Sheep Book Review: Chosen by Sin by Virna DePaul

Chosen by Sin, by Virna DePaul, is the third installment in her Paranormal Romance Suspense saga Para-Ops. After a stellar start with book one, Chosen by Blood, I expected a lot more then I ended up getting this time around.

Plot:
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.

An elite Para-Ops team, a wounded alpha werebeast bent on revenge, and a female vampire trying to save her adoptive dragon-shifter family.

Can they stop a group of rebel shape-shifters hoping to unleash every demon in hell?

Half-Werewolf Dex Hunt takes center stage in the latest edition to the Para-Ops saga, and I liked him in previous stories as the dude who just didn't care about anyone but himself. He's a psychiatrists wet dream! But as our sexy lead...he left me hanging.

Disowned as a young child by his grandfather, the leader of the werewolves, Dex grows up in an abusive foster care system which ultimately shapes his personality into adulthood. Unfortunately I've encountered this backstory for characters countless times before and with nothing new or interesting brought to the table I felt ho-hum about Dex. Aside from his usual werewolf tendencies Dex is all over the emo map, one second he loves you and next he can't stand you. It's the push-me-pull-you syndrome and I got bored and annoyed quickly with the constant back and forth.

Jesmina is a vampire doctor, living with her adopted family of Dragon shifters who actually end up being a lot more intriguing than the main couple. Jes starts out the story as one saucy lady who doesn't mind getting a little freaky to get what she needs from a male. But as the story goes on she becomes boring and clingy, hanging on to every word Dex says and blowing things way out of proportion. Jealousy and lie upon lie do not endear this gal to my heart, and on top of it all she's been told countless times not to continue with her intensive research. Does she listen? No, she just keeps on truckin' down the tracks like a freak show crazy train.

If any story ever felt like a soap opera of epic proportions it was this one. Gateways to other dimensions, family betrayal, serums and potions, plus baby daddy drama, and let's not forget some good old-fashioned demon possession that would give any DiMera (that's from Days of Our Lives) a run for their money. I honestly was waiting for John Black and Marlena to just pop into the story. The whole thing was a mish-mash of cluster-frelled situations and overused scenarios that needed to end so new dialog could take place. Sure the sex was great, but come on give me a rockin story to go with it!

The plot as a whole was insanely confusing with so many different characters popping in and out I was left wondering just what the heck happened. The split focus on so many different characters who will probably end up having their own stories was just down right annoying. I truly dig this author and would like to stand up for her work but unfortunately I can't this time. I also can not in my right mind (or crazy mind) recommend any one to read this book. Now, do NOT take just my word on this please go out and see what other reviewers are saying.

Getting 1 'somebody call the witch dr. to see just what he said' Sheep
KD

Chosen By Blood, great start to a new series.

Chosen By Blood, by author Virna DePaul, is the first book in her new Para-Ops series. It's a pretty good start to the series, an I hope it will turn into a compelling new collection of books.

Plot:

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

Knox is a hunky piece of man candy just waiting to be licked to the last drop. Oh yeah I went there. ;) He is passion and honor mixed into one sexy crock pot of lovens, and he's got his eyes dead set on winning over Felicia. The vampires have a rather unusual definition of monogamy in this series, but our human sweetie Felicia is an old-fashioned sort of gal. I was totally with Felicia during this whole book; there would be no way in Hades that I would allow my man to get married to someone else and still have me on the side. No way. Also having the ghost of your dead BFF pop in after eating said man-candy is pretty awkward. A lot of the time Knox's pushing of Felicia on the issue between them got a tad annoying, but I was able to trundle on through to the good parts. The passion between these two was so good it burned up the pages. For those wanting a bit more erotic scenes DePaul comes very close to that line. ;)

Lies, betrayal and deceit can be a really big downer when the fate of your clan rests on your shoulders. The pure-blooded vampires are facing extinction unless a cure can be found, and I really did find myself sympathizing with them. Certain parts of the story did get a little dull, and personally I really hate it when people thought dead or missing keep coming back like a pack of cockroaches. All the resurrections were just a wee bit overdone if you ask me, but ultimately I feel it adds depth to the story. I hope that will be the last time I end up reading those scenarios, but overall DePaul writes a very interesting story. Some plot twists that I didn't even seen coming at the end will leave you wanting more.

The book also has a few strong secondary characters with some pretty compelling stories. I am looking forward to reading more about them, and this series seems to have many possibilities ahead. Chosen By Blood is getting a strong recommendation from me, and I eagerly await the next book in the series coming out in the Fall.

Getting 4 Wraith Sheep

KD