Friday, May 17, 2013

Series review: Bound by Cynthia Eden

Cynthia Eden's werewolves and vampires are full of steam and sparks. And maybe a touch of blood. Maybe. All their naughty antics make me happy. Very happy.

Books in the Bound series
1. Bound by Blood - Kindle
2. Bound in Darkness - Kindle
3. Bound in Sin - Kindle
4. Bound by the Night - Kindle
5. Bound in Death - Kindle
Forever Bound (books 1-4) -- series bundle - Kindle

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
 
Bound by Blood
Synopsis (Goodreads):
It’s an Immortal War…

Vampires and werewolves have been blood enemies for centuries, but now a new threat is rising...demons are escaping from hell and those demons are intent on wiping out both the vamps and the werewolves.

When you have no one to trust…

In order to stop the demons, pureblood vampire princess Morgan LaBeaux agrees to the treaty offered by werewolf alpha Jace Vaughn. She'll mate with him, share her blood with him...and in return, the wolves will aid the vampires in this battle.

The enemy of my enemy is my husband…

But Morgan doesn’t realize just how dangerous the wolves can truly be. Jace has been waiting years to claim her. He’s set a trap for his princess, and now that he has her, Jace doesn’t plan to let her go. He’ll send the demons back to hell, and he’ll keep his vampiress—forever.

Because the blood binds all.
My Thoughts: Oh, yeah. The forbidden love between a werewolf and a vampire. Gotta love that! All that pent up desire for something they're not supposed to have leads to some hot, hot sexin'. Thumbs up to that! Okay, so technically, this isn't so much forbidden love as a "we fight each other and don't have time for sweet, sweet lovin'" sort of thing. Which is all sorts of wrong because when Jace and Morgan give in to their passion, they blow the roof off. Almost literally. I mean, there is an explosion but it had nothing to do with them hooking up. Well, no, that's not right either. It had to do with them hooking up but it wasn't because they were doing dirty, filthy things to one another in the privacy of their own bedroom. Well, actually, it was kind of because of that, wasn't it? Okay. So, this entire paragraph is riddled with lies and half-truths. JUST GO WITH IT!

Seriously, there is so much goodness here. A hot Alpha and the wolves who follow him. A strong, sexy princess who is willing to risk it all to save her people. Betrayal. Danger. Demons who thrive off of bloodshed and chaos. The sharing of bodily fluids. Lather, rinse, repeat. Especially that "sharing of bodily fluids" part.

Crazy fun. Let's have more!


Bound in Darkness
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Hunter...

When it comes to killing vampires, werewolf Cade Thain is the best slayer in the Northwest. So when a witch hires him to take out a pureblood vamp, the assassin thinks it will be just business as usual. One less vicious vamp on the streets... one more undead parasite gone from the earth. Then he meets her.

Protector...

Allison Gray isn't the prey that Cade expects. Beautiful, innocent, she stirs a dark desire within him. Allison hasn't transformed fully into a vampire, not yet, and it's Cade's job to make sure that she never does. Allison thinks that he's at her side to keep her safe, but Cade is supposed to pick the right moment --and kill her.

Lover...

Killing Allison is soon the last thing that Cade plans. As she begins the transformation that will turn her into a vampire, her bloodlust and their desire merge in an explosion of need that neither can control. But Allison's enemies are closing in, and the coming battle will take Cade and Allison beyond life, beyond love... and into a deadly darkness that waits to claim them both.
My Thoughts: Another set of star-crossed lovers. This time we get a powerful werewolf who has a serious bone to pick with every vampire he comes across (with good reason, mind you) and a soon-to-be vampire who has no idea what's happening to her. There's backstabbing and betrayal, angry werewolf growls and dirty sexin'. Not literal dirty, though. They're both pretty clean when they get down to business. Especially that time in the shower. *nods*

Okay. Cade. The guy has a lot of baggage. After what he was put through as a boy, I can understand his driving need to put the hurt on the vamps. As his run-in with Allison shows him, not all vampires are cut from the same cloth as those that tortured him, though. His change in thinking (about Allison as a vampire, at least) was fun to watch and it worked for me. Plus, I like it when Alphas go all growly around their ladies.

Overall, very fun with a nice tie-in to book 1. *thumbs up*


Bound in Sin
Synopsis (Goodreads):
What's the price of sin?

Human Paige Sloan once loved werewolf Drake Wyler more than life, but then that life was taken away from her. Attacked by vampires, Paige was bitten, and, on a cold, dark night, the life she'd known ended. She was reborn as a vampire--a werewolf's deadliest enemy.

Paige ran from the vampires who attacked her, and she ran away from her lover. She didn't want Drake to know what she'd become, and she didn't want to face the fury of his pack. But a girl can only run for so long until the past catches up with her.

Some sins mark your soul.

When Paige learns that Drake is being targeted for death, she knows that she can't hide in the shadows any longer. She has to return to him, and she will do anything--anything--in order to make sure that he keeps living. The vampires might have destroyed her chance to live and love Drake, but they won't take him. Not over her undead body. She'll slay them all...and maybe, just maybe...she'll even have the chance to sin--one more time--with the werewolf who'd marked her as his mate.

Some sins are worth dying for...
My Thoughts: This one hurt a little. In a good way. The things that Paige was forced to endure because of the sadistic tendencies of those in power... THAT POOR GIRL! And Drake! Thinking she'd left him all those years ago. Oh, Drake

I seriously adore these vampire/werewolf pairings. He's got enough extra body heat to keep her toes warm at night, she likes to bite. Heck, he likes to bite, too, doesn't he? There's all that biting and primal sexin' going on that the two of them hardly know which way is up. Which is just the way I like my vampires and werewolves, as it turns out.

I completely dig the "bad guys are bad  bad bad" vibe we have going here. Seriously, the twisted vamps (and wolves, if I'm going to be fair) who revel in causing a little extra pain and misery with their torture are creepy in the extreme. Which makes me love to hate them. Couple that with a hero and heroine who are nicely bloodthirsty and don't mind bringing the pain to those that deserve it and I'm a very happy reader!


Bound by the Night
Synopsis (Goodreads):
For the last fifteen years, vampire queen Iona has been dead to the world. Trapped under the power of a brutal curse, she has been helpless. A prisoner, locked within her own still body. Then alpha werewolf Jamie O'Connell fights his way to her side. After defeating the guards that surround her, Jamie gives Iona his blood...and she rises.

The world has changed a great deal in the last fifteen years, and Iona has changed, too. Once known as the Blood Queen because of her dark reputation, she now finds herself longing for the blood of only one man...only he isn't just a man. She wants the blood of her werewolf--Jamie's blood. But Iona doesn't realize that Jamie has been keeping secrets from her. Very dark, dangerous secrets. And Iona may have traded one curse for another.

Now that he has Iona, Jamie vows to never let her go. He needs his Blood Queen in order to defeat his enemy, he needs her to make his own beast stronger, and...he just needs her. Jamie has risked his life to claim Iona, and he won't let anything break their bond. Not time. Not spells. Not even a wild and reckless vampire queen...
My Thoughts: Holy wow! I liked this one. Iona is one badass chick who is a little on edge after 15 years of being trapped inside her own body. And if that's not creepy enough... no, never mind. That right there is creepy enough. I mean, she was trapped, awake but unable to move inside her body. That's shudder inducing before the backstabbing and betrayal are thrown in.

Meanwhile, Jamie has his own brand of vengeance going and he's willing to do whatever it takes to bring down the werewolf who slaughtered his pack. Well, he *was* willing to do whatever it took. And then he met Iona and that "Want. Mine." urge rears up and starts complicating things.

This was probably the most complex in the series so far. Iona has a lot of history and she's seen the worst in so many people. Jamie has an issue or two that he needs to resolve, himself. His history might not be as long and varied as Iona's but he has his own demons to deal with.

Very, very fun story with more of the naughty werewolf/vampire sexin' that I've grown to love. *thumbs up* all around to these crazy couples.


Bound in Death
Synopsis (Goodreads)
She can’t remember him…
He can never forget her.

For over two hundred years, alpha werewolf Alerac O’Neill has been searching for his mate, Keira McDonough, a woman who was taken from him and imprisoned by a dark vampire master. He’s hunted for her, endlessly, using vampire blood to extend his life. He has become a vicious predator, feared by all the supernaturals. His hold on reality seems to slip more each day because he is consumed by her.

Only…the woman he discovers in a small Miami bar isn’t the Keira that he remembers. In fact, this woman doesn’t remember anything. She calls herself Jane Smith, and she has no memory at all of Alerac—or of her own past.

Now that she’s been found, Alerac knows that his enemies are going to start closing in on her. Jane may try to act human, but she’s not. She’s a pureblood vampire princess, incredibly powerful and incredibly valuable. His enemies want to use her, her enemies want to destroy her, and Alerac—he just wants her.

If he can’t make her remember him, then Alerac has to seduce Jane into loving him once again. Because now that he’s found her, he’ll fight hell—and every sadistic vampire that stalks the night—in order to keep her safe at his side.

Some bonds go deeper than the flesh. Some go beyond life. Beyond death.

Jane will soon learn that a werewolf’s claiming…is forever
My Thoughts: My love affair with this series continues! Feral Alpha male with a serious drive to find his hidden mate? YES, PLEASE! Throw in a sadistic douche-canoe whose idea of a party is to remove someone's memories in a twisted bid for power and you have a winner.

There's also backstabbing, a fair amount of blood, and the beginning of a potential love story with some secondary characters. <3 Yes, I am in flaily, fangirl bliss. Thank you for noticing.

Alerec... he's a hunk of burning love. Literally. He's a werewolf. They run hot. *nods* Anyway. He's all tangled up after 200 years without his lady love and his wolf is close to the surface. I think he grows on Jane. Or she grows into him. Or... something like that. She starts off scared of the world and ends up kicking ass and taking names. It's pretty awesome.

I love the secondary characters and the interactions between them. The bad guys aren't too shabby either. I mean, they're not the sort you want to meet in a dark alley or anything. Mostly because they'd rip your head off without giving it a second thought. That's never a selling point on meeting people, in my opinion.

As always, I adore these werewolf/vampire pairings and I'm completely willing to read MOAR of them.

Author Links
| Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon |


2 comments:

  1. Um....THIS IS GOING ON MY LIST.

    That is all.

    Wait. Your reviews had me giggling.

    Okay. THAT is all.

    ReplyDelete