Hugely imaginative and utterly captivating, Blood Relations: A New World by Glenn Stevens is a masterful blend of paranormal romance and fantasy. Eros is an alien who crash-lands on the planet earth. The Earth is different from his planet in many ways and he marvels at how humans can generate their own heat. He is taken in by a woman whose daughter is dying. Moved by affection for Camellia, he heals her, and in so doing makes another startling discovery. Her blood is warm and it nourishes him. As Camellia falls deeply in love with the alien, her mother is disturbed, worried that this vampire-like man might cause more pain than the life he has given her daughter. As their relationship grows, Eros must find a way to feed consistently and help humans deal with the problem of aging and other issues they have to deal with.

Glenn Stevens has crafted a paranormal romance that is deeply moving, with characters that are sophisticated and vividly drawn. The male protagonist is an alien who has the characteristics of a vampire but who is quite different from vampires. While he feeds on blood, his care for humans stops him from looking at them as food. The world-building is convincing and the author allows threads of relationships to weave against a stunningly imagined backdrop. Blood Relations: A New World is bold and I enjoyed the author's creativity in creating an original idea of a vampire. The prose is crisp and the dialogues flow naturally. The words seem to come to this author effortlessly — they flow, they entice, and they sing to the reader's ears. The author embellishes the writing with details and crafts scenes that are focused. This stunningly written romance teases readers with the adventures of an alien who marvels at the miracle that is humanity while examining what it really means to be human in a conniving manner. Readers will think about what the world could be like if they looked at others the way Eros looks at humans. Blood Relations: A New World is as entertaining as it is inspiring — balanced and deft.