a rule, don’t ask). However, unlike most Wednesday night revile this one takes place at the Church of the Everlasting Sin under the direction of Reverend Samuel. Kneeing at the altar is Bambi (Do not name your child Bambi; bad things happen to deer and girls name Bambi; it’s a rule ask Disney).  The scene at the altar is the normal for any revile. Bambi is confusing her sins (there’s a lot) and Reverend Samuel is telling her god forgives her. They bow their heads in pray and things start to get weird. (You have to read it.)

The main part I loved about the novel is would have to be the psychic abilities the characters have. Galen, one of the people on Bishop’s taskforces, is not really a psychic but has a unique ability to stay alive. He can heal from just about any kind of wound. Another interesting psychic is Reese DeMarco. He is a strong telepathic, and possesses a unique double shield. If anyone tries to read him, they may be able to get thru the first shield; however, most telepaths don’t look for a second shield. DeMarco is able to “read” as not psychic to just about every other psychic in the room. A different psychic, who is also in the novel, is Bailey. The novel didn’t go into a lot of detail about the character. (I think that was done in Blood Dreams.)  Bailey is a telepath, and her strength is a powerful shield. Bailey has the ability to extend her shield outward to protecting others. However, Reverend Samuel psychic powers are far from protecting others. The novel described Samuel as a black hole that pulls people in and sucks the life energy out of them. This is also how he gains others abilities. Ruby, a little girl of 12, who is one of Samuel’s chosen ones, has the ability to make people see what she wants them to see. She also has the ability to see what people look like on the inside. When Ruby looks at the people in the Church of the Everlasting Sin, she sees empty shells. All the life, love, everything that made them who they were is gone. The only thing left is a black hole.

The ending of the novel was in one word outstanding. I love when novels end with a good fight scene. This one is dazzling because Samuel acts as a human lightening rod, which is just cool. However, the only down side to the fight scene was that it was slow and the characters were talking a lot. I will say that the twist at the end was completely unexpected. I love it.

The only dislike I have for the novel is the pace. The pace of the novel left something to be desired. It seemed that it took a long time for anyone thing to be figured out.

In the end, I liked the novel. I didn’t have a problem following the story line. This was good because as I said before I still haven’t read Blood Dreams.  I give it 3.5 stars.