I really couldn't get very interested in this book so I didn't review it as I don't review books I haven't read.

Title: Haven
Series: Tranquilli Bloodline Book #1
Stand Alone Title: yes
Author: Celia Breslin
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Blurb: San Francisco nightclub owner Carina Tranquilli works hard, plays hard, and never allows the death of her parents and her twelve-year memory gap to get her down. But her life takes a left turn when a witch attacks her on her twenty-fifth birthday.
Three hauntingly familiar vampires emerge to reveal she possesses a latent power. To protect her from their enemies, they admit to wiping her memories clean and abandoning her as a child, but now they need her help. As she struggles to evade her new protectors and even newer enemies, she meets Alexander, an enigmatic, undead musician. Insta-lust flares, leaving her wanting more.
With evil’s minions hounding her every move, and everything she thought she knew turned on its head, Carina must harness her burgeoning power, unravel her vampire family’s web of deceit, and fight to have a love life...without getting killed in the process.
Thoughts: The concept and originality of the book is what really kept me reading from the beginning. As a reader, I just wanted to see what happens and where the author is going with the story. Unfortunately, Carina’s absurd one-track mind on a ‘potential boyfriend’ started to wear on my nerves. I got the fact that there is a string connection….I got the fact that he is somewhat like a ‘betrothed’ for her in some kind of arranged marriage…..what irritated me was that no matter how dire the situation or what kind of catastrophe was happening, her immediate focus would zoom in on him to a ridiculous level. For example, her ears perking up just because his name is mentioned and then instant ‘Is he supposed to be here? Where? When?’ I could overlook the first two or three times, but then I had just had enough. It outweighed my interest in seeing how it ends at that point.
Rating: n/a

Carina/Rina was working on trying to sweat out her headache from her birthday celebration that had started the night before and ended with drinking too much with her friends/roommates/bodyguards ren and mark. Rina then came up against an inept witch that tried to attack her and Rina knocked her out. That was a nasty way to start her birthday as far as Rina is concerned. Then rina mentioned to her friends they would make it up tonight when they went out dancing. Then Mark reminded her that she had the opening of the Italian Ward Tranquilla collection- which was her last name- at the art museum. W- T for short. Faith was rina best friend and resident psychic. Faith told rina she had a surprise waiting for her at the W-T. Rina said that wouldn’t be true as her bossy brother Lorenzo would be there. But faith said the surprise was special. And important and he would change everything. Then faith saw the witch Rina had knocked out and said the witch’s aura was all wrong that she was afraid of rina even though she had attacked rina and there were cracks in the door and the darkness consumes. It hates. It’s unforgiving and it’s watching her. Then Faith swooned and her boyfriend Kai hurried down and caught her before she hit the floor. After a few minutes faith said she wasn’t sure what that was all about but they needed to stay vigilant. Rina suggested maybe they should all stay home but faith said no Rina had to go. Destiny wa sin play and had many moving parts that started at the W-T. Faith could not remember her pre teen years about twelve years total. After Rina got to Haven Lorenzo came up and told Rina they needed to talk about a family matter - it was about the past and her faulty memory. She did know Lorenzo shipped her off to boarding school after their parents death. Lorenzo then added there was someone she needed to meet. Lorenzo went to leave and Rina told him why she had been late and Lorenzo pulled Rina into a hug. He said they would talk after her other two brothers Dom and Tony got there.they would talk about the past and where they go from there. As for the attack it was a random and that Rina was a target for some very bad people but he added it would be alright. Lorenzo was fifteen and rina was five when Lorenzo stepped up and played the surrogate parent when theirs had died. Rina didn’t know how Lorenzo reacted in their childhood as that was just a big black hole. Then Rina seen Adrien her friend and Haven’s business partner with her and sometime bed partner. Haven was their club and one of the top five dance spots in San Francisco. Rina felt power thrown to her then everyone else was basically frozen around her except the man and one she felt called her danger sirens. Then Lorenzo introduced rina to Thomas Ward. Rina told Thomas to take his hex off her friends that they were done there. Thomas said this was the beginning or actually the exciting middle . he asked Rina if she wanted to see how it all began. Thomas then tells Rina he is her uncle. And a vampire and he had blocked her memory and power. The bad boy Rina felt compelled to was the one and named Alexander. He was the one true soulmate for Rina. Alexander/Alec was a new vampire as vampires went - a youngling. As rina remembers Thomas and others from her past she finds out they are all from a vampire family who had left her and taken her memory for Rina’s own safety. Rina also learns the man she thought was her other uncle was actually her biological father and she was a hybrid vampire princess and Alec has a very important part to play in Rina’s life.
I absolutely loved this book. This had a lot of action and twists and turns that I loved. The chemistry was hot between Alec and Rina before they even met but was off the charts after meeting. I liked how Rina interacted with her friends and how Adrien was still there for her any way that he can after she only had eyes for Alec sexually. I loved her brooding uncle Jonas who still managed to show her how much he loved her. I loved the plot and pace. I didn’t want to put this book down as I wanted to see what was going to happen next. I enjoyed watching Rina have to let go of some of the control that was such a large part of her. This kept my attention from beginning to end. I could not find anything to criticize as far as I am concerned and i loved that. I loved the characters and the twists and turns and I highly recommend.

This book really threw you into the deep end of the pool right from the start! There’s action, things blowing up, supernatural attraction, vampires, magic, and tons of mayhem. All of that is jammed into one very short span of time that changes the world of Carina Tranquilli.

Carina is a rich club kid who would just like to celebrate her birthday and relax. The supernatural world, however, seems to have it out to get her. Her missing memory growing up is suddenly the hot topic of discussion, there’s strangers who seem to know her very well, a super hottie she’s urgently drawn to, and her seemingly steady friends with benefits relationship is suddenly not so steady. Oh, and there’s a fun mix of misfits that Carina surrounds herself with who all appear to be up for anything. Roll all that together and you’ve got the insane world that Carina now finds herself in.

Her missing memory is really the key here. Turns out her family is a lot more complicated than she could have ever imagined and what could have easily been a kidnapping for money is actually something supernaturally sinister. There’s oodles of twists and turns, not nearly enough “I told you so,” and ultimately a pretty satisfying ending. You have to trudge through a lot to get there, but what a truly unique world!

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

I realize this is book 1 in a series but there was so much included in this book that there is almost too much but there is also not enough answers. Throughout the book, Carina keeps getting promised that they will tell her but then it doesn't happen. Once or twice you can handle but it just keeps going on and on and then you only get a few answers.

There is lots of action and an undeniable attraction for Rina and Alexander so that part of the book is fun to read. BUT, there were parts that were just maddening and wonder how smart these people really are! Rina knew that the one witch was evil and repeatedly said it but no one listened to her. AND, they knew that the witch was involved with the evil (not sure what he was) boogeyman, I mean come on, you still trust her in your house!??

There better be a really great reason that Rina never gets to see her father in this book and he is still in Italy. I guess for me, the whole concept of stripping her memories seemed overkill, there was no better way to protect her??? These are the highest level in the vampire society and they can't handle her protection?

While I have all these frustrating parts that annoy me, I did like the story. I am willing to give book 2 the opportunity to make a final decision on whether I would keep reading the series or give up. If you can handle a lot of unanswered part in the plot, then don't hesitate to read this book, that is the only part that has me on the fence about the series.

It's a while since I've read a good old urban paranormal romance, and I enjoyed Haven simply for that fact. It's got sexy vampires, it's got action, it's got a snarky, very cool heroine who seems to get the best of all worlds handed to her. It's an entertaining read, though not too easy, thanks to an author who actually treats her readers like they have some level of intelligence and doesn't spell everything out right away, which made a nice change. Though I could have done with a touch less mystery - it took a long while to explain a few things which could have made it easier to follow if they'd been revealed earlier, and there were a lot of characters to keep track of, which took a a bit of time to get everyone straight in my head. Apart from that though, and a couple of vampire cliches, it's a good book from an interesting author I'd not come across before.

This book was a bit of a conundrum from start to finish.

I loved the concept of the story, I liked the characters and loved the authors writing style.

The story kept you interested but all the characters have a history and secrets in their past, but when you thought you would hear the big secrets or their history you would always be left with," we will explain tomorrow" or "tell you tomorrow" or too tired to ask the questions!!

Nothing felt as is it was explained properly which just made me more frustrated and made the story feel dragged out, I know this was a start to a series but nothing was fully explained, so left me feeling as if I had missed the answers to the questions that the book had brought up.

I was terribly frustrated with this book. While I liked the way the story started out and the author's writing style, the whole thing felt like a tease. There was always going to be this big revelation, all throughout the book, and yet it never came. It took me much longer to read this than I thought it would because I was frustrated and bored by the constant, "we will tell you everything tonight, oops ran out of time, we will tell you tomorrow." I know this is a reissue and there is a second book but don't know if I want to read it or not.

3.5 stars....

So to kick start this review I'd put this book under the PNR urban fantasy romance genre. I'm not sure what I was expecting because this author is new to me and while I read the blurb I have had no other feedback in regards to the story so it's fair to say I had zero expectations.
I'm a romance addict and I do love me some hot sex scenes and this lacked that. While there is a tone of heavy petting and a mild oral fling it's not what I'm used to so for me the romance kind of took a back seat. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it... I like the slow build and I found that when the plot is good I didn't miss the heavy romance.

There's a lot going on in this story from memory loss and long lost relatives to crazy hidden secrets and dangerous unknown enemies. I found that parts of the story sucked me in deep while others only held me by mild curiosity. The story's timeline is over a few days which is extraordinarily quick however the story itself felt drawn out. Carina is the type of heroine I enjoy reading, fiesty strong and opinionated she took no shit and wasn't afraid of standing up for herself or others she loved. There is quite the blend of personalitys in here and while some I took an instant like to... others grew on me over time.
The story is intriguing and frustrating. I found myself pissed off more than once at the lack of answers or at the fact they treated Carina like a child. i wanted her fight more and stand her ground instead of excepting the whole your not ready answer they seemed to favour giving her.

There is a lot of unanswered questions that have me intrigued and confused. I enjoyed this book but until I've read the next instalment I feel like 3.5 stars is where I'm at with this story. As much as I enjoyed a lot of it it frustrates me equally so while my opinion may change once I have the full picture I'm at a I enjoyed it but it's not finished opinion just now.

I kindly received this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.