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Bound By Blood jourdan lane

Book Review of Bound By Blood (Soul Mates #1), by Jourdan Lane

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Bound By BloodIt’s day three of my personal Bound By Blood challenge, where I set out to read five books titled Bound By Blood. Today’s fare was Jourdan Lane‘s Bound By Blood.

Description from Goodreads:
Houston nightclub Rave is famous for nearly-naked male dancers and beautiful bartenders. Like Peter, a young man with a strict rule about one-night stands with locals. He breaks that rule for Lucien, the owner of The Den, a rival nightclub where there are no boundaries, no taboos. Only he doesn’t realize just who Lucien is when he does. When Peter finds out that the man he wants to get to know even more is a vampire, he figures he should have stuck to that rule. He’s not fan of vampires or most other creatures of the night, but Lucien is relentless in his seduction. Peter resists Lucien as long as he can, but when he gives in, he does it in a big way, falling headfirst in to the dark, violent world of vampires, werewolves, and other creatures he’s only read about. 

Peter and Lucien begin a very dangerous dance of sensual heat and deep emotion, one that causes them nothing but trouble. No one approves of the human and vampire match, including those in Lucien’s Coven, old enemies, and even older friends. Peter and Lucien have to struggle to stay together and protect those they love. Can they beat the forces that will try to tear them apart forever? And can they face what will become of Peter if they stay together?

Review:
The first thing anyone needs to know about this book is that it’s porn with plot. It’s a weak plot to be fair, but there is a little plotting. There is also lots and lots and lots and lots of sex. There is so much sex that about half way through this book, even suspending as much disbelief as one has to to read vampire/werewolf themed erotica, I started to cringe on behalf of the characters. Seriously, there couldn’t have had any skin left between them. I had sympathy friction burns and could only see them as rubbed absolutely raw. Raw, I tell you!

It’s fun sex though. It’s all consensual. It’s all of the ‘let me show you how much I love you’ sort, even when it’s not monogamous. And it’s not. The end of this book is essentially a series of orgies, with no indication that these men mean this situation to change. But it is sweet in its own way.

I did find the first third or so of the book clunky. Characters had complete 180° attitude shifts with no indication of an impetus of change. At one point, a man went from terrified of all things vampire to unafraid and half in love/lust with one in the course of a paragraph and I still have no idea why (other than he had to for the plot to progress). Meanwhile, his best friend went from encouraging him to get over his vampire-phobia to adamantly insisting he have nothing to do with the vampire, with no apparent reason to change his mind

The events of the story also moved from one to another, covering months at a time and glossing over the actual falling in love aspect of the romance with no transitions. It was jarring and I started to fear the book was heading toward a DNF. But once the characters accepted each-other things smoothed out. However, as they accepted each-other and Peter moved farther and farther into Lucien’s world their personalities changed drastically. They felt inconsistent.

Despite all that, the writing is really good and if you’re looking for some basic fap matter (or whatever the female equivalent is, schlick I think) this will do the trick.

Book Review of Bound by Blood, by Cynthia Eden

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Bound By BloodHere at the Sadie Forsythe blog, it is Bound by Blood week. I set myself the challenge of reading all five books on my TBR list titled Bound by Blood and I started with this one, by Cynthia Eden.

Description from Goodreads:
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.

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.

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.

Review:
Soooo, this is a novella. I’m not a big fan of novella length stories and this is a perfect example of why. It has an interesting plot, a growly alpha wolf who manages to be extra alphay and sexy without being a jerkface, a strong, self-possessed heroine who knows what she wants and goes for it, Machiavellian machinations, some interesting double dealings, a good side character, etc. But at 89 pages none of it, NONE OF IT, is developed. There is no character development, no world building, no time for relationships to progress, nothing. So despite some pretty good writing skills this remains a complete let down.

I, of course, don’t mean this review to be, ‘I don’t liked novellas. This is a novella, thus I don’t like it.’ It is what it is and what it is is a good story that is unfortunately rushed and unsupported because the author tried to cram it into 89 pages. Such a shame too, it could have been really good with another 150 pages.

The Accidental Demon Slayer

Book Review of The Accidental Demon Slayer (Demon Slayer #1), by Angie Fox

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The accidental Demon SlayerI grabbed a copy of Angie Fox‘s The Accidental Demon Slayer from the Amazon free list. I believe that it is perma-free.

Description from Goodreads:
It’s never a good day when an ancient demon shows up on your toilet bowl. For Lizzie Brown, that’s just the beginning. Soon her hyperactive terrier starts talking, and her long-lost biker witch Grandma is hurling Smuckers jars filled with magic. Just when she thinks she’s seen it all, Lizzie learns she’s a demon slayer-and all hell is after her.

Of course, that’s not the only thing after her. Dimitri Kallinikos, a devastatingly handsome shape-shifting griffin needs Lizzie to slay a demon of his own. But how do you talk a girl you’ve never met into going straight to the underworld? Lie. And if that doesn’t work, how dangerous could a little seduction be…?

Review:
Meh. I’ve seen it done before and done better. Mechanically the writing was fine, as was the editing but the story itself and the plotting…disastrous. It’s a longish book. There should have been ample time to develop characters, a world and relationships However, Ms. Fox appears to have not bothered.

If this book was a cake, the eggs would still be in the shells (maybe even still in the container), the flour in its bag, the butter in the dish, the milk in the jug, etc, all tossed in a bowl to sit next to each other. All the ingredients are there (a hunky love interest, an unavoidable destiny, an evil antagonist, a spunky side-kick, etc), but not mixed, measured or cooked.

There is no depth to any of the characters and some, most notably Dimitri, are wildly inconsistent, as is the plot. Time is indeterminate. The whole book takes place in 2 or 3 days (not sure which), but characters talk about things happening days ago that appear to have happened hours earlier, at most. And at one point someone goes on what must have been an extended adventure in the time it takes Dimitri and Lizzie to sit up and say, ‘hi.’

A shirt is ripped open a page after it was slowly unbuttoned. Dimitri admits to a lie that couldn’t have held water with the rest of the knowledgeable coven. Plus, he talks like he just showed up but is also supposed to have been hanging out with the witches and werewolves for a while. The antagonist, who has been killing and absorbing the power of all the witches in America for a hundred plus years (so, you know strong and skilled), is somehow easily defeated by a slayer with two days of “training.” Honestly, how believable is that? I could go on, but you get the point, I imagine.

The book’s one real redeeming quality is the humour, but even it’s so over the top and ridiculous it can’t carry the load. No doubt, this will appeal to some. I’m just not one of those people. Too bad too, I spent forever deciding to read it.

Edit: Why the hell is she holding a sword on the cover? She uses a “switch star” (think Xena’s….round thing…with points). Not once does she use a sword. What’s more, the ONE TIME anyone does, it’s a katana.