Review of New Blood by Ferguson

I started reading this, thinking the book would be just awful, but ended up caught up in the storyline about this girl with porphyria plus, enough plus to make her a vampire who really, really doesn't want to be one. She moves to the new world, hoping for a new start, but ends up with many of the old problems she had before. I was enjoying her story and her Latin prayers when, aargh!, romance, swirling head and all, broke into the book. Well, I hate the conventions of romance, but I'm fairly singular in that, so I know most of you will like the book all the better for the romance. There's lotsa, lotsa blood, especially during the big boss battle at the end of the book. If you like vampires, axes, native Americans, and romance, you will really like this novel. I am now wondering how the rest of the trilogy will get to the granddaughter in Alaska. Should be an interesting trip.
Part of why I downgraded this to a three star instead of a four star on Amazon, was the romance. There is a scene where White Hawk grabs our heroine and mashes his lips onto hers. She struggles a bit, and then melts into him. Grrrrrrr. Any man who mashes his face onto mine expecting that I will eventually melt into lust for him is in for a surprise. I understood why she could not rip off his head, as she had agreed to marry him so that a captured colonist would be returned to her family, but still.... And I could not believe that White Hawk would attempt to have a companionate marriage as modern Americans see as ideal. But these are common tropes that other people seem to have no trouble with, so my animosity may be misplaced.
There was the idea that I usually read in children's books: Because God made you that way, you could save the day. Actually, that's a valuable lesson, so I have no idea why I felt grumpy about it. Maybe because I was overtired when I read the book and was feeling grumpy about everything at the time.
At any rate, I think most people will like the book more than I did, and I did enjoy most of it.