Book Review: Fallen Tears (A Blood Crave Novella), by Christina Channelle

So this week, we're returning to the Blood Crave series with Fallen Tears, a novella by Christina Channelle.  Though originally planned for a release as part of the next book in the series, Fallen Tears stands very well on its own. It deepens and enriches the world of the series, raises my anticipation for the next book, and creates a new romance that I can't wait to read more about.

Different hot chick on the cover. 

In the first entry of the series, Dahlia, we learned about the eternal conflict between the lamia and the lapsus (vampires and fallen angles). Making up new names for traditional supernatural creatures has always been a pet peeve of mine, but it's a pet peeve the main character in Fallen Tears shares with me. We first meet Rowan as a twelve-year-old runaway who meets a mysterious man while she's searching for shelter. He jokes with her and consoles her, eventually taking her in. Sure, he's a vampire, and as we learned in the last book, there's only two vampires left after the fallen angels hunted 'em all down. I thought they'd be a good deal more dangerous--but I was pleasantly surprised.

This vampire, Kaji, has a sweet side. He confesses to Rowan that he's lost touch with his humanity, and she offers to teach him about being human in exchange for food. This supposed deadly killer takes her in as his ward. Since I'd had the impression that the two surviving vampires were bad guys, it'll be really interesting to see how this works out in the next book. Will Dahlia learn that these supposed man-eaters are humanitarians in multiple senses? Suspense! Also, will Rowan end up with Kaji? Don't worry, it's not gross, she's nineteen for the majority of the story. Plus, she also gets turned into a vampire, so it's all good.

You see, one of these fallen angels decides to murder Rowan for associating with vampires and Kaji turns her to save her life. He then drops her off with a family of fallen angels/witches who take care of her as she acclimates to her new state. Both the female witches seemed a little one dimensional to me, although I loved the character of Remy, the sole male witch in the family, who struggles with his attraction to Rowan as he helps her through the turmoil of becoming a vampire. Rowan's a lot grittier a character than Dahlia, and her attitude and determination make her worth rooting for.

I do wish the story arch was a little more complete. Though it builds to a climax, few of my burning questions were answered. It's obvious that Fallen Tears is part of a larger work, and the characters could have used a few more personal flaws. Nevertheless, it did the job of making me care about the characters, and that in itself is enough to make me happy. I can't wait for the next entry in this series.

I would also like to see a female protagonist in this series who wasn't incredibly hot, but that's a genre thing.

As a YA paranormal romance, four and a half stars out of five. As a novella, three and a half.

You can purchase Fallen Tears here