Bound by Night
by: Larissa Ione
4 HEARTS
From Goodreads
The first installment in a sexy new paranormal romance series by Larissa Ione, author of the bestselling Demonica series!
A WOMAN OUT FOR BLOOD
Nicole Martin was only eight years old when the vampire slaves rose up in rebellion and killed her family. Now she devotes her life to finding a vaccine against vampirism, hoping to wipe out her memories—along with every bloodsucker on the planet. But there’s one thing she cannot destroy: her searing, undeniable attraction for the one man she should hate and fear the most . . .
A VAMPIRE OUT FOR REVENGE
A member of the renegade vampire MoonBound Clan, Riker is haunted by demons of his own. When he recognizes Nicole and remembers how her family enslaved his loved ones, his heart burns for vengeance. But when he kidnaps Nicole and holds her in a secret lair, his mortal enemy becomes his soul obsession, his greatest temptation, and, perhaps, his only salvation—a hot-blooded lover who could heal him with her touch . . . or bury him forever.
Whenever I hear about a new book from Larissa Ione, I am all over it in an instant. When I got this ARC, I was ecstatic. And as always, she did not disappoint.
At first—like, first few pages--I really wasn’t a fan of Riker. He seemed too emotionally hard. But like the word master she is, Larissa quickly had me falling for him. He was hard because he had to be, because he had been emotionally destroyed. His past was not only haunting him, it was torturing him underneath the surface. But as he spent time with Nicole, she started taking him apart piece by piece and putting him back together as a whole man. Oh he fought tooth and nail, pushed her away harshly, but he never abandoned her. He protected her, he fought for her, and oh man did he love her. He may never have wanted to admit it, but she was the most important person to him and she showed him another way to live—not forgetting or for revenge—but to heal and move on and finally allow himself to be happy.
Nicole was actually quite interesting to me. She had a traumatic even in her childhood that forever changed who she was. She hated vampires, but not enough to want to kill them. She simply wanted to give humanity an edge in co-existing with them. She spent her life learning all about them. Then when the unthinkable happens, she’s literally thrown into a world she had always feared. Her reactions to everything that happened was spot on. Her personality made her choices and suggestions believable given her situation. She thought on her feet, she was determined, and her knowledge of vampires not only healed Riker, but helped the clan as a whole. She was invaluable, and she proved it over and over again. She loved Riker with her entire soul despite her past, but she wasn’t so blinded by it that she was going to fool herself into being second best to him. She was proud of who she was and who she’d become, and in the end, that very essence captured the heart of the most amazing man.
The world Larissa created in this book has tones of futuristic qualities, but is not so far forward that you have to imagine it. This world is so realistic in itself, that I actually felt like I was living in this time—a time so close to ours that it felt real. The emotions and decisions made by the characters felt real and definitely gave me a sense of foreboding for the future. I enjoyed this world and these character immensely and am definitely eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Bravo, Larissa. Another winner in my book.
Hotness Rating
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
