Bloodline by Maggie Shayne

Lilith wakes up under a bridge in the rain; cold, naked and alone. Only a single piece of cardboard covers her body. Soon, she remembers that she must run... someone is after her, determined to catch her... or kill her. She also knows that she is dead. Dead, and yet somehow still living.

This memory is bolstered by the black car full of men who are attempting to do exactly that. Lilith runs from them into the woods, and feels a strange sensation of something she doesn't know, but it feels... familliar. She heads towards it and comes to a farm owned by Ethan. Ethan was once an orphan, like Lilith, held at the Camp, which raised orphans with a special bloodline known as the Belladonna Antigen to be some type of secret agents. Vampire agents known as Bloodliners.

Only Bloodliners are civilized, The other vampires, known as the Wildborns, will kill anyone with the Belladonna Antigen as soon as they find them. Yet, the Bloodliners are brought over with the blood of a captured Wildborn vampire, making all the Bloodliner vampires of his bloodline. Long ago, Ethan was turned before he could be made to kill Lilith, or himself killed by one of the guardians at the facility. He managed to escape, and he wanted to take Lilith with him, but he could barely escape himself.

He and Lilith were disliked by those who ran the camp because they questioned what they were told and rebelled against the orders they were given. Lilith, in particular, often rebelled against doing what she was told, and wound up being punished. But she and Ethan felt something for each other, and now that they are both vampires, they seem to have a connection that is more than intimate.

But Lilith isn't an orphan, for 21 years ago, when she was born, she was stolen from her mother, and her mother was told that she was born dead. But her mother had heard Lilith's cry, and didn't believe the doctors. She escaped being drugged or killed with the help of a nurse, and wound up joining the organization the nurse belonged to after the other woman died in a car bomb right in front of her. Ever since, she has belonged to the Sisterhood of Athena, but her real goal is to find her baby daughter.

Lilith, meanwhile, doesn't know if she can trust Ethan, especially when it seems that people are tracking her. But his proximity helps her remember the past she's forgotten, and when she wants to return to free the others in the camp. he agrees to help keep her alive, knowing it is a suicide mission. But he wants to delay to find someone of his own, his brother, James, who was turned into a vampire and disappeared from the Camp a year before Ethan's own escape.

But was James made into an operative, or did he somehow escape on his own? Lilith can't be sure, and therefore, she won't wait for Ethan to find James. Instead, they escape Ethan's farm on horseback, only to discover that Lilith has a tracker implanted inside her. Ethan cuts it free, and the next evening, when they awake from sleep, they end up making love.

But Ethan can't get over the fact that his brother helped them escape, even if it led to them being found by men who shot at them from helicopters. Not only are these men after them, but a group of women are after them, too. Little do they know that these are members of the Sisterhood of Athena, who only want to help them. But neither Lilith nor Ethan can trust anyone, and with Lilith bound and determined to help the other brainwashed students of the camp, is there anyone they can trust to help them, or will the guards and facilities at the Camp overwhelm them when they try to break back in? Is there any hope for the two of them to shut down the facility and let the other "orphans" free?

This book takes a look at the vampires from the previous Maggie Shayne series in quite a different way. For one thing, the Bloodliners from the camp have been lied to continuously and horrendously, as those who have read previous books in the series know. But we never really find out who is running the camp. Is this some private camp, or is it a government thing? Who is really behind it, and will they be brought to justice for what they have done?

In the end, we as readers don't know, because the attention in the novel is given to the struggles of Ethan and Lilith to find the camp and free the other conscripted orphans from their incarceration there. And to the romance between Ethan and Lilith, although it's less about romance and more about sex. Though Ethan and Lilith only shared a kiss in the camp, it's not like they all of a sudden discover they like each other and romance happens. So much of their relationship is set up beforehand that it's less a romance and lots of sex inbetween moments of peril.

At some point in the novel, they realize they are in love with each other, but it came rather late in the game for me. I'd rather have had the realization come earlier for both of them, and not so belatedly. But, that's just me, I suppose. Then again, the characters, both being in their early 20's (Lilith is only 21) might be excused for being rather self-absorbed and not realizing that what they are feeling is love until later on.

I enjoyed the novel, but not as much as some of the books earlier in the series. While I enjoy the series just fine, I think that perhaps Maggie Shayne needs a break from the series- just for a little while, as this was less a romance than a sexfest. And when I read a romance, I do want more romance than this falling madly in bed together. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I know she can do better. Recommended.