Love Without Blood by Raz Steel (Love Spell, Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc. www.dorchesterpub.com 2009)
Review by G.L. Giles

As paranormal romance novels go, this is a good one. The love scenes aren’t too rehashed, and they have some more aggressive renderings, than found in other novels of the same ilk, that keep them interesting. This novel also explores multiple personalities in a sense as the main characters of Dr. Lara West and Bobby the caring vampire are also Nurse Meridian Jones and Roberre the brutal vampire respectively. Dr. Lara West is forced to change identities, but Bobby/Roberre has learned to coexist thanks to Vampirical Harmony (a practice of sexual feeding that Dr. Freud himself helped Bobby perfect). Bloodlust and sex are offset nicely by humorous touches throughout, oftentimes from more minor characters like the flamboyant male nurse, Philippe D’Paltrow, and the vampire hunter, Jake, who ends up being a victim of vampiric mind control without realizing it. Also germane to the main plotline of Dr. Lara West being forced to be a spy for a government agency, as Nurse Meridian Jones, hell-bent on destroying all vampires, is a possible case of mistaken identity via similar names, but with the vampires Robert and Bobby being separate characters, while Roberre and Bobby are one in the same. I like the somewhat schizophrenic feel this evoked in the novel as a whole. The only thing I can really kvetch about is that it’s too repetitive in parts. All in all, definitely worth picking up a copy to read, however. I give it a 6 out of 10.