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Blood servant to the blood sorceress Yvaine, who was burnt to death by an angry ignorant mob in 1636, Jax has spent over two hundred years looking for Yvaine's apprentice. He finally finds her in Transylvania, Hungary, a tall beautiful woman called Amanusa Whitcomb who practices small women's magic to keep under the Inquisition's radar. She immediately inherits not only Yvaine's tower in Scotland, her books and lore and wealth, but also Jax himself who is magically bound to her.

Like everyone else, Amanusa fears blood sorcery and resists this inheritance. There have been no sorcerers since Yvaine, and myth and superstition have clouded minds against the misunderstood magic. But Amanusa has the power and Jax teaches her that blood magic is alive, a living magic, tied to innocent blood. It is justice magic, and the one thing Amanusa wants above all else is justice: justice against the rebel fighters who killed her mother and brother and kept her to rape and abuse for years.

Fleeing the aftermath of her first working of powerful blood magic, Amanusa and Jax travel to Paris where the Conclave is meeting - master magicians of the three other disciplines: alchemy, conjury and wizardry. Her arrival causes quite the stir, but the information she brings about the spreading Dead Zones - magicless spots where deadly little machines have come into being - is vital to their fight against them. And as some of the magicians think, the absence of women trained in magic - and of blood sorcerers especially, may be the cause of the problem in the first place.

As Amanusa learns to trust Jax and Jax falls in love with Amanusa, the bond between them strengthens and becomes something new and vital, something Jax never had with Yvaine. But there are too many magicians who think women too weak and corruptible to wield magic, and who fear blood magic in particular, who threaten their lives and everything they've achieved.

This is a novel that is not easily defined by genre. Marketed as a paranormal romance, I find this misleading - having read far too many paranormal romances, I can safely say that this isn't what you'd expect from one. This is a sweet loving romance with a very little bit of sex towards the end, but it's more about the magic than anything else. It's more fantasy than paranormal romance, but it's also an alternate history - Napoleon III rules France, magicians have long held an important place in the world - with a bit of steampunk thrown in. It works wonderfully. It's original and inventive, with plenty of familiar tropes to keep you on firm ground.

I loved Amanusa and Jax, who are both tortured souls but never in a self-indulgent way. I really cared for them and was deeply engrossed in their story; their growth and development came naturally and realistically. The story does focus on the romance slowly growing between them, so if that's not your cup of tea you probably won't like this, but I would argue that the intriguing premise is enough and regular fantasy fans would also enjoy this.

Even though it's set in a historical period - mid-1800s - there's certainly a modern tone to the novel, especially in the dialogue and some of the characters' attitudes and behaviour. Yet it also had a firm grasp of period and setting and the contemporary touch just seemed to add to the fantasy aspects rather than detract from its realism or historical accuracy. It worked and added to the enjoyment of reading it.

In terms of plot, it is suspenseful, exciting, curious. With its twists on well-known history such as witch burnings and the Inquisition, it manages to create something new while feeling firmly a part of our own world and history - sort of like Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. The various forms of magic are given subtle new meanings, and the blood magic is fascinating.

The story throws up many old superstitions and the kind of attitudes towards women that make me grimace - many of the men in the book are a bit transparent in their outbursts against women being allowed to practice magic, but that in itself isn't unrealistic. In this sense, Amanusa's achievement is deeply satisfying.

This is the first book in what looks set to be a series, but it's also a standalone book as the others will focus on different characters - minor ones from this introductory story. And so the bigger plotline of Dead Zones, magical wastelands, will be dealt with in the following books. New Blood sets the stage, as it were, but that plot is far from finished with here. The next book, Heart's Blood is due out around December 2009/January 2010.