Deliver Me From Darkness by Tes Hilaire

Synopsis: Roland once was a Paladin, a warrior gifted with special powers to protect mankind in its earliest days. For hundreds of years he fought alongside his kinsmen against underworld fiends until the unthinkable happened: he was turned by a vampire. Forsaken by his brothers and fighting new violent instincts, Roland believes his soul lost. But then his best friend Logan delivers a young woman for protection. She turns out to be a Lost Paladin -- and the only female Paladin left alive. She’s also Roland’s bond-mate.

Karissa Donovan knows the difference between good and evil, and the sexy-as-hell vampire holding her prisoner is certainly not good. Sure, he might not have sucked her dry—yet, but that doesn’t mean she trusts him. But circumstances force Karissa to put her life in Roland’s hands. With each new danger they face, and each subsequent sacrifice he makes for her, she realizes that the question was never a matter of her trusting him, but of convincing him to trust in the integrity of a soul that he’d never truly lost.

My Thoughts:A different (read this as being good)take on the tired Vampire/demon/other paranormal sub-genre but one that could have been executed a bit better.

The Not So Good Stuff:....At the half way mark I was still a bit confused what a Paladin was and what they could do. It seems that each of them have unique gifts but why one would have the gift of vampire frying God's grace (aka: High voltage Holy Light) and another would have the ability to become shadowy mist is still beyond my comprehension.

In addition to my confusion the idea of a 24 year old virgin heroine grates on my nerves. Yes it is possible yet the reasoning behind it was never explained. No she wasn't F'ugly. No she didn't HeeHaw when she laughed. She wasn't Queen of the Looney Bin either. Yet in this day and age this attractive, single, intelligent woman was mysteriously still a virgin (which the hero could smell by the way....TANGENT UP AHEAD~~~~does anyone else find it a bit yucky that the hero could smell her hymen?~~TANGENT OVER). Karissa not only was a virgin but she went from hating and being scared of our hero, Roland (who spoke terms of endearments in French for no apparent reason other than all vampires should speak French...thank you for that BS Ann Rice), to the Newest Member of Slutsville in a millisecond (or less). Her remarkable attitude adjustment from hatred and fear to acceptance of Roland being her mate was jarring and left me wondering how in the world it happened.

Now for the good stuff....The last 1/3 of the book was pretty awesome. Epic battles between good and evil. Tough decisions were made by several people. The lines were blurred a bit between good and evil. Not to mention some characters separated themselves from the backdrop to become intriguing and totally piqued my interest to where I will totally go on to read books 2 and 3 even though the first 2/3s of the book could have been better.